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After reading through the comments on this metaquote, I'm curious.
Someone mentioned being a fat, hairy-legged feminist in the comments, which reminded me of something.
I don't shave my legs. I can count the number of times I've shaved my legs on my two hands without resorting to binary code. (Because, yeah, geeks read this LJ.) The first time it was pure practicality - my cat had serious fleas, I had serious fleabites, and I woke up one night at 3am and shaved my legs in the bathtub so I at least didn't have the hair itching me.
Of course, the housemates had something to say the next morning about the razor and hair in the bathtub. "SEL!"
But all the same, the girls in my church youth group - and my fellow youth group leaders - were fascinated by the fact that I didn't shave my legs. One of the guys said he had to tell his psychology class about this, because all the girls bemoaned the fact that they had to shave their legs, but shaved them anyway.
And the question that people inevitably asked me after the initial disbelieving: "You don't shave your legs?" was, "Are you a feminist?"
To be honest, I just never got in the habit while a teenager and never picked it up. Still haven't. My legs are still hairy. Possibly even hairier because of the occasional shave.
Why is the shaving or not-shaving of legs apparently such a feminist statement?
I honestly never worked it out, because I don't use makeup, wear jewellery, or wear particularly stylish clothing, and none of that is a feminist statement. Yet, not-shaving one's legs is.
Why?
Someone mentioned being a fat, hairy-legged feminist in the comments, which reminded me of something.
I don't shave my legs. I can count the number of times I've shaved my legs on my two hands without resorting to binary code. (Because, yeah, geeks read this LJ.) The first time it was pure practicality - my cat had serious fleas, I had serious fleabites, and I woke up one night at 3am and shaved my legs in the bathtub so I at least didn't have the hair itching me.
Of course, the housemates had something to say the next morning about the razor and hair in the bathtub. "SEL!"
But all the same, the girls in my church youth group - and my fellow youth group leaders - were fascinated by the fact that I didn't shave my legs. One of the guys said he had to tell his psychology class about this, because all the girls bemoaned the fact that they had to shave their legs, but shaved them anyway.
And the question that people inevitably asked me after the initial disbelieving: "You don't shave your legs?" was, "Are you a feminist?"
To be honest, I just never got in the habit while a teenager and never picked it up. Still haven't. My legs are still hairy. Possibly even hairier because of the occasional shave.
Why is the shaving or not-shaving of legs apparently such a feminist statement?
I honestly never worked it out, because I don't use makeup, wear jewellery, or wear particularly stylish clothing, and none of that is a feminist statement. Yet, not-shaving one's legs is.
Why?
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Date: 2006-07-11 04:41 am (UTC)You gave your own answer, really.
Feminism is about rebelling against things women have had, or THOUGHT they had to do. Men don't have to shave their legs? Why should women?
I shave my legs only when I get super tired of the hair. It isn't a feminist thing, it is just because I'm fat and shaving your legs with belly rolls is HELLA hard to do.
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Date: 2006-07-11 05:10 am (UTC)"You've got hairy legs!"
"So do you."
"Yeah, but I'm a guy."
"We're all born with hair on our legs, you know."
"..."
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Date: 2006-07-11 05:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-11 07:44 am (UTC)Besides, I imagine you have other things to worry about when you're pregnant.
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Date: 2006-07-11 07:47 am (UTC)Bath!!! ROFL - the last time I had a bath I couldn't get out of it.
Sometimes RA is very annoying.
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Date: 2006-07-11 07:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-11 07:56 am (UTC)But I won't die of it, and it is possible to live with it so... no worries.
I just can't have baths anymore - and no... don't tell me I smeel. lol. ;) I do have showers.
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Date: 2006-07-13 05:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-13 09:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-11 05:51 am (UTC)Whereas with makeup (don't use it), jewellery (live in it), or particularly stylish clothing (stylish?) are just considered your own personal sense of fashion, "each to their own" and all that. There's a bundle of options with that. Shaving your legs, you either do or don't.
But I could be - and probably am - wrong.
I have got to stop checking my flist when I'm sleepy. I ramble.
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Date: 2006-07-11 06:23 am (UTC)Rambling in this LJ is fine. Ramble away, hon! ;)
I dunno. Maybe not shaving my legs is my own personal
nonsense of fashion, then! ;)no subject
Date: 2006-07-11 06:10 am (UTC)Oh, and I don't wear makeup or stylish clothing, but I miss wearing my nice jewelry. (Babies break jewelry, sadly.)
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Date: 2006-07-11 07:53 am (UTC)Well, Yael will someday be old enough to be taught not to grab at the jewellery, and you can wear the jewellery again!
