Posts Tagged ‘ Beauty ’

The Pubic Hair Discussion

Lawn

In a group, in a pub having a few beers.  As you do, pubic hair comes into the discussion.  It is a surprisingly emotive discussion.

Most people said they did some form of public hair grooming, just to keep things neat and tidy.  The emotion comes from the opposite ends of the camp, kicked off by the woman who did none.  Au naturale, wouldn’t even dream of removing any hair and was quite proud of the fact.  Which is fine, to each their own.  My partner and I don’t really care what the other does as long as it means that we are not spitting hair out when, you know.

A couple of women came in at the other end of the spectrum.  No hair at all.  Fully waxed and were in fact, costing up permanent hair removal treatments.  They both did a lot of sport, swimming in particular, and were fed up about regrowth, stubble, anything poking through, or out.  They just wanted to get changed, get in the pool, do their drills and get out again without having to think about it.

Au Naturale took great exception to the desire for baldness.  Couldn’t understand why anyone would want to look like “little girls”, it was creepy and they should look like “real” women.  A male in the group who is heavily into bodybuilding must have been feeling particularly brave because he piped up that he was bald down their too.  Au naturale flipped out, thought he was disgusting and that his parts must look like a little boys.  She stormed off shortly after.

So who cares?  Unless you are wearing sheer clothing, walking around nude or are telling everyone, only you or your partner would generally ever know.  Surely its up to the individual what is aesthetically pleasing for them.  Or maybe practical issues, like sport, take precedence.

Unintended Consequenses of Feminism – Hair

A female colleague comes into the office on a Monday after the weekend and she is beeming.  She has had her hair done over the weekend and it clearly cost in terms of time and money. 

She receives a number of compliments from her female coworkers but nothing from the male contingent.  Now, she is upset by this and loudly states that the men are useless and don’t notice anything women do.  Perhaps because she noticed that I heard her, attention is directed my way.

(Her) You, why you don’t say anything nice about my hair?

(Me) Sorry, not allowed to.

(Her) Why, you don’t have opinion?

(Me) I do, but we can’t say anything as directed in the (gender and diversity) training we had as that could be interpreted as unwelcome comments.

(Her) Unbelievable, I put a lot of effort into this.

Whist her reaction could be predicted, she had gone to a lot of effort, the results were good and it was important to her that she had validation.  The most interesting reaction though was of her female colleagues.  Most of them were wide eyed and quite surprised.

Should they have been?  You could argue not.  We all did the same training but it became clear, especially after a few conversations outside the office, that they had not seen where it could lead.

So, to conclude, ten years ago you could have said it looks goods, very nice etc and she would have been happy.  Now, she feels upset.  You could argue that she shouldn’t seek validation from others but a simple 30 second exchange would have given her a little morale boost for the rest of the day.

Thoughts?