Natalie Bennett

Reading this article about undergraduate women not shaving their body hair as an experiment for their class really hit home for me because that's whatI just tried to do for this class!
One of the first things the article mentions is that "men's body hair is associated with virility and power." Unfortunately, I have to agree with this, it is definitely something that I experience in my own life. I have that image in my head of what I classify as a 'big, strong man' and that is what I find to be attractive. One feature this image of mine definitely has is body hair. I can't imagine ever being attracted to a man who removed hair from his body- I would feel like he was a sissy, gay, or someone unable to take care of me properly. Just as I wrote that last sentence I had the urge to put quotation marks over the word 'man' because I truly felt this person wouldn't classify as a man.
At the same time, this is what it seems men would feel about a woman not shaving- that she is not truly a woman. This simple act of leaving her body in its natural state and presenting herself for who she is somehow makes her less pure or worthy of the label of 'woman.' The negative reactions mentioned by the women in this article who attempted the experiment were absolutely shocking. I knew people wouldn't like the idea of a hairy woman and that maybe they would find her slightly less attractive at first glance, but I never imagined anyone saying something like this- especially from the women's significant others. The one that probably got me the most was the husband who claimed he would kick his wife out of bed if she were to stop shaving. Isn't the whole idea of marriage that you accept your partner for who they are no matter what. How are you supposed to share yourself with someone who won't even attempt to accept one very big part of you?
Page fourteen of the article talks about the regional and generational differences in body hair removal. It says that before the 1920's the number of women who removed their naturally growing hair was significantly smaller. This is also something I've definitely experienced in my life. My family is Italian so we go over there a lot, and it's not at all uncommon for us to see an older woman with long, thin hair peaking out from under her arm. I only found this weird at first, but my mother explained to me the normality of seeing such a thing, so from then on the sight has never bothered me. This reminds me of later in the article where they talk about how these young women were willing to refrain from shaving because they could say it was for a class. I feel like I and others are willing to accept these old European women's shaving habits (or lack there of) because we can just blow it off with the excuse that they are old and European. The same thing comes into play in the opposite way for boys in the rare occasion that they do shave- it's alright because they have to do it for swimming or something like that. As long as there's something substantial to somehow justify it, we can accept it- temporarily.
Another thing the article mentions is the phenomenon among these women to feel less sexually attractive due to their grown body hair. I have to say I agree with this as well. If I for some reason haven't taken care of things 'down there' there's no way I'm letting him anywhere near me. The concept really doesn't make sense, though, because the thought of him not having that hair is not a good one. Apparently, though, some people do like for that to be removed because the first time I saw it he warned me ahead of time and asked if that was ok. The optionality of this for men, though, is not present for women. We saw this quite clearly with the testimonies from many of the women in the experiment. Some of them even told of their significant other withholding intimate relations due to their hair. Crazy.
My personal experience was a bit different than that of these girls. For me, I was only refraining from shaving my legs, in fact that was one of things my father said to me when I told him, "you growing out your pits, too?" It was meant to show even further disgust. My mother just asked if I wanted to look pretty in all my cute little dresses- because somehow a little hair on my legs was going to remove all of my attractive qualities. Also, I was only attempting to go a month, but made it just two weeks before quitting. I was going to continue, it was getting really tough, but I was really committed to finishing this, until my boyfriends parents came down for a visit. The thought of his mother seeing that, ooh the things she would think. She seems to be quite judgmental to begin with, so I didn't want to give her anything more to hold to me. I also couldn't just wear pants because apparently she is pretty old fashioned and really likes to see me in a dress. Even before her visit, though, I was starting to give in a little. The plan was to not tell Andrew, but I thought it was just getting so bad he must think I'm some kind of freak at this point. Turns out, though, Andrew hadn't even noticed! It's not like we hadn't been close to each other or that my legs hadn't been exposed he just honestly hadn't paid enough attention to that for it to bother him. This is why I was so shocked to hear about their boyfriend's negative reactions- Andrew as totally fine with it. Afterwards, however, he did start to jokingly make fun of me about it and point it out, but even though he was kidding, it still made me feel uncomfortable and embarrassed.
           Overall, this article was very interesting. Because of the subject matter and the way it was formatted in terms of the anecdotes, I was able to compare and contrast the stories and experiences of these women with my own. I really found it quite intriguing how even though the reactions to my not shaving seemed, in most cases, much less negative, I still had most of the same feelings about the hair and myself because of it.