The war on women's body hair

Hair removal, at its core, is a form of gendered social control. It’s not a coincidence that the pressure for women to modify their body hair has risen in tandem with their liberties, Herzig argues. She writes that the effect of this hairlessness norm is to “produce feelings of inadequacy and vulnerability, the sense that women’s bodies are problematic the way they naturally are.”

And yet, if you ask many women why they voluntarily shave or wax, they might say that it’s a method of self-enhancement. That they want to, it’s a personal choice, and they just feel better when everything is smooth. Hair removal as self-care might be one of the biggest lies women have bought into. It keeps us in an impossible loop, one in which we are constantly in pursuit of velvety limbs and the moral virtue of cleanliness.

A few years ago, I got my sideburns lasered, along with the rest of my face, my armpits, my back, my stomach, the back of my neck, and the soft expanse underneath my chin. I zapped the hair right at the follicle, before it even had the chance to break through my skin. It hurt, but the good kind, the kind of pain women are taught is worth it.