In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

13 1 The Specter of Excess Race, Class, and Gender in Women’s Body Hair Narratives Breanne Fahs and Denise A. Delgado Hairy. Manly. Dirty. Animal-like. Women face these accusations when they choose not to shave, because traditional gender roles have made the body a source of political contention. One recent study states, “Far from being the inevitable outcome of a biological imperative, femininity is produced through a range of practices, including normative body-altering work such as routine hair removal. The very normativity of such practices obscures their constructive role” (Toerien and Wilkinson 2003, 334). Thus, body hair removal is one way women obey social norms dictated by patriarchal expectations. Though over 99 percent of women in the United States reported removing body hair at some point in their lives, few studies have addressed this phenomenon in detail, particularly in light of social identity categories such as race, class, and gender. The few studies conducted on body hair have found that women overwhelmingly construct body hair removal as a normative and taken-for-granted practice that produces an “acceptable” femininity (Toerien, Wilkinson, and Choi 2005). Shaving and plucking—labor women invest in their bodies—constitute practices adopted by most women in the United States, with women typically removing hair from underarms, legs, pubic area, eyebrows, and face. Departure from these norms often elicits negative affect and appraisal for those who rebel; women who do not shave or remove hair report feeling judged and negatively evaluated as “dirty,” “gross,” and “repulsive” (Toerien and Wilkinson 2004). Further, women rate other women who do not shave as less attractive, intelligent, sociable, happy, and positive compared with hairless women (Basow and Braman 1998). Research on Body Hair Norms Historically men’s hair has been linked to virility and power, while women’s body hair has been associated with “female wantonness” and the denial of women’s sexuality (Toerien and Wilkinson 2003). Some accounts, however, eroticize hairy women 14 Embodied Resistance as desirable, powerful, and highly sexed; for example, some tribal cultures in central Africa embrace women’s body hair as a source of power. Typically, female body hair has been linked to insanity, witchcraft, and the devil, while male body hair (particularly facial hair) has been linked to power, strength, fertility, leadership, lustfulness, and masculinity. Feminist scholars have noted that women pluck and shave in order to appear more sexless and infantile and that, in cultures that feel threatened by female power, hairlessness norms have become more pervasive. Lack of pubic hair, for example, may represent the eroticization of girlhood rather than womanhood, a fact that concerns those interested in full gender equality (Toerien and Wilkinson 2003). Some prominent feminists, such as the folk singer Ani DiFranco, have resisted shaving norms publicly and defiantly. Body hair removal is normative in a variety of cultures, including England, Australia , Egypt, Greece, Italy, Uganda, and Turkey (Cooper 1971; Tiggemann and Kenyon 1998). Within these cultures, over 80 percent of women consistently comply with hair removal, typically beginning at puberty. Before the 1920s, however, few Western women ever removed body hair. Historians suggest that U.S. advertising campaigns in the 1930s ushered in body hair removal, with advice by “beauty experts” and changes in typical fashion (e.g., outfits revealing more skin, celebration of prepubescent female bodies), helping to establish hair removal as a new social convention (Hope 1982). Body hair removal, though relatively recent as a historical development, has spanned the globe: recent studies of Australian women found that nearly 97 percent of women shave their underarms and legs (Tiggemann and Lewis 2004). Research on American women has shown that 92 percent removed their leg hair and 93 percent removed underarm hair, indicating that women comply with body hair norms at rates much higher than those for other dominant body practices (e.g., thinness, long hair, makeup, manicured nails) (Tiggemann and Kenyon 1998). Not all women are equally eager to remove body hair. For many decades, women in Europe shaved less often than U.S. women, yet this divide is narrowing. There is some evidence that feminist identity, lesbian identity, and older age may predict decreased likelihood of hair removal (Basow 1991; Toerien, Wilkinson, and Choi 2005). The 1960s and 1970s saw women growing underarm hair as a political statement attached to bohemian identity and leftist politics, suggesting that hair may also signify political, regional, and national attachment. Still, researchers have found “strong evidence of a widespread symbolic association between body hair—or its absence...

Share