I'm just going to say it - body hair (and beauty standards in general) is truly one of the final frontiers of women's issues in the West. Too many women just love their gilded cage too much. It shocks me how virulently women will defend it. I barely open my mouth and the "well I like how it feels. it just makes me feel cleaner. sensory issues. I do it for me. feminism is about choosing (to conform)." brigade come rushing in by the dozens.
Well I don't like how it feels. I don't feel cleaner without body hair. I don't prefer not having body hair. But who will advocate for women like me, but me? For women who do like hair removal, they are advocated for every time they step out of the house and see 99% of the female population also conforming to that standard, or when they watch a movie and see all the shaved actresses, or view an advertisment, or open a magazine, or watch a music video, or scroll through social media, or walk down the streets without receiving insults and glares for having a completely normal bodily feature.
You genuinely can't even point out that hairlessness is a man-made standard without women losing their shit and acting like they are totally immune to propaganda they've been exposed to from birth. I'm so tired.
Before I transitioned (medically, this still happened to me during enby cope phase and as a trans man before starting T), I got so much shit for being a "woman" with body hair.
I got ridiculed in elementary school for having more arm hair than cis boys in my class.
Middle school when I wasn't allowed to shave my legs yet was a mess, then when my mom taught me, she called it a whole forest.
When I stopped shaving after coming out as enby, my mom told me it was unhygienic. I asked why it's unhygienic if I shower regularly and men get to not touch a single hair below their eyes and it's fine. She said it's different because female hormones. It's not. If anything, male hormones create more sweat and odor for body hair to hold onto. I explained this to her and she was genuinely perplexed. It had never occurred to her that this myth she's been told her whole life is that easy to poke holes in. I still had to photoshop pit hair out of the pic of me she wanted to post on Facebook.
When I came out as a trans man and decided to commit to not shaving because shaving body hair felt dysphoric and gave me sensory issues around smooth armpits/deodorant textures, my ex put up so much hell about it. He told me he thought it was gross. He was bisexual. I asked if he'd expect a cis male partner to shave legs/pits/pubes. He said no. I asked if it was because I was trans (spoiler: it was, I also wasn't 'allowed' to go on T until 2 weeks before I dumped him.) He said no. So I asked why a hypothetical cis male boyfriend would be allowed body hair but not me, a trans male one. He said it was because he wouldn't like having a hairless top. I asked why he saw me as strictly a bottom. He said it was because I had the parts to do so and it was easier. (Still seeing me as a woman who's only capable of PIV and must be cleanly shaven hairless all the time).
Then I met my wife who actually sees me as a man and doesn't say anything about it so happy ending.
But of course it continues. Pup only shaves pits/legs when wearing a dress that would expose it because societal norms for women is shave body hair or else you're gross, and trans women get hit with female beauty standards thrice as hard because every feature and decision that goes into their appearance is ruthlessly picked apart to decide if they even deserve to be called women.
