Body hair is disgusting. Fortunately, women, in the pursuit of all things proper and socially acceptable, have bravely taken up the Medieval practice of scraping all “objectionable hair” from our bodies. We shave frequently with prescribed pink razors, and if we dare skip a day, we’re courteous and wear jeans to a hot summer barbecue. We’re comfortable in our skin—after we’ve done away with the unfortunate patches of hair all women are born into.

Funny how just because we’re born with it, doesn’t make it natural. Leg hair is bad enough, but the hair under your pits? Your sweaty, smelly, disgusting pits? Forget it. (Unless you’re a guy, of course, and then that’s just sexy.) In fact, underarm hair is so revolting, Proper America has lived in mortal terror of those hairy feminists who refuse to shave. Calls to action and demands for equal rights pale in comparison to the nasty bushes they harvest under their arms. As if they’re growing a forest in which to hide their demonic feminist beasts.

And if you thought the ugly, man-hating librarian was bad, the nightmare is just beginning. Women—teens, bloggers, celebrities, even moms—are all hopping on the furry feminist bandwagon and refusing to shave their pits. Even worse, they’re celebrating their underarm hair by dyeing it.

We can blame Seattle hairdresser Roxie Hunt for the dyed-pits trend. In an effort to accentuate her co-worker’s blue hair, Hunt offered to dye the woman’s armpit hair the same color. They took pictures, posted them online, and the Internet leeched on. Hunt’s how-to blog post has been shared more than 35,000 times. There’s even a Tumblr devoted to the cause. In May, Miley Cyrus posted an Instagram photo of her pink pits. Popular opinion detonated.

Seventeen-year-old Destiny Moreno’s YouTube video, in which she shows off her blue underarm hair, has more than 296,000 views. She writes in her blog, “This concept that we should shame body hair, that it’s something that affects our beauty or value in any way, is one that we all need to unlearn.” She further explains how shaving underarm hair is actually more unhygienic than letting it grow, as shaving abrades the skin, which can increase the risk of bacterial or viral infections. Social scientists have guessed that the main function of armpit hair has nothing to do with hygiene at all; in fact, most agree that its purpose is simply to disperse the smell of pheromones.

In a time where shaving takes precedent over survival (at least on the big screen), modern-day women are embracing the stereotypical caricature of the hairy feminist—and it’s working. In her “Free Your Pits Manifesto,” Hunt writes, “Whether you shave or not, women should be allowed to make decisions about their bodies without judgement from others.” The dyed-pits trend is about the freedom of expression and the freedom of control. Control over your body on your terms. These hairy feminists don’t care what we think. They don’t care if we sneer or gag or mock their decisions. They’ve embraced their choice, and they’ve done it for themselves. Whether we encourage them or disparage them, that’s equally our choice.