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The current zeitgeist of discussion about women and body hair shows no sign of abating, and rightly so. From Emer O'Toole's brave and unashamedly hairy appearance on This Morning, Those Pesky Dames' appearance on Cherry Healey's 'How To Get a Life: Can Your Looks Change Your Life?' to the alarm at Pixie Lott's barely hairy 'fashion faux pas', and the storm that blew through the feminist blog and twittersphere at the alarming advert for waxing deals for the under 15s. Armpits4August, beginning on Wednesday 1 August, hopes to make a contribution to this timely discussion, and help keep this complicated issue floating in the social consciousness.
Another aspect of Armpits4August is that it is also trying to raise awareness of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and money for Verity, the only national PCOS charity. PCOS is a condition that affects around 5-10% of women living in the UK, and although often going undiagnosed, it is a leading cause of infertility, weight gain and hirsutism - excess body hair in places associated with male pattern growth, such as the chest, neck and face. In a society where nearly all of our images of women are completely hairless, except for on the head, the pressure to conform and embarrassment felt by many, probably most, women about their body hair is especially strong for women with hirsutism.
We are asking women to grow their armpit hair - or any other body hair - for the month of August and collect sponsorship from friends and family. Over time we are aiming to have pride in our body hair rather than shame, and to challenge the idea that post-pubescent women with body hair - no matter how much - are disgusting, unhygienic or 'unnatural'.
On Monday 30th July we pit-mobbed the South Bank in London to launch the campaign and, whilst the majority of reactions were positive and enthusiastic about Armpits4August, the negative reactions were at least as revealing: uncontrollable grimacing, shocked double-takes, and even one person who retched.
Armpits4August believe that we should be deeply concerned that we live in society where hair on adult women is seen as shocking and disgusting, to say nothing of the pressure this places on women to uphold this idealised image of beauty, and the time and money it takes to maintain this illusion.
It is emphatically not about saying that only what is 'natural' is acceptable or beautiful, but that women should be free to make these choices, consciously and actively, and without the fear of provoking disgust, hatred or being shamed. We think that the display of underarm hair growth in August 2012 - and in future years - will be one of many ways to try and change this.
Above all, Armpits4August aims to provide a stimulus and safe space for women to discuss and experiment with growing their body hair, something many women may never have done. We believe that the perceived necessity for women to be hairless is not only sexist, gender-policing twaddle, but also racist, lesbophobic and transphobic.
Whilst we encourage as many women as possible to participate, we are also especially keen to hear the voices of women who feel unable to grow their body hair and, in so-doing, demonstrate the necessity of intersectional feminism: the personal risk involved in growing your body hair as a political act as, for example, a woman of colour or a trans woman is not the same as growing your body hair as a white, middle-class woman. We encourage women to blog about their experiences and opinions, or submit vlogs and photos to our website and youtube channel.
For those that feel able, let the growing begin! Let's start the journey towards a situation where women can make active choices about whether to grow or remove their body hair, based on personal preference and not restrictive, woman-hating social expectations.
Follow Sarah Hickmott on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Armpits4August
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This campaign offers a ray of hope to a human race very much the gullible victim of brainwashing of every kind, in an effort to make everyone feel wrong about themselves.
What hope for a more tolerant society do we have if too many of us take on board what other money making people tell us is wrong about our appearance, let alone the rest of our nature.
I am all for the campaign, but don't just stop here, apply it to every other aspect of peoples differences and charateristics before all of our heads turn square.
So you'd like to do whatever you please, but you'd like to somehow control or alter the responses others might have to your doings. Got it.
Sure, first impressions matter. But money, muscles, hairlessness and model looks do not last long if someone is so terrified they won't please others that they bend over backwards to run after an ideal which is almost impossible to obtain for most of us.
The idea that something natural like body hair is unnatural on women is absurd. This does not mean that everyone should stop shaving to be better people or more natural. But you cannot compare it to hair dyeing, hair straightening or body modifications, because these are excactly not things which the body has on its own. When women and men want to get rid of their bodyhair they should, but it would be better if they could do it not because they are ashamed of it, but because they made and informed decision. That men are judged on their appearance as well does not make everything okay. I personally try to not judge on appearance. It is hard, I admit. But I TRY! And maybe at some point I can really let a person be the way they choose to be or the way they are due to certain circumstances (like having PCOS) and still find points where I think they are attractive.
2. Should black people stop straightening their hair?
3. Should white women in Kent and Essex stop dying their hair blonde?
4. Are tattoos more or less artificial than removing body hair?
5. Is nail decoration more or less artificial than removing body hair?
6. Are piercings more or less artificial than removing body hair?
7. Are cosmetics more or less artificial than removing body hair?
As an aside though, I can't stand to let my armpit hair grow. When I do I seem to get a bit whiffy whereas I don't when I shave. Although I have a weird thing about hair altogether and even male chest hair turns me off. (I think it reminds me of my dad!)
May I make a small suggestion to build on your splendid idea? At the end of the month, you could trim the said underarm hair, and stick it on as patriotic Bradley Wiggins sideburns. Ear-wiggos.
And I'll certainly bung a bob or two in the charity tin when I see it.
Each woman makes her own choice about whether or not to remove body hair and it's not exactly 'sexist' when women make remarks about each other.
other reasons might also be found here: http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070915162640AA9A2Iy
On the one hand I'm all in favour because I really fancy women who go for the natural look. Anything that promotes that is fine in my book.
On the other hand, that armpit hair is seen as officially unattractive is not "women-hating". That implies it's men imposing an expectation on women due to their hatred of them, but this doesn't capture the issue.
Society has always had its official expectations of beauty (usually feminine beauty). From bound feet to powdered wigs, from nose rings and tattoos to bustles and big hair.
This is mainly applied to women, but not entirely. And it's not just men enforcing these expectations: if I cock a cheeky eyebrow upon catching a glimpse of a hairy pit, it's the women who are quickest to label it as officially "disgusting". They are not "women-haters".
I agree that the only way to change it is to stop conforming and it will soon become part of "normal".
Take up Olympic rowing.
Growing your armpit hair? Oooo- you rebel you! Not so much of a big deal.
Can I ask you to actually -listen- to women (on this thread and elsewhere) saying how hard it is because of the pressure they feel to conform, rather than presume to know what other women feel about growing their body hair.