Body hair, woo!

[sorcyress]

ETA: At any rate, I have this working camera, and this working webcam, and this flickr pro account, and I really *should* be using those things to make a lot more posts with pictures attached. Because pictures are pretty awesome.

So here, have a snap of me showing off my hair, and making a hand gesture that I also made at least twice and possibly as many as four times in my senior yearbook. Sorry, mom.



So, I swear this isn't turning into an angry-feminist-blog. There are some very good ones of those already, and I'm too shy to compete. But everything that's been clicking in as actual posts has been all angry and feministy lately, so that's what you get.

At any rate, I was bored, and wandered into Amanda Palmer's blog, which I really should read regularly. Her most recent entry talks about going to the Golden Globes with her fiancee, Neil Gaiman, and how she wore this cute little dress, and didn't shave her armpits.

And how she wound up on all these fashion sites, and OH MY GOD SHE WENT THE THE GOLDEN GLOBES WITHOUT SHAVING FIRST!

Perhaps I haven't made the grave seriousness of this situation clear enough.

OH.
MY.
GOD!

Like, how dare she not shave her armpits!

And, so, apparently this chica Mo'nique showed up to the GGs with unshaven legs, which she brazenly showed off¹. I'm reading an article about Mo'nique and her legs, which includes the incredibly awesome line:

During a 2006 appearance on U.S. talk show The View, she told host Barbara Walters:
'I must show America what a real leg looks like … because it's too much in the morning, every morning, to shave, to cut, you got Band-aids baby.'²

And so I keep reading, smiling that someone famous gets that you don't have to be hairless to be gorgeous, and I get to *this* line in the article:

Thankfully though she did admit to shaving her armpit hair to avoid what she called "stink".

...thankfully?
...thankfully

Yes, thank *fucking* god she gets rid of the hair under her arms. Anything else would be freaky! And definitely stinky, because there is no way to make your armpits not stink except by shaving off all the hair, nu-uh, nope, no way. Which is why every boy in the history of ever³ smells like a stinky thing every time they raise their hands above their head.

...hang on. That can't possibly be right, now can it?

At any rate, this is about when I take to the twitters, with loud angry-feminist tweets. Most importantly, I be all "dear world, there are things called showers and deodorant that make your armpits not smell, OHMYGOD SHOCKING I KNOW!" Unfortunately, I don't think the people who read my twitter are the ones who need to be hit with the cluebat, but there we go.

So yeah. Morals of this story are!

• Amanda Palmer is awesome, hot, and is comfortable with her body, which is superdoubleplushot


• I am awesome, hot, and sometimes comfortable with my body, but
  certainly comfortable with my body hair, which I suppose gets me a whatever, depending on your stances on such.


• If you have a sense of basic hygiene, your armpits shouldn't smell


• Body hair on people is not the end of the world oh shit oh my god.


• If such and such is not your type, don't bitch about everything you consider wrong with them and how they're not pretty enough for you. Just stop looking at them and move on. (ohmygod, how revolutionary)


• This Mo'nique⁵ person warrants further research, because seriously, I love her forever based off two lines in an interview (and okay maybe because she has kickass curves and I'm jealous)


• This is not actually a particularly coherent angry feminist post, but that's okay. Sometimes I just need to be ranty.

YAY!

~Sor
MOOP!

1: YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY FUCKING YAY I AM SO HAPPY THAT SOMEONE LIKE THAT WINS AWARDS! I LOVE BEAUTIFUL WOMEN WHO BEAUTIFUL IN SOME OF THE SAME WAYS I AM BEAUTIFUL

2: SERIOUSLY SO HAPPY HERE!

3: Yes, I'm well aware some boys shave their body hair. That's cool, if it's what they want to do. Which behooves me to note that, whatever you want to do with your body hair is okay by me; this is one of those things I am really quite mellow about. Do whatever makes you happy, or, if you roll that way⁴, your SO(s) happy. Don't bother anyone else about their choice and everyone will just be fine.

4: Which is to say, if you honestly don't have an opinion, and your SO does, and you're willing to do it for them. Not because they demand it of you. Demand is not generally cool.

5: *GLEE AND HAPPY!*

Comments

[dodger77.livejournal.com]

I did not know that Amanda Palmer was engaged to Neil Gaiman. That's got to make them, like, the First Couple of Geek, or something, right? (Did she used to be married to the guy who was in the Dresden Dolls with her?)

[londo.livejournal.com]

I'm regularly amused by the photos of the two of them, often captioned "Amanda Palmer and guest."

[cos]

Brian Viglione was the Dresden Dolls drummer. And no, she was not.

[jere7my.livejournal.com]

Amanda Palmer is awesome and hot, indeed, and awesomer and hotter because she punked — not Ashton Kutcher punk'd, but punked in the finest tradition of having the balls and not having to care — the Golden Globes. Don't let anybody make you feel bad about your body hair. There's no percentage in caring what strangers think.

[ms-hecubus.livejournal.com]

Amanda Palmer may be awesome, I don't really know much about her. She didn't, however, impress me by stripping down on the red carpet and changing her clothes. I thought it showed disrespect to an event that many of the attendees feel is a big deal. I love nudity, but there's a time and place. Her beaded dress was completely amazing though.

I actually know a guy who decided to go, in his words, european. He ended up having to shave his pits to control the BO. Turns out he isn't one of those who can skip deodorant even with regular use of Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap. I hung out with him a lot and rejoiced the day he finally pulled out the razor. ;)

I have a love-hate relationship with Mo'nique because her commedy act involved a lot of putting down thin women. She preaches fat acceptance, which is fine. But if you're going to be a spokeswoman for fat love then don't do photoshoots involving you sitting down to massive amounts of food. Encouraging unhealthy behavior sucks no matter what your size. And calling women "skinny bitches" is not empowering for anyone.

