Can girls be beautiful if

mem50

I remove the hair because of the smell after a full days work. I weld and sweat and it do get reeky....ugh. So the pits and Brazilian job for me it is. (Yeah, I wax) My legs are weird because hair does not grow there anymore, why I have no clue.

dmpizza

Proper grooming makes the most of what you were born with.
Its that simple.

itsuki

There is zero reason for women to shave if they don't want to.

The only reason women shaving their armpits is a thing is that Gilette paid some fashion magazine (or maybe it was a company that made dress patterns?) to have their models shave so they could sell more razors to women.

Do what makes you comfortable. If someone doesn't think you're attractive because you don't shave, that person isn't worth your time.

erxkeel

shave everything. thats how I roll.

Athijade

If you want to do burlesque, then you are most likely going to have to go with the "norm" of what is acceptable. That's one of the downsides of doing things like that. That means most likely having to shave your legs and arm pits. When you decide to do something like that and be in a show, then it is no longer about what YOU like, but about what the audience likes and expects.

Now, personally, I am a shaver. I can not stand the feel of hair on my legs and arm pits! It annoys the heck out of me! I don't do it for others (single atm), but I simply prefer to be shaved. I am also normally a jeans and tshirt no makeup wearing type of person... though I have found a good makeup recently that doesn't bother my skin and doesn't take forever to put on!

mamalade1

Of *course* women can be beautiful with hair! And they don't necessarily stink either. And it doesn't make you dirtier, somehow. This site depresses me sometimes.

Anyway, go do your burlesque act! Have fun, be strong, and who cares about the hair!

Nos150

we have a rule in our house. if husband shaves his beard then i will shave my legs. :bigsmile:


also sometimes my leg hair bothers me. it gets pulled in the pants or socks that i wear then i know that i am past due for a touch up...

AnneGenevieveS

just depends on the guy I guess! haha. Its personal preferrence.

i_love_vinegar

My theory: men (speaking generally) want women to look like little girls because it make us easier to control. Not that they consciously think this, it just seems to be human nature. That explains why ideals of beauty in women involve shaving, makeup, and all sorts of other things, which I believe have been defined and dictated by men. Personally I view not shaving, wearing makeup and shoes I can barely walk in as a moral issue, although I admit I do shave in the summer because I don't want to draw attention to myself.

I have to agree. Anybody interested in this kind of stuff might also be interested in the booming "lolita complex" in Japan. It is common for adult woman to walk "pigeon toed" and act "childlike" because of the mass appeal to men. The most popular music group consists of teenage girls who act extremely immature and "ultra" happy.

Even the application of makeup is often used to mimic features associated with young girls (neotony) -- ex bigger eyes (babies), fuller/poutier lips (most womens lips are at their fullest/poutiest at age 14). Heels elongate the legs -- preteen girls tend to have longer leg-to-torso proportions. I find this kind of stuff extremely interesting. :laugh:

birdymama

Okay, first off I believe you were asking this question specifically as it relates to live performances. Yes, ultimately it is your decision and to each their own. However, (and I'm speaking as a former performance belly dancer here) if you go ahead with it, prepare yourself for some ridicule. Quite probably loud and obnoxius ridicule. Right or wrong, it's going to happen - it's what you do with it that ultimately matters. Now secondly, in response to everyone's question as to when this trend began (belly dancer by night, actual professional historian by career) here's your answer in the form of a longish but correct and detailed article by Cecil Adams:

"I knew if I procrastinated long enough on this often-asked question somebody would eventually do the legwork for me. Sure enough, Pete Cook of Chicago has sent me a 1982 article from the Journal of American Culture by Christine Hope bearing the grand title "Caucasian Female Body Hair and American Culture."

The gist of the article is that U.S. women were browbeaten into shaving underarm hair by a sustained marketing assault that began in 1915. (Leg hair came later.)

The aim of what Hope calls the Great Underarm Campaign was to inform American womanhood of a problem that till then it didn't know it had, namely unsightly underarm hair.

To be sure, women had been concerned about the appearance of their hair since time immemorial, but (sensibly) only the stuff you could see. Prior to World War I this meant scalp and, for an unlucky few, facial hair.

Around 1915, however, sleeveless dresses became popular, opening up a whole new field of female vulnerability for marketers to exploit.

According to Hope, the underarm campaign began in May, 1915, in Harper's Bazaar, a magazine aimed at the upper crust. The first ad "featured a waist-up photograph of a young woman who appears to be dressed in a slip with a toga-like outfit covering one shoulder. Her arms are arched over her head revealing perfectly clear armpits. The first part of the ad read `Summer Dress and Modern Dancing combine to make necessary the removal of objectionable hair.'"

Within three months, Cook tells us, the once-shocking term "underarm" was being used. A few ads mentioned hygiene as a motive for getting rid of hair but most appealed strictly to the ancient yearning to be hip. "The Woman of Fashion says the underarm must be as smooth as the face," read a typical pitch.

