Why I Will Never Shave My Legs Again
Suzannah Weiss
July 22, 2015
(Photo: Suzannah Weiss)
My first exposure to the female coming-of-age ritual of leg shaving occurred during sleep-away camp at age eleven. In an almost ceremonial fashion, my cabin-mates would bring buckets, shaving cream, and razors out onto the deck for “shaving parties†on weekend afternoons. I and some other late bloomers sat quietly on the benches, observing a rite we were too embarrassed to ask our mothers about and too well-behaved to partake in without their permission.
(snipped adolescent angst)
I stopped shaving once and for all around my junior year of college, and surprisingly, nobody has (at least openly) objected. One boyfriend even told me he liked my natural legs because they showed I thought for myself rather than blindly following conventions. When I mentioned I sometimes felt self-conscious about my legs, another boyfriend said it would be ridiculous for him to take issue with legs that were far less hairy than his.
I have, however, decided not to date men because they answered in the affirmative to the OKCupid question, “Do you think women have an obligation to keep their legs shaved?†One great barometer of how much a man respects women is whether he believes they have an obligation to look aesthetically pleasing to him. When I asked one guy to explain why he answered yes to that question, he responded, “It’s unappealing and uncomfortable if I’m sleeping with them.†I’m still scratching my head over that last reason. If it’s uncomfortable to brush up against someone with body hair, why doesn’t he shave?
Leg hair isn’t uncomfortable to touch (if anything, it’s only uncomfortable in the prickly between-shaves stage), or else we would hear more people complaining about men’s body hair; it doesn’t hold the potential to increase body odor like armpit hair; and, in my experience and that of all the women who lived before leg-shaving became a mainstream custom in the 20th century, it’s not inherently unattractive. Shaving one’s legs is a subjective decision that should be made by the bearer of the legs.
Needless to say, shaving wasn’t the mystical entrance into the cult of womanhood that I hoped for. Instead, not shaving made me feel more mature — because I rejected an illogical but powerful double standard in favor of what made more sense to me.
Suzannah Weiss
July 22, 2015
(Photo: Suzannah Weiss)
My first exposure to the female coming-of-age ritual of leg shaving occurred during sleep-away camp at age eleven. In an almost ceremonial fashion, my cabin-mates would bring buckets, shaving cream, and razors out onto the deck for “shaving parties†on weekend afternoons. I and some other late bloomers sat quietly on the benches, observing a rite we were too embarrassed to ask our mothers about and too well-behaved to partake in without their permission.
(snipped adolescent angst)
I stopped shaving once and for all around my junior year of college, and surprisingly, nobody has (at least openly) objected. One boyfriend even told me he liked my natural legs because they showed I thought for myself rather than blindly following conventions. When I mentioned I sometimes felt self-conscious about my legs, another boyfriend said it would be ridiculous for him to take issue with legs that were far less hairy than his.
I have, however, decided not to date men because they answered in the affirmative to the OKCupid question, “Do you think women have an obligation to keep their legs shaved?†One great barometer of how much a man respects women is whether he believes they have an obligation to look aesthetically pleasing to him. When I asked one guy to explain why he answered yes to that question, he responded, “It’s unappealing and uncomfortable if I’m sleeping with them.†I’m still scratching my head over that last reason. If it’s uncomfortable to brush up against someone with body hair, why doesn’t he shave?
Leg hair isn’t uncomfortable to touch (if anything, it’s only uncomfortable in the prickly between-shaves stage), or else we would hear more people complaining about men’s body hair; it doesn’t hold the potential to increase body odor like armpit hair; and, in my experience and that of all the women who lived before leg-shaving became a mainstream custom in the 20th century, it’s not inherently unattractive. Shaving one’s legs is a subjective decision that should be made by the bearer of the legs.
Needless to say, shaving wasn’t the mystical entrance into the cult of womanhood that I hoped for. Instead, not shaving made me feel more mature — because I rejected an illogical but powerful double standard in favor of what made more sense to me.
A.) Do you think women should shave (wax, depilate) leg hair?
B.) Do you think women should appear aesthetically pleasing?
I think Question A only became interesting in the West when hemlines rose enough and stockings became transparent enough to display leg hair. It was a non-issue for both sexes prior to clothing changes. Hairiness is seen as more masculine and more animalistic all over the world - this isn't really culture-specific.
In the West, the sheer sight of boobs was more than enough to cancel out the leg hair-effect in private moments. In other parts of the world this sometimes happened or the level of casual nudity was not effective enough so women for thousands of years resorted to various methods of hair removal.
I do remove it but even if I didn't, you'd have to get pretty personal to detect it. I've already lived through the college leg-hair battles and their implications for feminist theory. I was a feminist who remained hair-free much to the disgust of the Women's Study Department chair.
Question B is more interesting. I think both men and women have an obligation to appear appealing to their partners. The disconnect is that women usually also want to appear interesting to other women while men are pretty content with just being clean and neat.
But that's about all most women want from men so men do meet that standard. Ironically, most men also want neat and clean women. If they go farther than that it might be that most men enjoy a woman who wears a dress or skirt.
I would guess that most men are not very concerned with nail polish, hair styles, make-up, perfumes, skin care, etc. but I could be wrong.
So, what do you think about women shaving their legs?
What do you think about women making themselves appealing to men? Making themselves appear "better" for the evaluation of other women? What do you think about men's views of all this and about how men groom for women?
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