To Shave or Not to Shave

Society imposes to many unrealistic body images on women (and men) that it becomes increasingly difficult for anyone to look in the mirror and be happy with what they see. One of the oddest cultural "norms" is for women to shave off underarm and leg hair, while men get the "privilege" to let their freak flags fly. And with the pornification of society, off comes the pubic hair, too. Metrosexual males are also part of the smoothie culture.

So what happens if a woman decides that she is tired of the razors and cream? One woman in the UK decided to let her pits go au naturel.

I moved to Paris a month or so later and decided to stop shaving my armpits. This was harder - I thought they were gross, I couldn’t look in the mirror. But I chucked my razor away and persevered, wearing sleeveless tops on nights out and forcing myself to dance with my arms in the air. I got some funny looks, which amused me more than anything else, and eventually I grew to love my hairy armpits. I grew to love myself, to accept my grown woman’s body and, more than anything, to love the freedom I discovered when I no longer had to waste time and money preparing my supposedly unacceptable body for the outside world.

I’m never going back.

In the 1970s I dated a woman who did not shave, and while I remember this about her, this never stood in the way of how I felt about her as a person. In my mind, her decision to be natural only made me respect her more as an individual. But that was then and this is now, and societal images of women have grown more extreme and demanding. More women (and men) need to reject these stereotypes and get back to more or a reality-based vision of our bodies, our selves.

Tags: nudism, naturism, nudist, nudists, naturist, naturists, nudity, nudes, bare, au naturel, nude, naked