With arms held high, she cheers
the lastest Eurovision Song Contest number.
With arms held high,
her natural armpits displayed
in all their shockingly unshaven glory.
The video becomes viral on YouTube.
She is called disgusting, repulsive,
unhygenic, and worst of all, unsexy.
She probably doesn’t shave her
pubic area either.
Or her legs.
Unsexy.
How dare she?
Doesn’t she know that
women are supposed to remove
all of their hair, apart
from what’s on the top of their heads?
And their eyebrows. But those should be
meticulously shaped, plucked or waxed.
At least today.
“So what’s with the eyebrows?”
I was repeatedly asked by students
when I took them to see a Frida Kahlo exhibit.
In those days in Mexico, thick bushy eyebrows were
considered sexually attractive.
“Really?? Gross!!!”
But armpit hair? That’s inexcusible.
That’s outrageous.
And as I get ready for another
painful sesson of waxing and plucking
of extraneous facial hair,
I wonder how it got that way.
Random Misanthrope 
Yeah, bit odd that whole thing really. I have a big volume I bought at a fleamarket here a few years back; a collection of “men’s magazines” in Sweden from 1960-1961. It’s like a little time capsule, with stories and advertisements from the times, and of course pictures of nude women, in the body shape that was attractive then. Much more voluptuous, and a couple of them with underarm hair. I gather it wasn’t such a big thing one way or the other then.
No it really wasn’t . Women had pubes back then because they were SUPPOSED to. Having them was a sign of being a woman. And armpit hair was not as controversial as it is now. The reasons given for why women should shave their underarms don’t really hold up. “It’s unhygenic. Deodorant doesn’t work if your underarms are hairy.” Really? It seems to work fine on hairy underarmed men. It’s just considered good grooming for women. Hygiene has nothing to do with it.
The technology of love, the love of technology. Robot-like humans are sexy. Are sexy? Technology demands our use of it, and as we change it it changes us. Plus, there’s the whole skin is smooth thing. Head hair is also pretty smooth and soft, but body hair is often coarser. Maybe we’ve learned to prefer soft and smooth to textured…?
It seems to apply only to women though, who are now supposed to be smoothly plastic and without any evidence of pubescence. Men are still allowed to be hairy somewhat. Well, not too much. Not too little. Goldilocks hairyness.
Meh. I’m starting aquatic PT tomorrow and am dreading having to shave my legs on a frequent basis. Is there any place that still sells those full body swimsuits worn in the early 1900s?
Imagine how it must have felt to have wet wool clinging to your body when you get out of the water. Though, if you have a couple thousand dollars you can get one of those high-tech neoprene full body swimsuits that Olympic swimmers use.