When I shave my legs, is it an aesthetic personal choice, or a subtle form of gendered social control instilled in me since my mother bought me my first razor? The question may at first seem overly critical and inconsequential, but very serious debates over body hair have been waged via social media over the past few years. In particular, many women have voiced their desire to challenge societal norms dictating that hair on a woman—excluding that on her head—negates femininity and beauty.
New data from YouGov suggests that there is indeed a sizable disparity between how society views body hair on women versus men. When it comes to female grooming, the majority of US adults, 70%, agree that women being hairy is a bad thing. However, when it comes to men, opinions are much less clear-cut. More respondents were unsure how they felt about male hairiness (44%) than thought it was either distinctly good or bad (31% and 25%).
US adults are also largely in agreement that a hairy woman is not a hirable woman. US adults are more unlikely than likely to hire a woman for a public-facing role if she has hair on her armpits (36% unlikely to hire, 33% likely), legs (36% unlikely, 34% likely) or face (53% unlikely to hire, 20% likely).
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