Selkie

A lot of people I’ve seen say that women feeling obligated to shave their bodies is a bad thing based in misogyny, which i think is true. But a lot of those same people insist that wanted to shave at all is only because of internalized misogyny or a need to be attractive for men, which I fully don’t agree with. I think people can do things to their body to feel beautiful or confident to their preference, without it being motivated or caused by a pre-existing societal condition or bias

Anyway I wanted to ask your opinion cause I’ve been reading your posts and you have so many good ones

Personally? I think we need to stop caring about other people’s body hair.

I lump the feminist leg shaving debate in with the radfem critiques of wearing makeup. It is true that women shaving their legs became a trend because razor companies wanted to sell more razors, it is true that there is something inherently weird and pedophilic about grown men who are disgusted by body hair on a woman. Not everyone who shaves their legs shaves their legs out of obligation motivated by the patriarchal beauty standards, there are sensory reasons and practical reasons (like cyclists, who shave before competing because it makes treating road rash easier and helps athletic tape stick better) and I think it is rude and pointless to police and interrogate people on their decision to shave or not shave.

Other people’s bodies? Not our business. Automatically assuming that a woman is wearing makeup and shaving to attract men IS misogynistic. It would be more beneficial to continue normalizing and celebrating the choice not to shave than to tell women how anti-feminist and regressive their form of self-expression is and guilt them for it.