Great news ahead of tank top & shorts season, and just in time for Christmas: If you’ve found yourself recently disappointed by the silky smooth nature of women, Temple University’s college newspaper brings you good tidings of great joy.
According to The Temple News, “body positivity” is “gaining momentum.”
Hence, you may soon be able to look at your favorite girl and discover whether the window scarf matches the drapes: She may be sportin’ a giant bush of underarm hair.
And if that isn’t enough, you’re in further luck — her legs may be hairier than your dad’s.
Here’s TTN:
“Body hair positivity is gaining momentum as women are increasingly shrugging off the need to follow beauty standards.”
Shrug = rug.
The paper interviewed two female student renegades. One was quite tall:
“I’m 6-foot-1, so [shaving] takes a lot of time and then the hair grows back right away. I have blonde hair, so it just seems pointless.”
But not to dudes:
“I was on the water polo team and there were a lot of guys…who were like, ‘You’re so disgusting. That’s so gross.’
Could that be the point?
Nope — she had a killer comeback that, I guess, made them magically like hairy legs on a chick:
“My comeback for a lot of guys who say things like this to me is, ‘When was the last time you shaved your legs?’”
Actually, she said the majority of folks don’t really care:
“Most people are indifferent because what are they going to do? Tell me to shave my legs?”
She thinks it’s a baloney business move — razor companies have convinced women they need to shave those hairy walkin’ sticks.
The whole thing’s just one more pressure-packed social construct:
“It’s the same for any beauty standard. If you see these beautiful women on TV or on billboards and they have this perfect hairless skin, why wouldn’t you want to look like that? But that’s not what women look like.”
Another shaggy senior had this to say, which I don’t fully follow:
“If you’re going to not shave as a particular feminist statement, then you also need to analyze how people who are more marginalized often have the greater pressure to uphold beauty standards than people who are already more Eurocentric and privileged.”
Also, I’ll point out again that a recent trend appears to be the use of “marginalized” when people really mean “marginal.” “Marginalized,” it seems to me, implies some kind of victimization; however, one may belong to a minority group without being acted upon in sinister ways.
The student pointed out an undeniable truth: You can have hairy legs and be clean:
“When you think about it at all, clearly, it’s not a hygiene thing because men aren’t seen as unclean when they don’t shave their bodies.”
I’ll add this, though: Who’s more likely to have B.O. — a man or woman? I’m going man, partly due to the hair.
Either way, the senior shruggers certainly aren’t alone.
Here’s Madonna and her daughter:
We are Ready For You 2018! ♥️💃🏿♥️💃🏿♥️💃🏿♥️💃🏿♥️💃🏿♥️💃🏿♥️💃🏿 #love ♥️ pic.twitter.com/WSsj28bcDa
— Madonna (@Madonna) January 1, 2018
But there’s still intolerance in the world. As reported by the Huffington Post, actress Lola Kirke received death threats after growing out her pit beard for the Golden Globes:
Because of the world we live in, some people evidently decided that death threats were an appropriate reaction to seeing Kirke live in her natural state. The actress, however, was nothing but graceful and classy in her response. “Thanks to all you beautiful people who didn’t send me death threats on account of my #awesome #hairyarmpits! You rule,” she wrote alongside an Instagram photo of her red carpet look.
Maybe the girls are only slightly ahead of their time, and we’re headed toward an end to beauty standards for the sexes. If so, it’ll be interesting to see how that crosses with the transgender movement, which — so far as I can tell — is fueled primarily by sex-specific gender constructs. Without conventional norms of presentation, how will alternate gender identity be manifested?
It’s already a bit of a tangled situation over there, and it looks like the socially progressive side of things is about to get even hairier.
-ALEX
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