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

Re: Amanda: gonna have to formulate thoughts on that. I think I agree with you that that wasn't particularly cool, but I also (from what I read in her post, so definite bias) was under the impression that it wasn't on the OHMYGOD RED CARPET so much as after the GGs were over and she was asked by paparazzi for one last photo shoot. Should she have found a real place to change? Probably.

Oh man, that is not cool on Mo'nique's part! I am pretty slim myself, and don't much need people razzing on me for being such, any more than I suspect they need me razzing on them. Now I am less one hundred percent in love with her, which I was actually expecting to happen, but still. Unhappypants.

~Sor

[cos]

Read her blog post.

(but, very brief summary of that bit of it: she had changed dresses, she was leaving, photographers wanted photos of her in the previous dress, she asked them if they really wanted her to change right there - because otherwise she was just going to leave, she was on her way out - and they said yes. It wasn't some random thing in the middle of the event.)

[ms-hecubus.livejournal.com]

I did read her blog post and I also saw the pictures. I still don't think stripping down to a thong is appropriate behavior at a formal event. You don't have to do everything asked of you, know know.

You already know my take on body hair, so...

[harena.livejournal.com]

If they can't keep their armpits stink-free, they should use my homemade deodorant! Works for me¹


1: Even when i don't shower every day *gasp*

OK Not to shave.

[dhs.livejournal.com]

I was so worried about what people would think about me not shaving!

[tricia868]

My skin is pretty screwed up, which means that I occasionally get itchy or uncomfortable when I don't shave--particularly when I wear leggings or tights, and I love leggings and tights--so I could definitely lie to myself and say it's a comfort issue.

Really, it's because I was an awkward, horribly insecure twelve year old who couldn't take weird looks in class or questions/teasing in the lunch line, so I started shaving my legs. Now, I'm still every bit as awkward and insecure, so when I DON'T for a few weeks or more (for instance, the past few weeks), I get weird about wearing clothes that display that fact. I wish I didn't. I don't think I'll ever be showing it off, but I hate that it's an active concern in my mind.

[mikaverleth.livejournal.com]

I don't think I'll ever be showing it off, but I hate that it's an active concern in my mind.

yeah, i agree with this.

i just wear pants for the majority of the year, not gonna lie. i shave during the summer, but seriously, what the fuck is the point in shaving during the winter, WHEN NOBODY WILL SEE YOUR LEGS, ANYWAYS. I DON'T UNDERSTAND THAT.

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

Because they like the silky smooth feeling? Because they have boyfriends who like the silky smooth feeling and are okay for doing this for them? I don't know, but I'm sure there are reasons for them.

If it's because "oh shit, my legs might accidentally be shown and THEY'D BE HAIRY, then I laugh scornfully. It mostly just irritates me when people think it's the end of the world to be hairy.

~Sor

[forexample.livejournal.com]

Armpit hair. Stink.

This is in PHOTOGRAPHS. Not Smellographs. Photographs. <sheesh!>

[jere7my.livejournal.com]

I want to point out that it was Mo'nique who used the word "stink", not the writer, in case that wasn't clear.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I admit to only having run across the best/worst dressed discussion, but the problem they were having there was the lack of any underclothes under a very beautiful but very sheer dress.

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't have particular thoughts there, nor for her changing clothes on the way out thing. I'm not against nudity, but, you know, there's a certain amount of time and place, and there's a certain amount of not intentionally freaking the mundanes.

On the flip side, you get so many celebrities embarrassed after their tits pop out, at least with this one, we can rest assured we were meant to ogle those nipples.

~Sor

[erikakaiser.livejournal.com]

I actually have to agree with the armpit hair thing -- I don't shave, but I do shave my armpits every now and then because I work out, box, and go to spin class, and clean-shaven armpits get rid of sweat easier. So, yeah, hairy armpits do smell worse.

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

Okay, and sure, maybe shaved does tend to equal less stinky than unshaved.

But just because hairy can small worse, doesn't mean that they necessarily one hundred percent smell bad. I seem to get by fairly well with regular showers and good deodorant. If I shaved, maybe I wouldn't have to use the deodorant every day or something. *shrugs*

~Sor

[jere7my.livejournal.com]

I think the problem is the double standard. Men aren't supposed to shave their armpits; women are. Does that mean unshaved men stink less than unshaved women? Men are allowed to stink, so it's okay that they don't shave? We should start scolding men for not shaving as well?

Showers and deodorant generally do the job of odor control for both genders, regardless of hairiness. The real reason for the norm is aesthetic, and anyone who wants to buck societal standards of beauty should be allowed to without being made to feel that they're going to start stinking up the place.

[shield-toad111.livejournal.com]

Hairy armpits are more likely to trap sweat/odors. That's what they're there for - they collect pheromones, as much as humans are able to sense them. And there are some activities when wearing deodorant/anti-perspirant just doesn't cut it.

...is it wrong that I shaved my armpits after reading this post? (I had been meaning to for awhile... just had gotten lazy recently.) My legs will be next at some point, though I'm definitely more casual about them in the winter.

[joshuazelinsky.livejournal.com]

The strangest thing here is how utterly cultural this is. In many cultures, shaving the legs and armpits isn't even heard of. Interestingly, this is one of the standard anachronisms in any Hollywood movie set in pretty much anytime in the past, the women always have shaved legs. This includes films that otherwise get the historic details pretty well done.

[madbodger.livejournal.com]

Pictures are indeed pretty awesome. I certainly enjoy them!

[madbodger.livejournal.com]

As I read somewhere "Yeah, we have hair. It's part of the whole mammal package, like being warm blooded and having a spine." Or as I like to put it when someone wants to pretend we don't eat or sweat or poop or bleed, "We're biological. Deal with it."