'The Hairy Legs Club' Encourages Women to Stop Caring About Body Hair
A new blog called The Hairy Legs Club is empowering women who choose not to shave their body hair by asking them to submit photos of their unshaven legs and share stories about when they stopped shaving and why.
"I started shaving my legs a good couple of years later than my friends, but what triggered it was a boy in my class at school commenting on my hairy legs," one woman wrote. "I now only shave when I want to (much less regularly than the majority of my female friends) and have a few friends that don’t shave and don’t even consider that something worth of comment (quite rightly!)"
Though showing pictures of unshaven female body parts may not seem that revolutionary, it says a lot about social and gender norms. Many people still expect women to shave their bodies and consider it "gross" if they don't, although men also have body hair and aren't expected to shave theirs. (What do you know, a double standard!)
Celebrities aren't free from this criticism, either. Julia Roberts was eviscerated in the press for arriving with less-than-smooth armpits to the premiere of her movie "Notting Hill" in 1999, and little seems to have changed. This March, Madonna posted a picture of her unshaven armpit on her Instagram account with the caption "Long hair ... don't care!" Although the picture got over 53,000 likes, many of the comments were critical.
Recently, a professor at Arizona State University decided to approach societal norms about body hair by offering an unusual extra credit project to her students. Professor Breanne Fahs, who teaches women's and gender studies and directs the university's Center for Feminist Research on Gender and Sexuality, offered extra credit to any female student who went the entire semester without shaving her armpits. Men, however, were able to get the extra credit if they shaved off all hair below their neck.
"There’s no better way to learn about societal norms than to violate them and see how people react," Fahs told campus newspaper ASU News. "There’s really no reason why the choice to shave, or not, should be a big deal. But it is, as the students tend to find out quickly."
Over the course of the term, students reported on the reactions they got from friends, family, partners, and even strangers. Both the male and female students reported that the harshest criticism came from men. However, Fahs noticed that the shared experience helped bring students together. "When practically all of the students are participating, they develop a sense of community and enjoy engaging in an act of rebellion together," she said. That in turn created a "new norm" where women not shaving was the standard.
And for the creator or creators behind The Hairy Legs Club, that sense of community creating a new norm is exactly the goal, one photo at a time.
More on Yahoo:
Women Are Growing Out Their Armpit Hair for Charity
Forget No-Shave November! These Women Wear Body Hair All Year Long
