Why Do Feminists Not Shave?
What’s wrong with silky, soft skin?
Feminists don’t shave. They don’t shave their underarms, legs, bikini lines, or faces. After the first time you mention the gender pay gap or refer to the patriarchy in a conversation, you have to burn your razors. As well as your bras.
I’m joking, of course.
But it is a very persistent stereotype that feminists don’t shave. Why do so many people attribute so much political significance to the shaving habits of women?
Feminists really are less likely to shave
Well, the truth is, there really is political significance to not shaving.
It’s not about having hairy armpits. It’s about having the freedom to choose. It’s about having the same freedoms men have. It’s about not being obligated to shape yourself after society’s demanding beauty standards for women.
Society doesn’t recoil at the sight of a man with hairy legs, so why should women feel obligated to remove their hair? Advertisements have conditioned us to believe that hairless skin is desirable (with words like “smooth” and “silky”).
In fact, society dislikes hairy legs on women so much, that even ads for razor blades don’t show hairy legs before shaving. Both the before and after are usually hairless (smooth! silky!) legs.
In this modern time, women that don’t shave still face a lot of criticism. In a study on this topic, for example, a researcher asked college women not to shave for a period of 10 weeks:
Responses reveal that women confronted direct and anticipated homophobia and heterosexism from others as well as hostility for rejecting traditional norms of femininity. Heterosexual women regularly encountered demands that they acquire permission to grow body hair from their male partners, while queer and bisexual women expressed reluctance about further “outing” themselves via their body hair.
So yes, there’s still a lot of pressure to shave and not shaving can have political significance.
Am I a bad feminist?
However, that doesn’t mean that every feminist is obligated to shave, of course.
And even though most people realize this, I think subconsciously there can be pressure to conform to certain norms. Not only when it comes to being a woman in society, but also when it comes to being a ‘good feminist’.
For example, I usually do shave. But for a while, I used to live in a very feminist community where almost everyone chose not to shave. Of course, they were fine with me shaving. But on some level, it still made me feel like I was a bit less of a feminist than the women who shaved their heads and grew out all other body hair.
Like I just didn’t give it all, not the same way they did.
Roxane Gay, the author of Bad Feminist, says in an interview with The Guardian:
I shave my legs! Again, this mortifies me. If I take issue with the unrealistic standards of beauty women are held to, I shouldn’t have a secret fondness for fashion and smooth calves, right?
And the same goes for wearing dresses, makeup, high heels, all things that are considered traditionally feminine. Because they can also be considered as trying to appeal to the male gaze. As trying to fit an unrealistic standard of beauty.
I would rather be a bad feminist than no feminist at all.
Roxane Gay describes her fondness for other feminine things as well:
“I love dresses. For years I pretended I hated them, but I don’t. Maxi dresses are one of the finest clothing items to become popular in recent memory. I have opinions on maxi dresses.
Pink is my favourite colour. I used to say my favourite colour was black to be cool, but it is pink — all shades of pink. If I have an accessory, it is probably pink. I read Vogue, and I’m not doing it ironically. I once live-tweeted the September issue.”
She even admits to liking men, despite being a feminist:
“Despite what people think based on my writing, I very much like men. They’re interesting to me, and I mostly wish they’d be better about how they treat women so I wouldn’t have to call them out so often. And still, I put up with nonsense from unsuitable men even though I know better and can do better.
I love diamonds and the excess of weddings. I consider certain domestic tasks as gendered, mostly all in my favour because I don’t care for chores — lawn care, bug killing and trash removal, for example, are men’s work.”
The fourth feminist wave
Of course, it’s okay to shave and wear dresses and like pink, and it’s even okay to (the horror!) like men.
As Emma Watson said:
“If you want to run for Prime Minister, you can. If you don’t, that’s wonderful, too. Shave your armpits, don’t shave them, wear flats one day, heels the next. These things are so irrelevant and surface to what it is all really about, and I wish people wouldn’t get caught up in that. We want to empower women to do exactly what they want, to be true to themselves, to have the opportunities to develop.”
It’s good to remind ourselves of this every once in a while. And it’s also good to be aware of the system that makes us want to shave our legs in the first place.
Hopefully, in the fourth feminist wave, we can find a way to do both. Let’s not judge women for shaving or not shaving, but let’s judge the system that made us unhappy with our bodies in the first place.
Because we all have internalized beauty standards, we just choose to respond to them in different ways.
To conclude with Roxane Gay:
No matter what issues I have with feminism, I am a feminist. I cannot and will not deny the importance and absolute necessity of feminism. Like most people, I’m full of contradictions, but I also don’t want to be treated like shit for being a woman. I am a bad feminist. I would rather be a bad feminist than no feminist at all.
I hope you enjoyed reading this. If you’d like to support me as a writer, consider signing up to become a Medium member. It’s just $5 a month and you get unlimited access to Medium.
