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Every day I wake up it amazes me the number of beauty products I use. Whether its shampoo, conditioner, facial soap, body soap, shaving cream…….powder, body lotion, (and for the freak I am – foot lotion, hand lotion, facial lotion, eye cream and then body lotion)……then we get to the makeup and hair products. Not worth mentioning. Then you have the regular “chick” stuff you do. Waxing, bleaching, shaving off body hair. Your arms, your legs, your upper lip.

Getting ready for my last photo shoot – I realized I wanted to bleach the hair on my upper lip. Photography is not kind. As I saw myself in the mirror – I realized how I’d convinced myself it was a necessity. I had grown USED to bleaching it, as I had grown USED to shaving my legs once I started as a teenager.

I have this hippy girlfriend of mine – she doesn’t shave anything. It always blows me away her freedom to be whatever she wants to be, to hell with the “norm” of feminine beauty and that her beauty is apparent and shines from the inside out as well as from the outside in. She also chooses not to wear a bra.

Now I wear a bra (I like the support), and I shave my legs (I like the feel) and I bleach my mustache (gasp) b/c I’ve grown to be distracted by darker hairs on my face. I’m not overly concerned with this – but much like the phrase “SweetMeat”, I find it very interesting to see where these “norms” came from and why they seem to be so different for me than my husband.

Finally, this is for discussion purposes only. God – I’m getting older – does this mean facial bleach is next for the little brown spots that appear more often now. Sigh…..I think its time I learn to embrace something other than my drug store clerk……

I’d love to hear all of your comments.

mary

Here is the research I found:

**********************************************************************
By Marika Tiggermann:

The ideal of beauty for women has never been a static one, but rather has changed across time and between cultures. The rise of the mass media in the late 20th century is likely to impose more uniform standards of beauty throughout the world than before. Most authors agree that current ideals of beauty emphasize the looks of \"youth\": a slim body, high taut breasts, and smooth unwrinkled and hairless skin. This idealization of youth carries the political agenda of powerlessness, and arises at particular times when women become too powerful. Physical appearance tends to be much more important for a woman\'s global view of her self-worth than is the case for a man. Such dissatisfaction, in turn, leads many women to try to alter their bodies to match the ideal, and of course, supports the multi-million dollar diet, cosmetic and cosmetic surgery industries.
Although a great deal has been written about body weight and shape, one aspect of the idealized female body which has received relatively little attention is the aspect of smooth hairless skin. Body hair is a sign of sexual maturity for both women and men, but in women femininity is actually associated with a lack of body hair. Such that \"feminine\" does not mean \"womanly\" when applied to body hair. Approximately 85% to 90% of women have unwanted body hair. For women, body hair is seen as embarrassing and sometimes repulsive, and many women do not venture out without first removing their visible body hair. Statistically, hair removal is one of the most frequent ways women alter their bodies to achieve the ideal of youthfulness and attractiveness. Although the practice of hair removal does not carry the large personal and health consequences of dieting and cosmetic surgery, the process is still frequently uncomfortable and somewhat painful.

Perhaps the major reason that hair removal has received so little research attention is that the practice is so socially normative as to go unquestioned. But, as Hope points out, \"those behaviors which are most taken for granted in a culture may well be the most important ones for revealing an understanding of that culture\". Although shaving for most women is habitual behavior which may be viewed as trivial, it does strongly endorse the underlying assumption of any of the body-altering behaviors, namely that a woman\'s body is not acceptable the way that it is.

The results showed that the majority (81%) of professional women do remove their body hair, at least occasionally. Even among strong feminists and lesbians most (72% and 55% respectively) removed leg and/or underarm hair. The main reason they gave was to avoid social disapproval. Open-ended comments emphasized the strength and power of the hairlessness norm, and the intense social reaction to violations of these norms. Factor analysis identified two main factors: reasons to do with femininity and attractiveness, e.g. \"It makes me feel attractive\"; and social/normative reasons, e.g. \"Women are supposed to shave\". The most important reasons for continuing to remove hair were the feminine/attractiveness ones, and the most important for starting were the social/normative ones. Its speculated that shaving may act as a rite of passage for girls, since girls start shaving at puberty primarily because of social and normative reasons.
As expected, the vast majority (about 92%) of both University women and high school girls remove their leg and/or underarm hair. In the university group non-removers of body hair did score significantly higher on self-esteem than current removers. It also suggests that such concerns are not trivial but have implications for womens\' views of their global self.

