THE SPECTER OF EXCESS - ALINE ANDREOLLA FEIJO

It is so interesting how in this article people didn’t simply criticize an experiment for not shaving, but multiple times they pointed out that these women were turning into lesbians for believing in feminism. First, it surprises me that these people don’t even know what feminism is. Feminism is not a girl who wants to be like a man, she is simply a girl who desires the same rights as a man. Weren’t we all “created equal” anyway? So why is it such a big deal for girls to want the same rights and respect?

Secondly, uncountable times I’ve heard my teachers in high school complain about girls who used their “sexuality” to obtain power, and how all the work of their mothers and grandmothers had to get where they are in society now, was going to waste. But I’ve heard these same teachers point out girls who did not properly shave under their arms, or their legs, and how “gross” that looked. 

It is obvious that girls in our society suffer an enormous pressure when it comes to making sure they look and act in a feminine way. Yet, what caught my eye in this research was that the working class suffers even more with their looks sometimes than the upper white class. It is strange if a white girl doesn’t shave for 12 weeks, but this article made it seem like is completely unacceptable if a Latina girl does the same. The women in the working class feel more pressure to feel “clean” and “presentable” because they already feel somewhat interiorized because of their social stands, so they feel like they must overcome these struggles with the way they take care of themselves as women, almost as if it that way they would fit into the white society better, because shaving is what the white society mostly thinks it’s important.

On the matter of shaving, and the way different cultures view it, I remembered this one time before I flew to Canada to go and visit my boyfriend this summer, my mom made an appointment for me to go waxing, and I completely forgot about it. As we were packing a few days before I left she brought it up again and said, “don’t forget to apologize to Andrew that you aren’t properly shaved. You need to be a neater girls Aline.” Andrew never apologized for having hair growing under his arms, why should I? Why is it that people, men and women, are so grossed out by body hair? Especially female hair? Men aren’t considered dirty if they have hair, so why are women? We shower just as much, if not even more often than they do!

The irony on my arguments is though, that I, honestly, would not be able to go 12 weeks without shaving like those girls did. And why? Because yes, I would feel embarrassed, not grossed out at myself, but embarrassed of the way I would be judged and about the many comments and looks I would get.