Lily Cannon

The Specter of Excess

In this article is mainly about how women are perceived when they do not shave.  Fah and Delgado explain an experiment where twenty people did not shave and were asked to grow out there body hair for twelve weeks. Throughout the article the people who went through the whole experiment and even part of it were documented. Some of the reactions of family members and partners were shocking. In Cecilia’s case she had problems with her boyfriend. She stated “My partner noticed for the first time and was appalled by the sight of my pit hair being so long. He requested that I shave and would laugh at me. He boycotted sex with me, saying it was too hairy or a jungle down there…He made a decision not to be in the same room while I changed clothes or when I got out to the shower. He would compare me to an ape or a man.” Reading this comment disgusted me. Having a relationship with a man or even a women who wont sleep in the same bed as you because of how much hair on your body just can prove how much one really loves you for who your are. This example reminds me of my parents being that my mother usually never shaves on a consistent basis in the wintertime and although my dad would make comments calling her “hairy” or “manly” it was always in a joking connotation and never went to the extent of not sleeping with her. Fah suggested in this article that now a days people think that it matters what’s on the outside and not the inside. My parents always taught me the opposite, saying that looks aren’t everything, its what’s inside that counts. Although many people say this people don’t always follow it.

Fah concluded that women of color and working-class women were most negatively affected by the process of not shaving which was something I never thought about. Being Caucasian and having dark hair I am used to having very visible body hair and never thought of the idea of colored peoples hair and how much more they are scrutinized compared to lighter colored skin. Either way women are judged if they don’t “care” for themselves as a feminist or as a “dirty” lesbian. These statements need to change with the help of women. We need to stop adjusting to the norm and what society thinks in right to stop these imposed rules women have to follow.