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Date: 2006-07-11 06:21 am (UTC)However, I only shave it when I KNOW I'm going to be at the pool for teaching, or playing netball in my skirt (which these days is weekly so the razor comes out a LOT more often than it used to).
Sometimes when I'm in a frivilous mood I'll make the effort and shave just to feel girly afterwards and for pampering, but ultimately it's such an EFFORT that more often that not I leave it as long as possible without worry about it.
Then again, I'm pretty lucky - I have very very very light hair and as such you hardly notice it unless you look closely so I can get away with not shaving often ;)
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Date: 2006-07-11 07:56 am (UTC)(I knew a guy who did cycling and liked having shaved legs so much, he shaved his legs all year round, not just cycling season!)
And the other times I've shaved my legs, it's been pure vanity - a wedding or a holiday. I just don't do it regularly.
And, like I said, I never worked out the inverse relationship between leg-shaving and feminism.
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Date: 2006-07-11 10:51 pm (UTC)interesting thoughts, sel!
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Date: 2006-07-11 09:04 am (UTC)But I do have freakish legs - I shave, I have no hair for months, and when I get hair its only in 2 places one on each leg *G* So you know less of a statement more like the lacking in needing to!
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Date: 2006-07-11 11:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-11 09:54 am (UTC)Oddly, I've decided that it's a step further than feminism to do girlie things or not as you choose. The power of a woman is in being as womanly and she wants in the areas she chooses to be. :)
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Date: 2006-07-11 11:16 am (UTC)I =love= the feeling of cleanly shaved legs, but after all that effort that feeling only lasts maybe a day.
I think the whole "not shaving legs = feminist" thing comes from the conforming to the male image of Perfect Woman.
Same goes for not shaving the armpits.
I think in the end a lot of women just can't be bothered, and that's the reason they don't shave.
But to men it seems to be the epitome of feminism.. especially when it's a relatively goodlooking woman (prettyish face, not overweight) not doing the shaving, men tend to yell "Feminist!"
It is all rather strange when you think about it. But then again, we're talking about men and what they think ;-)
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Date: 2006-07-11 01:44 pm (UTC)At least, IIRC, anyway.
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Date: 2006-07-11 01:55 pm (UTC)Do you go swimming or wear shorts?
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Date: 2006-07-11 08:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-11 02:09 pm (UTC)The concept that hairy legs = feminist stems from the idea that women should not think of themselves entirely in terms of whether or not they'll get a man. (Which is also why so many people conflate "feminist" with "lesbian.") In the seventies, not wearing makeup was a Very Big Deal for some people, and was equated with feminism. Today it's not as much of an issue, but it's still present as a bias. Some feminists don't shave their legs as an active statement that they are not defined by someone's else's idea of sexy. Others don't shave because they really can't be bothered by said definition.
I shave my legs every day. I like the way my legs feel when they're smooth. I don't wear makeup except on job interviews, and the only jewelry I wear anymore is my wedding ring. I wear jeans and t-shirts and I wouldn't know a stylish piece of clothing if it bit me on the arse. I'm a feminist because I think I'm my husband's equal (and I'd like to thwap people who think "equal" means "exactly alike") and I think he and I should have the same kinds of opportunities, ditto for our son and daughter, and that if those opportunities are different because of institutionalized or historical problems, that those problems need to be addressed and fixed. Hairy legs are optional.
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Date: 2006-07-11 06:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-11 07:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-12 02:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-12 08:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-13 05:09 am (UTC)saw you on lj mindmap.
picked you randomly.
adding you.
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Date: 2006-07-13 05:13 am (UTC)Kinda historical
Date: 2006-07-26 12:41 am (UTC)It's been that way for a while-sorta. I'm an ancient civilisations student and there are very painful accounts of hair plucking for both men and women down at the baths. Though, in that climate, underneath heavy robes, it was probably more hygienic as well as being aesthetic. Make-up for a woman, as well as short/colourful robes, were associated with prostitution because a good wife wouldn't advertise herself to other men. This is why I think that you can be an independent, educated woman who can make whatever choices she damn well wants (with me concerning marriage and kids) whilst still wearing make-up and skirts (the skirts are more practical for my figure anyhow) and shaving your legs because you personally don't really like body hair on EITHER gender and find the experience kinda therapeutic. And on the subject, if a man wants to wear make-up, shiny things and get his pins out, I deem it only fair and equal. So, slightly skewed feminism from this leg shaver.
Having a parent getting free razors from work was also a factor (*g*).