Dem: Sexual Assaults Allow Military 'Culture To Continue'
'DWTS' Shakeup Ahead?
At Sunday night's Golden Globe awards, Mo'nique's hottest accessory was, depending on where you stand, her very hairy legs. This wasn't the first time she's gone public about her leg stubble -- back in 2006, the actress-comedian told the ladies of "The View" that she doesn't shave because it takes too much time in the morning. And she wasn't kidding. She even hiked up her maxi-dress, joking that she was showing America what "a real leg looks like." What she didn't say is that only an unshaven leg is a "real leg," the argument offered by the ladies over at Jezebel.
I'm glad Mo'nique didn't go out on that limb, because in my opinion, it doesn't make you any less of a real woman, or a true feminist, if you take a razor to what God gave you.
Maybe shaving did begin as a social convention popularized by some real-life Don Draper type over at Gillette, who decided women needed to weed-whack to sell more disposable razors back in the early 20th century. Guess what? As far back as 4000 B.C., women were mixing up homemade depilatory creams from stuff like arsenic and starch, and I doubt it was to look good in a mini-pelt -- or to live up to some dude's notion of beauty.
I'd personally like to shake Mr. Ad Man's (likely well-manicured) hand and thank him for giving me one of the most exquisite pleasures a 21st-century woman can have on her own: the feel of freshly shaved legs under freshly cleaned sheets.*
And savoring that feeling doesn't make me any less of a woman. After all, feminism is about choices -- to work or stay home, to unbutton or to button -- and to shave or grow out. What you choose doesn't make you any less "authentic." But I have to be honest: Hairy legs on chicks grosses me out.
While I applaud Mo'nique for going against the norm, especially in Hollywood (though this NSFW clip of her stand-up routine at a women's prison clearly shows leg hair is the least of it -- this lady has balls), I simply want nothing to do with it myself.
Disagree with me? I dare you: Go do your laundry, invest in a Bic, and then try crawling into bed. Bliss.
*I also highly recommend these modal sheets from Bed, Bath and Beyond. They're made from beech tree cotton and they're AMAZING. And you know your mom has a million of those 20 percent off coupons tacked to a bulletin board somewhere that she's just waiting to give you (the store even accepts expired ones!), so they're affordable, too. I have both jersey and sateen.
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Wednesday 27 January
By Michael
thats not stubble on her legs, thats a coat for her legs. i puked in my mouth a little with that picture.
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Thursday 28 January
By Vitória
That's how most women AND men look like. Get over it.
Thursday 28 January
By Vitória
I really like this blog, but... this so-called issue is so tired, clichéd and played out! Most women I know are feminists, and most of them - if not all of them - shave their legs. It just seems to reinforce the stereotype that you have to be a hippie 'butch' to be a feminist, which is, as you've pointed out, completely untrue. (Not that there is anything wrong with being hippie or butch, though. Variety is the spice of life!)
By the way, there is much merit in the decision to skip waxing/shaving... it IS based on the desires and preferences of men, and it has always been this way. Feminism is also about questioning society and its rules, so it's only natural that beauty rituals, so important to women, are also scrutinized. Remember, even in the olden times - or, shall I say, ESPECIALLY back then - women were treated like absolute shit and relegated exclusively to domestic affairs. The heteronormative, racist patriarchy that we still live in has been around for a long ass time.
I could go on and on about telling you that our preference of shaving our legs, and being grossed out when seeing hairy women has 99.9% to do with the beauty archetypes we were raised in, and how they gravitate around the preferences of men, but I'm too lazy for that right now, and this probably isn't the ideal place to do it.
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Thursday 28 January
By Catie
I have to agree about the sheet thing. Especially when the sheets are cool, and I have used my rosemary-mint after shave cream. Simply bliss, I say.
However, when I saw the picture of the legs, I thought that it was a guy in heels with painted toes. Only after reading the blog did I realize that those legs connected somewhere north of the frame of the shot to a woman. Gasp! She could get weave on that hair! Lawd have mer-say! But, I myself am guilty of not shaving regularly. Though I truly enjoy the clean sheet sensation that my freshly shaved legs afford me, if I were to maintain my shaven stems, I would scratch them til they bled. I'd love to keep them shaven, but it hurts too much. So, two or three times a month in the winter, four or five in the summer. If you don't like it, don't look. But if you do look, I promise your eyes will not burst into flames and melt your skull.
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Saturday 30 January
By Erica112028
Hey.. aint nothing wrong with a home-grown pair of furry leg warmers... I'm sporting a pair right now. It's winter ... hello???..... who the hell do I have to shave for?? My husband... nope, that ship sailed years ago and he knows that I shave in the summer, so it's all good. Rock on sista friend!!
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Sunday 31 January
By Kendall
Wonderful! You can be a feminist and a leg shaver. You can respect someone's position to not shave her legs, but also think it's gross. This doesn't seem very respectful of someone's choices. So you think women's legs naturally look unattractive? How feminist is that? Something is wrong with the way a woman naturally looks? By the way, I don't care what people want to do to their leg hair, head hair, or chest hair. Not that I don't have my preferences (clean).
