Upholding Beauty Standards

Throughout the years, feminists have repeated the idea that women shouldn’t have to wear makeup at work, or constantly be ‘presentable’; that if men can wear sweatpants and hoodies, women can as well, and that they don’t have to constantly be performing for the male gaze. Men have no bearing on how they choose to present themselves, and they don’t exist to give them something to look at. Throughout this argument, feminists have talked through clothing and makeup choices. However, they’re not addressing the elephant in the room: body hair. Every woman has it, of course. Covering their arms and legs, chest and face, it’s impossible to permanently get rid of without expensive procedures. As such, when most women take showers, they whip out a razor and get rid of it, marveling at their silky smooth limbs and faces. But what about the women who don’t? For many women, shaving body hair is more of a chore than anything, especially if they have coarser strands than most. And those women aren’t just met with opposition from men, but other women - a scrunch of the nose, a scoff, an arched eyebrow. They argue that body hair takes away from one’s femininity, treating it like something inherently masculine and dirty. Through this, they also imply that women of color, who are more likely to have thick body hair, are masculine or dirty, being overtly racist. Throughout the years, white feminists have made feminism largely about themselves, trampling on the back of women of color to get to their goals. The most notable example of this is Susan B. Anthony, a famous feminist, who only fought for the right of white women to vote, even appealing to white supremacists. However, this problem goes far beyond just body hair - it’s about women policing each other’s bodies, telling them what to do with them, and upholding the beauty standards that have shaped women’s appearances for so long. The term ‘slut-shaming’ ties into this as well. Women criticize other women’s appearances, deducing that their clothing choices had sexual motivations, objectifying them as tools for men’s enjoyment and the women themselves as nothing more than their relations to men. Through these examples, just some of many, it is evident how men are not the only ones who uphold the patriarchy - in fact, it’s other women who do that work. These women are mothers, sisters, aunts, friends, figures that young girls look up to for advice. And when they are told by these figures that they must shave their hair, they don’t argue or go against them; they get rid of their hair, and when a younger girl comes to them for help, they tell them the same. Through peer pressure and teachings, girls are forced to conform to the standards passed down by their mothers and older female relatives. Until women put aside their ideas of what a female body looks like, until they accept the body hair that grows on it and the clothes put on it, until they dismantle the beauty standards perpetuated by the patriarchy, their feminism does more harm than good.