Heart — Description
Every day I wake up it amazes me the number of beauty products I use. Whether its shampoo, conditioner, facial soap, body soap, shaving cream…….powder, body lotion, (and for the freak I am – foot lotion, hand lotion, facial lotion, eye cream and then body lotion)……then we get to the makeup and hair products. Not worth mentioning. Then you have the regular “chick” stuff you do. Waxing, bleaching, shaving off body hair. Your arms, your legs, your upper lip.

Getting ready for my last photo shoot – I realized I wanted to bleach the hair on my upper lip. Photography is not kind. As I saw myself in the mirror – I realized how I’d convinced myself it was a necessity. I had grown USED to bleaching it, as I had grown USED to shaving my legs once I started as a teenager.

I have this hippy girlfriend of mine – she doesn’t shave anything. It always blows me away her freedom to be whatever she wants to be, to hell with the “norm” of feminine beauty and that her beauty is apparent and shines from the inside out as well as from the outside in. She also chooses not to wear a bra.

Now I wear a bra (I like the support), and I shave my legs (I like the feel) and I bleach my mustache (gasp) b/c I’ve grown to be distracted by darker hairs on my face. I’m not overly concerned with this – but much like the phrase “SweetMeat”, I find it very interesting to see where these “norms” came from and why they seem to be so different for me than my husband.

Finally, this is for discussion purposes only. God – I’m getting older – does this mean facial bleach is next for the little brown spots that appear more often now. Sigh…..I think its time I learn to embrace something other than my drug store clerk……

I’d love to hear all of your comments.

mary

Here is the research I found:

**********************************************************************
By Marika Tiggermann:

The ideal of beauty for women has never been a static one, but rather has changed across time and between cultures. The rise of the mass media in the late 20th century is likely to impose more uniform standards of beauty throughout the world than before. Most authors agree that current ideals of beauty emphasize the looks of \"youth\": a slim body, high taut breasts, and smooth unwrinkled and hairless skin. This idealization of youth carries the political agenda of powerlessness, and arises at particular times when women become too powerful. Physical appearance tends to be much more important for a woman\'s global view of her self-worth than is the case for a man. Such dissatisfaction, in turn, leads many women to try to alter their bodies to match the ideal, and of course, supports the multi-million dollar diet, cosmetic and cosmetic surgery industries.
Although a great deal has been written about body weight and shape, one aspect of the idealized female body which has received relatively little attention is the aspect of smooth hairless skin. Body hair is a sign of sexual maturity for both women and men, but in women femininity is actually associated with a lack of body hair. Such that \"feminine\" does not mean \"womanly\" when applied to body hair. Approximately 85% to 90% of women have unwanted body hair. For women, body hair is seen as embarrassing and sometimes repulsive, and many women do not venture out without first removing their visible body hair. Statistically, hair removal is one of the most frequent ways women alter their bodies to achieve the ideal of youthfulness and attractiveness. Although the practice of hair removal does not carry the large personal and health consequences of dieting and cosmetic surgery, the process is still frequently uncomfortable and somewhat painful.

Perhaps the major reason that hair removal has received so little research attention is that the practice is so socially normative as to go unquestioned. But, as Hope points out, \"those behaviors which are most taken for granted in a culture may well be the most important ones for revealing an understanding of that culture\". Although shaving for most women is habitual behavior which may be viewed as trivial, it does strongly endorse the underlying assumption of any of the body-altering behaviors, namely that a woman\'s body is not acceptable the way that it is.

The results showed that the majority (81%) of professional women do remove their body hair, at least occasionally. Even among strong feminists and lesbians most (72% and 55% respectively) removed leg and/or underarm hair. The main reason they gave was to avoid social disapproval. Open-ended comments emphasized the strength and power of the hairlessness norm, and the intense social reaction to violations of these norms. Factor analysis identified two main factors: reasons to do with femininity and attractiveness, e.g. \"It makes me feel attractive\"; and social/normative reasons, e.g. \"Women are supposed to shave\". The most important reasons for continuing to remove hair were the feminine/attractiveness ones, and the most important for starting were the social/normative ones. Its speculated that shaving may act as a rite of passage for girls, since girls start shaving at puberty primarily because of social and normative reasons.
As expected, the vast majority (about 92%) of both University women and high school girls remove their leg and/or underarm hair. In the university group non-removers of body hair did score significantly higher on self-esteem than current removers. It also suggests that such concerns are not trivial but have implications for womens\' views of their global self.