I know you're expecting this to be an article where some girl is telling you to stop shaving because it's a part of the patriarchy or something, but that's not what this is. You can shave or not shave or whatever you want. The only thing I'm going to tell you to do is to stop shaming women and girls for their body hair.
At one point in my life, I can remember a younger me telling my mom I was never going to shave my legs, I didn't care if boys didn't like it, since leg hair was something that boys would think is 'gross'. But then at some point in the next few years, I was suddenly embarrassed of my leg hair and was constantly comparing myself to other girls my age who had begun shaving, which led to my eventual start. What changed? Why did I go from not caring to feeling ashamed? I believe the greatest influence in this change is the culture around female body hair.
Girls are taught from a young age that shaving their legs and underarms is just something they have to do. Moms tell their daughters that it's time to learn to shave, young boys (and even girls) mock girls who have dark, visible body hair, and this leads to girls feeling ashamed of something completely natural. Some girls even go so far as shaving their arms when they have dark hair and waxing their faces to get rid of visible hair. But why are we expected to shave/wax every inch of our bodies? Is it healthier? Cleaner? The answer to both of these questions is no. There is no evidence saying that it's necessary for girls and women to shave their body hair. The argument that girls need to shave their underarms because it's unsanitary if they don't is completely wrong. Guys have loads of leg and underarm, and you don't see anyone telling them they're gross for it. Society expects women and girls to be hairless/look hairless, simply because society says it's more aesthetically pleasing. Even in shaving ads, women are shaving hairless legs. I'd rather see someone shaving actual hair to see how well the razor works, but that's just me. The belief that girls and women should be hairless and if they aren't, they're gross, is deeply ingrained in our society, and in turn, our minds.
In order to try to begin to eradicate this toxic belief, we must actively fight our instinctive thoughts when we see a girl or woman with body hair. Visible body hair isn't gross or unclean, it is a natural thing that we have no control over. Sure, we can shave it if we want, but there is no reason that we have to. Especially women and girls with dark, thick body hair that may feel pressured to remove it, because our society says body hair is unsightly or off-putting. It is important for women, girls, boys, and men alike to understand that there is no real reason behind the negative thoughts we have about visible female body hair, other than that it has been ingrained in us for most of our lives. Although we have these thoughts, there are no facts or data to back these negative beliefs up, and we must consciously reject these ideals in order to create more accepting beliefs when it comes to visible female body hair.
Body hair is a completely natural thing, and we must realize everyone can choose to do what they want with their bodies. We must learn that it's never okay to shame a girl or woman because she has visible body hair. Someone else's body hair has no effect whatsoever on you, and if you think and tell someone their body hair is "gross", you are the problem, not the person with visible body hair. Choosing whether to shave or not is a personal choice, and no one has any right to tell anyone else what to do with their body. So shave, don't shave, wax, or be completely natural, do whatever you want, but don't, under any circumstance, shame someone for their visible body hair. Remember, what someone else does with their body hair is none of your business. There are much bigger issues in the world than whether or not I shave my armpits.