One more thing, thanks for the feminist endorsement of a certain brand of sheets. Having the right kind of bedding makes me feel so empowered!
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Tuesday 02 February
By Leslie
I'm inclined to agree with Kendall and Victoria, given that what we consider attractive/unattractive has much to do with society's standards and expectations of beauty.
What a feminist endorsement of sheets (good call Kendall)- because of course my mother, as a woman, is the only person who attends to our household and saves every coupon she finds in the mail. and she loves shopping, of course (not bashing women and mothers who do, but the author should have been more inclusive or at least not so gender role biased).
And maybe I'm being too PC here, but isn't saying Mo'nique has balls a bit not feminist? Do we necessarily have to attribute her out-there attitude to male characteristics?
Please let me know what you think about my point of view on this article.
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Sunday 31 January
By Hannah
Oh goodness, now that's just ridiculous! Those look like mens legs. Now I admit in the winter I don't shave as often as summer, but you wear long pants, no one sees. But mine have never been or never get as hairy as that. You most defiantly can be a feminist, and shave your legs. It's just looks and feels better. Come on Mo'nique!!
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Sunday 31 January
By sambakat
I too think hairy legs on women look totally gross, but I'm equal opportunity, I think hairy legs on men look totally gross too! Let's face it, humans are halfway from the beautiful furry pelt of other mammals to the clean, smooth hairless skin of (say) a dolphin, and it just so happens that the evolutionary halfway point looks ridiculous. More power to Gillette for helping us look better while we figure out which way we're evolving.
PS Yes, I'm a feminist, and a female, just for the record my legs are EVEN HAIRIER than that when I don't shave them. Add in a terrific tendency for serious razor burn and you can only imagine my pain! God bless the triple-blade razor, it literally changed my life.
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Sunday 31 January
By Dezzy
I feel like feminism isn't about doing this or that, it's about having the ability to do either or without being treated like you're breaking some horrible taboo. It's her body, her preference and if yet if you look at some of the comments here people act like she's actually offended them. If you ask women why they shave their legs, they'll probably pretend like it's something they do for themselves and yet someone in the comments just stated how they don't shave their legs as often during the winter, they just cover them up. So your ok with stubble as long as no one else sees? Now, with that being sad, I shave my legs, and shaved legs feel nice, but lets not pretend that if not for the odd stares we would obsess over stubble like we do.
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Monday 01 February
By celine
I am with Monique 100%. I hairy (fill in) looks gross, it should look gross on both men and women, t tought men also go under the sheets, don't they? In some part of the world people do not shave. And people wonder why all these cancer?! Lifestyle baby, lifestyle.
All in US is about someone in the back pulling the string to make more money and stupid consumer just buy buy and buy. Then complaint that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
Monday 01 February
By Yvonne Adams
I too don't shave my legs. I however don't have the hair that Monique has so you would hardly notice without a closeup picture. My question is even to my self that do keep my eyebrows and occasionally under arms cropped, who will keep this up for us when we're too old to do it ourselves. I guess we'll be a bunch of old hairy women. I suppose that's when hair loss will be welcomed. To each his own, if your husband has no problem with it why should anyone else?
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Monday 01 February
By bobby
omg...wat is dat but hey some times u dont have time but yu have to make time for things like that dats a big no no no mam..and i mean a BIG no no not MO, NOT MY GIRL MAYB SHE REALLY DIDT HAVE time but make some time next tiMe mam.lol
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Tuesday 02 February
By DarrenInDC
Listen up, you self-absorbed lezzies: We dudes -- Muslim terrorists excluded -- shave our faces because non-lezzie women like 'em that way. We're not necessarily wild about shaving daily, but we do it without whining to get along. So if lezzies prefer hairy legs on their "partners," fine. Just please keep it to yourselves, because no one else gives a hoot. And just how BIG are Mo'nique's hideous dogs, anyway?
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Monday 01 February
By Todd
I think some of the reason for shaving is the desire to look more like a blond. True blonds and redheads often have very small/thin and basically clear fir that it's hardly noticeable. Men prefer no hair or clear peach fuzz over thick dark fir any day of the week. It goes the same with the pubic hair, men prefer a small amount of thin soft hair down there vs a big thick wiry bush. No man wants to put his face in barbed wire. Thick dark leg hair is gross looking and even worse to touch. I would certainly not date or touch a woman like that, not even for money. You women want to be natural and earthie, then stop brushing your teeth and let them stink and fall out vs fillings. Don't wash your hair and don't clean down there either and let your cooch reek like the dumpster scrapins of a tuna cannery.
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Tuesday 02 February
By Mafalda Negret
One thing is to be a feminist and other very different is to be dirty and behave with total lack of class and good taste.
Female hairy legs are dirty legs.
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Thursday 04 February
By leeny
I completely agree with you. And that goes double for armpits.
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Saturday 06 February
By Putte
"Female hairy legs are dirty legs."
And yet hairy legs on men are somehow magically clean?
Darren & Todd -- The article is about women choosing to shave/not shave their legs. Not about what you or any other men think is attractive. You can talk about that on your blog. (And Darren, could you keep your homophobia to yourself instead of proudly displaying it in public?)
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