Well, we’ve certainly veered from the topic of body hair. You must be thinking, "Using the column to persecute spandex-stealers?! How dare she wield her power (?) and fame (?) for non-hair affiliated pursuits!"
We're back to hair! To celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the first advertisement suggesting that women remove their armpit hair, here is a little history. Turns out the story behind female underarm hair-removal is sort of a classic one. It goes like this: an advertisement tells women they must do something because, if they don’t, they’ll be embarrassed. So, they do it.
Before 1915, there was no reason to shave one’s armpits. Everyone knows men and women weren’t allowed to look at each other naked, even during marriage.* But even if one naughty couple did sneak a peak during copulation, divorce was still a no-no. A man might just be stuck with a woman with some hair under there.
In the early 20th century, sleeveless dresses hit the runway** and Gillette was paying attention. In 1915, an ad ran in Harper’s Bazaar with a picture of a young, attractive, white woman with her arms raised, revealing hairless underarms. It read: “Summer Dress and Modern Dancing combine to make necessary the removal of objectionable hair.” Indeed.
Another ad is titled “Be yourself” (Oh the irony!) where a woman sits on the beach with her arms lifted above her head and a male admirer glances in her direction. This one claims to leave underarms with “unexpected loveliness and charm.”
That’s just what I was looking for, a little unexpected charm in my armpits to attract male suitors.
My friend recently asked me if a man had ever commented on my body hair. While I’ve had a response ready for the last two years, I realized none had challenged me on it. The push-back I have gotten has been from female friends (or host mothers), who typically responded with “gross,” “yucky” or “no comment”.
For that reason, an ad from 1923 stood out. It displays another young, pretty white woman with her arms above her head, this time in the sand. In the print it asks, “Are you going to shrink from the scrutinizing glance of your friends?” These advertisements don’t name the person that is demanding that armpits be hairless, but they are naming the people who are going to enforce this rule -- your friends.
It's part of a long tradition of women being pitted against one another; 100 years later and body hair is still considered embarrassing, and women are still supposed to judge each other for it.
Cheers to the women who don’t give “scrutinizing glances.” Here are some retorts to give the women / men who do: “What do I look like, a reptile?,” “Don’t worry, I swear yours will grow back too” and “Deforestation is really bad for the environment.”
*This is not a fact.** Unclear if this existed.
