I feel that in society, girls are pressured to shave off most, if not all of their body hair. Are we shaving for ourselves, or are we doing it for other people? I myself do not understand the controversy around something as simple as hair. I used to ask myself why not having hair is considered attractive, and having hair (which is human, and natural) isn’t. I,moreover, am sick of shaving, and in fact, I hate it.

Women spend so much money buying things to alter their bodies, attempting to make themselves seem “more desirable” and “socially acceptable”. Most women I know find it completely unacceptable to wear shorts without having silky smooth, clean shaven legs, or wear a sleeveless top without shaving their armpits first. I have found that many men seem to be disgusted with the idea of female body hair, and often times think less of a woman if she is seen with, say, hairy legs. To men, stubble is the devil’s pitchfork. It is as natural for women to grow hair under their arms (or anywhere else) as it is for men, yet women are shamed if they choose to allow their body hair to grow the way it does.

Humans are meant to grow hair. Why are we constantly trying to get rid of something Mother Nature clearly intended us to have?

None of us women actually enjoy the process of waxing or shaving. Right? We do it because it is expected of us. If you look at a women's ankles, I am almost certain that you will find a scar or cut of some sort, just from shaving. My ankles are scarred, and for no reason at all. We may feel good after the shaving process is over, but the question is why do we agree to do it? When did the idea that women need to be completely hairless in order to be accepted come about? Well, there isn’t really a set time in history when women started to remove their body hair, although, it has been proven by historians that even cavemen removed their hair, and humans have done it ever since. In ancient egyptian times, having a hairless body was a sign that you were wealthy, or of a higher social class. Every era had a different reason to remove their body hair, but this is the twenty-first century, and I like to think that society has evolved since then. Hair is hair, and hair is natural. Hairy or hairless, body hair doesn't define who you are as a person; Nobody should ever be pressured to remove their body hair. Nobody should be judged for embracing their natural selves.