Yes! I feel this! I think it’s a mixture of late feminist and queer awakening and also raising two AFAB kiddos that’s got me pondering my pilosity. I’ve compromised for now on hair removal and am no longer shaving, just trimming, my pits. I guess I want my kids to see that having hair there is the natural state of all bodies. But when it comes to my legs I just can’t do the hair. I love a smooth summer leg.
Ok, first of all "pondering my pilosity" is such a good phrase.
I really get that feeling of parenthood opening up new avenues of thought... I feel a pull to be my most authentic self since I had my kids. And both of them push me in different ways -- Big Kid makes me want to embrace my ADHD self more because I don't want him to feel broken the way I did and Baby makes me want to figure out everything about my womanhood / gender / body issues so I can set an example of self love. I mean, I guess both of them make me want to do that, but there's something about having an AFAB baby, that feels like a do-over, doesn't it?
When it comes to hair I want to be authentic but it's so hard to figure out what that means! I like the idea of compromising. Last summer I didn't shave and it was weirdly freeing but also weird to get looks all the time.
Ahh this is such an important topic. I feel like just naming it feels taboo. Personally I've always loved smooth bodies, definitely for myself but also in general. It's only through my queer awakening (like you mentioned about yourself) that I've been open to other possibilities. I feel like only recently the media has started to depict more bodies with body hair and even when doing so it feels like the exception or like a rebellion. Like with anything else, whenever there will be more portrayals of humans with body hair on a consistent basis it'll become less taboo. Even for AMAB folks - models usually hardly have body hair.
I think that's a really important point about media representation. We have too much of the hyped-up romanticization of the idealized "feminine" body — one that is hairless and well-groomed. When, the fact is, bodies are all different! Some people have hair, some don't, whatever, it's all natural.
I feel that, like the book 'Plucked' talks about, this has a lot to do with popular culture drawing on frankly racist ideologies about the "best" version of humanity being the farthest from the "animal" version of humanity. Which is so very fucked up. Depictions like we see in the media today (and always) are just not reflective of the wide variety of what human bodies look like. We are so many and varied! And that's a great thing! Variety is good! We need to see more and more representation of that. To normalize that.
Yes! I feel this! I think it’s a mixture of late feminist and queer awakening and also raising two AFAB kiddos that’s got me pondering my pilosity. I’ve compromised for now on hair removal and am no longer shaving, just trimming, my pits. I guess I want my kids to see that having hair there is the natural state of all bodies. But when it comes to my legs I just can’t do the hair. I love a smooth summer leg.
Ok, first of all "pondering my pilosity" is such a good phrase.
I really get that feeling of parenthood opening up new avenues of thought... I feel a pull to be my most authentic self since I had my kids. And both of them push me in different ways -- Big Kid makes me want to embrace my ADHD self more because I don't want him to feel broken the way I did and Baby makes me want to figure out everything about my womanhood / gender / body issues so I can set an example of self love. I mean, I guess both of them make me want to do that, but there's something about having an AFAB baby, that feels like a do-over, doesn't it?
When it comes to hair I want to be authentic but it's so hard to figure out what that means! I like the idea of compromising. Last summer I didn't shave and it was weirdly freeing but also weird to get looks all the time.
Ahh this is such an important topic. I feel like just naming it feels taboo. Personally I've always loved smooth bodies, definitely for myself but also in general. It's only through my queer awakening (like you mentioned about yourself) that I've been open to other possibilities. I feel like only recently the media has started to depict more bodies with body hair and even when doing so it feels like the exception or like a rebellion. Like with anything else, whenever there will be more portrayals of humans with body hair on a consistent basis it'll become less taboo. Even for AMAB folks - models usually hardly have body hair.
I think that's a really important point about media representation. We have too much of the hyped-up romanticization of the idealized "feminine" body — one that is hairless and well-groomed. When, the fact is, bodies are all different! Some people have hair, some don't, whatever, it's all natural.
I feel that, like the book 'Plucked' talks about, this has a lot to do with popular culture drawing on frankly racist ideologies about the "best" version of humanity being the farthest from the "animal" version of humanity. Which is so very fucked up. Depictions like we see in the media today (and always) are just not reflective of the wide variety of what human bodies look like. We are so many and varied! And that's a great thing! Variety is good! We need to see more and more representation of that. To normalize that.