Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Not so sexy

I haven't shaved my legs for over a year now.

They're furry. Softer hair than at first, but still, dark and furry.

When I started this experiment I thought that eventually the sight of hairy legs and heels would look normal to me. Or feminine. That my definition of feminine, or, of sexy, would change.

It has and it hasn't. I think my notion of feminine, as being what a female human looks like, has started to change. She looks somewhat like a male human, and since they are mammals, she has body hair. Body hair does not hinder reproduction or pretty much any other human activity she might undertake.

As for the notion of "sexy", that one is different. I think that in this year I've become more and more aware of how often women are judged on their sexiness alone. Or their prettiness. Or their femininity-as-defined-by-magazines-and-media. Hairy legs aren't very sexy, then.

But the point is, who cares? Why do women need to care if they look sexy when they walk out of the door in the morning? What does looking sexy have to do with working, with mothering, with being a friend, with walking, talking, driving, flying, reading, or going out to enjoy yourself? Nothing.

I don't give men a second glance, usually, as to how they are dressed, or how their body looks. Why do I, and we as a society, do that to women?