a hairy subject

while perusing one of her guilty pleasure sites, your devoted proprietress came across this critique of comedienne/actress mo'nique's unshaven legs.

i won't even assault you with some of the commentary around this vintage madonna nude.

now, while we are always ready to promote good health and hygiene here at the shack, the hysterics around these womens' choices speaks to a much larger issue about what's acceptable, why, and how it came to be that way.

maybe it comes from growing up in the semi-south, but a black woman with hairy legs is not anathema. on the contrary, some men were quite vocal about the fact that they enjoyed "natural" women, and it was not unusual to see an attractive woman in a short skirt or shorts with unshaven legs and/or armpits. still isn't.

so...why so squeamish?

because we {read: black/colored women} ought to present a particular way once we've "made it"? because men--the men we're told we should desire, anyway--don't approve of it? because we live in a post-modern, affluent, overly-sanitized western nation?

sorry to break the news, but, ultimately, we're animals. primates. mammals, even. primates have hair. mammals have hair. hair is simply one sign of a functioning body. whether or not you choose to remove that hair is your choice, no one else's.*

secondly, how do we presume to know that "most women" shave? probably through television, movies, and pornography.

while we are not categorically anti-porn, just about any relatively conscious human being who's had sex in real life and real time would have to admit that images of the female body and sexuality itself are often distorted in all media, not just porn.

looking back, many of the sex kittens, bombshells, and pinups of the early to mid 20th century probably would have been lipo'ed, rhinoplasty-ed and breast enhanced beyond recognition today.

maybe leg hair and rounded tummies disgust us because we haven't seen a real woman in 20-30 years or more.

too bad we'd rather nix the body hair and keep the women fake.



*for another good hair rant, visit goddess glory. also, it's really interesting to see women from vintage porn/erotica. baby sinead has some good examples. additionally, dove's campaign for real beauty is brilliant--although greenpeace takes issue with their parent company.