Whether you’ve made the choice to be hair-free or not, being told to wax, shave or remove your hair in any way is an out-of-date societal value – but that doesn’t stop brands trying to sell us the idea that being body hair-free is ‘sexy’.
If you decide you don’t want to remove your body hair? Great. If you decide you do? Also great.
But an image which highlights where women’s body hair is deemed ‘acceptable’ in the eyes of society, compared to what is ‘acceptable’ for men, has gone viral after a well-known illustrator posted it on her Instagram account.
Lainey Molnar, a feminist illustrator, always posts brilliant pictures, giving her point of view on fad diets, body image and mental health. However, this post really caught the attention of her female followers with nearly 100,000 likes.
The six pictures show how society deems it ‘normal’ when men don’t shave, or when they show their chests off in public, while the opposite pictures of women with their breasts showing or the nipple and arm hair unshaven are branded as ‘disgusting, promiscuous or unhygienic’ by society.
Posting the image to her page, she wrote: “The math is not mathing” then added the hashtag ‘you do you’.
Hundreds of women showed their appreciation for the post, with one completely agreeing and saying: “The math here is called a double standard. The equation is designed to keep women stressed out trying to meet idiotic standards of beauty so men can stay focused on ruling the world and controlling women.”
The woman carried on with: “Thanks for calling attention to this terrible expression of the inequality between men and women. Do what feels good to you, in your skin, in your body, in your sense of well-being. Men – support women in being themselves by accepting their personal choices without judgement!”
Others shared their own experience, with one person admitting: “It’s taken me until my mid-60s to realise I can reply ‘I will if you will’. Luckily I have a husband who loves me as I am but occasionally men in spas feel entitled to voice an opinion they really are NOT entitled to.”
We say: do whatever makes you feel happy and comfortable, and try to understand if someone makes a different choice to you. Simple.