I am currently re-reading Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch. I first read it soon after it was published and was very impressed. I've read about 70 pages so far and many of the things she rails against are even worse now. The cult of the body beautiful for example and the emphasis on not having any body hair. Now this has extended to men which wasn't the case back in the 1970s. The book stands up well to re-reading and her writing style is always interesting.
For myself I am against hair removal and I always feel that it makes adults look like children. Adults have body hair and children don't. I know it's now pushed as being a hygiene issue but I've always believed that you just need to wash regularly and that natural smells are just that - natural smells. However I do think we need underarm deodorants - but that's as far as I go I'm afraid. As someone I once worked with commented on a colleague - 'She's got deodorants for places that I didn't even know I had.'
2 comments:
As so often I have to agree with you about body hair. I have never understood the fetish for removing hair, with the exception of men shaving their faces (it's uncomfortable if you don't, though I guess that's what you're used to). Certainly men are removing body hair now, at least if the Chippendales are to be believed -- and it seems that most women prefer non-hairy men. I have never understood this.
Similarly from what I see/hear women are now frequently removing pubic hair as well as under-arm and leg hair. Why? IMO pubic hair is much more erotic. By all means tidy it up round the edges if you must (same for under-arm hair) but avoid silly little Hitler moustaches and landing strips of pubic hair or the plucked chicken look.
The same applies to men, with a couple of exceptions: facial hair and head hair. I've never seen the point of beards, although I have a moustache for a few years -- GOK why! And I certainly don't understand the fashion for silly little pubic beards. An unshaven face is very uncomfortable IME. Conversely I don't like men with shaven heads; "coiffeure villain" as Noreen always refers to it.
But then I'm not vain and I don't do fashion.
'But then I'm not vain and I don't do fashion' No neither do I! I don't mind men shaving their heads as an alternative to combing long strands over a nearly bald pate. As for hairy chests - I actually prefer them - in men that is. I don't particularly like beards - in many cases it just looks as though the man had forgotten to shave.
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