In which even I'm surprised by how radical my feminism is

[rsadelle]

I've stopped shaving. This wasn't something I really planned to do, but it is for political reasons.

Earlier this year, when we had our first burst of heat, I shaved my legs and my underarms. I did it because I was going to a party that day with people I didn't know in attendance and because I thought it was going to be skirt weather that week and my workplace is a little more socially conservative than anywhere I was the last couple of summers. Even though I'd planned to do it, it took a lot of mental effort to make myself pick up the razor and do it. I ended up updating my status on Facebook to: "Ruth Sadelle Alderson feels like a hypocrite for allowing patriarchal societal norms (one of which dictates that women's legs and underarms should be clean-shaven) to win out over her feminist principles (one of which is that every body is perfect just the way it is, no matter its shape, size, weight, or hairiness)."

What's fascinating to me is that I didn't see this coming. The last few summers I've shaved my legs a couple of times each summer. For about a year and a half I was in the habit of shaving my underarms every Saturday because I was taking ballet. My leotard is sleeveless and I was already so different from the rest of the class - I was over a decade older than everyone in it, my ballet skills were nowhere near any of theirs, and I both weigh more and am shaped differently than they are - that I wasn't willing to let that be another difference. (This is, perhaps, not a completely unproportional response; I have never felt so much like the looked down upon fat girl in high school as I did the day the teacher was gone and one of the students was leading the class - not even when I actually was the fat girl in high school.)

And yet, this summer, I've come up against a mental wall I didn't know I was building. Somewhere over the past year I've become both politically radical enough and comfortable enough with the imagined/potentially real scrutiny and disapproval from the outside world that I just can't bring myself to live this expression of "femininity." I'm not hiding it either. While I haven't (yet) worn my one sleeveless shirt, I have worn short sleeves short enough that you can see I haven't shaved, and I'm relatively evenly rotating through my two short and one long skirt.

This isn't to say I'll never shave again. I actually really like the way my legs feel to the touch just after I've shaved them (which is very much balanced out by the fact that I've cut myself pretty much every time I've shaved them). I've been thinking for the last week or two about shaving my underarms to see if it's cooler and will cut down on odor (I rotate between a crystal stick deodorant that doesn't seem to work very well during the summer and baking soda that chafes in a way that doesn't hurt but probably isn't good for my skin. And, yes, there is definitely a place here for discussion about our modern world's aversion to how our bodies actually smell. There is also my own aversion to any strong scent - I don't care so much about other people smelling me as I do about me smelling myself.), but then I read a reblogged from elsewhere article on Jezebel today that equated attractiveness with performance of femininity that's making me think I'll never shave again. I will definitely shave my underarms if/when I go back to ballet.

I keep remembering a women's studies teacher from college who, in a discussion about shaving, talked about how she stopped shaving and how it might be uncomfortable at first but "you just live with it." So far I haven't noticed anyone noticing that I'm not shaving, and I've had only fleeting moments where I catch sight of my underarms and think, "I should shave," but those have been easily dismissed, and when it comes time for a shower, I don't even think about picking up my razor.

Comments

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Congrats!

I also didn't shave, for feminist reasons, from the age of 19 until I was 32--roughly when I took a job (you know what job it is, but for pseudonymity reasons I'd like that to remain vague here) where not shaving was the sort of thing that tended to show up in evaluations. Also, the drastic climate change make me think shaving underarms was probably a good thing, because otherwise my deodorant didn't make a dent. (I don't have problems smelling natural when it's just me, but I spend a lot of time on the bus. I *appreciate* when people wear deodorant--smell impinges on you in a way completely differently than sight).

I pretty much don't have to shave from November through March, though, so I don't.

[rsadelle]

Yeah, the heat is an issue. I've never shaved my legs that much, though, and I really only shaved in the winter when I was taking ballet - other than that, I never saw the point.

[killer-fiend.livejournal.com]

Last November I stopped shaving my underarms. I don't think it was a concious political thought as much as a "I don't see the point" one. At first it was definitely itchy but now I have to say it's fine. I have such sensitive skin that shaving for me was always very painful. Now all I do is trim the hair occasionally, very much like a beard. I haven't quite managed to have gotten past shavng my legs, but that's for another time.

[rsadelle]

Huh. That's interesting to me because I'm way more likely to shave my underarms than my legs. I think it's a combination of things: my legs aren't that hairy anyway, I don't see my legs the same way as often (I almost never look in a full-length mirror where I do see my upper half every time I wash my hands in a bathroom), and I have a tendency to cut myself while doing it.

When you trim the hair, do you just use a pair of scissors?

[merle-p.livejournal.com]

The issue of shaving regularly provokes outbursts of raging feminism from me. I have actually heard men say: "I refuse to go down on a woman if she isn't shaved everywhere", and stuff like that really makes me want to punch people in the face, especially if comments like that come from a guy who's more or less growing a jungle in his arm pits.

[rsadelle]

Ugh, ugh, ugh! Someone in response to my Facebook status update said she had an ex who would say things about it if she hadn't shaved her legs in a while. Personally, I don't think any woman should be with anyone - male or female - who has the attitude that there's only one possible way for her to look/groom herself.