The budding obsession with underarm hair drifted down to the proles fairly slowly, roughly matching the widening popularity of sheer and sleeveless dresses. Antiarm hair ads began appearing in middlebrow McCall's in 1917. Women's razors and depilatories didn't show up in the Sears Roebuck catalog until 1922, the same year the company began offering dresses with sheer sleeves.

By then the underarm battle was largely won. Advertisers no longer felt compelled to explain the need for their products but could concentrate simply on distinguishing themselves from their competitors.

The anti-leg hair campaign was more fitful. The volume of leg ads never reached the proportions of the underarm campaign. Women were apparently more ambivalent about calling attention to the lower half of their anatomy, perhaps out of fear that doing so would give the male of the species ideas in a way that naked underarms did not.

Besides, there wasn't much practical need for shaved legs. After rising in the 1920s hemlines dropped in the 30s and many women were content to leave their leg hair alone.

Still, some advertisers as well as an increasing number of fashion and beauty writers harped on the idea that female leg hair was a curse.

Though Hope doesn't say so, what may have put the issue over the top was the famous WWII pinup of Betty Grable displaying her awesome gams. Showing off one's legs became a patriotic act. That plus shorter skirts and sheer stockings, which looked dorky with leg hair beneath, made the anti-hair pitch an easy sell.

Some argue that there's more to this than short skirts and sleeveless dresses. Cecil's colleague Marg Meikle (Dear Answer Lady, 1992) notes that Greek statues of women in antiquity had no pubic hair, suggesting that hairlessness was some sort of ideal of feminine beauty embedded in Western culture.

If so, a lot of Western culture never got the message. Greek women today (and Mediterranean women generally) do not shave their hair. The practice has been confined largely to English-speaking women of North America and Great Britain, although one hears that it's slowly spreading elsewhere.

So what's the deal with Anglo-Saxons? Some lingering vestige of Victorian prudery? Good question, but what with world unrest, the economic crisis, and the little researchers having missed their naps, not high on Cecil's priority list. Here's hoping some all-but-thesis Ph.D. candidate will pick up the trail."

AllanMisner

There was a girl that I knew when I was in college that worked at the gym. Super fit, super cute and refused to shave. She had blond hair, so it wasn't noticeable unless you were really close to her. So, unless you look like Sasquatch, I don't think there is a problem at all.

hwjssc

Not for me......but to each's own...:)

Ocarina

I am totally happy to have blonde THIN body hair. It rocks! I still shave though... body hair just ain't gonna happen. And I do not look like a child!

JanetLM73

I shave my pits, but I must admit in the winter my legs are ignored, maybe every 3/4 weeks. My hubby never complains, but in the summer I pay more attention.

dovesgate

Girls can be beautiful if they don't shave. I once knew a girl who had such sensitive skin she literally couldn't shave without her skin basically falling apart on her. She couldn't wax nor use a depilatory either. She was beautiful but very self conscious about her lack of shaving even though she had medical reasons.

The Burlesque audience probably wont want to see body hair because most people don't look at an unshaved leg or pit and think they'd like to get down and dirty with the owner.

HeidiMightyRawr

I think yes they can. It's all up to the individual person what they find attractive on a woman or not.

If I'm being honest, I don't think that most of the population would find a woman with obvious leg / armpit hair attractive, specifically in a show such as burlesque (in the street, or around the house maybe they wouldn't care) but not for a show. That is just my opinion though, you may find others will differ.

eatherhey

Amanda Palmer: beautiful and sexy with unshaven legs and underarms.

lorenzoinlr

I honestly wish I found every woman attractive no matter how they look or kept themselves. Why would I not? But for better or worse my perception of attractiveness was shaped largely by outside influencess, probably starting with my immediate family, then influences in movies and on TV, albeit usually ridiculous. As I've matured I have developed personal preference but honestly it hasn't moved the meter all that much.

So in terms of performance I think it would be awesome. In terms of identity it would also be very cool. But relative to attractiveness, that Julia Roberts photo was a turn-off, Sophia Loren, well, it was a bucket of cold water poured on the sun. In her case it didn't matter but not too many of us are white hot like that.

sarahgilmore

re: men liking women looking like little girls - The majority of men I know all prefer LESS, or even no, makeup on a woman.
I only know one guy who says he prefers his partner all made up, and she's the type with a face 3 shades lighter than the rest of her skin because she constantly tans but always wears her SPF on her face and uses a really light foundation.
The rest, are generally of the 'you're beautiful the way you are why put all that muck on your face?' opinion.

I don't bother doing my legs, they're fine and blonde. Except maybe 1-2 times a year.
Armpits I do 1-2 times a week. less in winter, more in summer when I'm wearing sleeveless. The rollerball on my deodorant catches the hair and that HURTS if it's too long.

If you're a really good dancer, people might not notice the hair so much anyway - they'll be too busy watching the fun bits, not analysing your pits! legs - you'd wear stocking anyway wouldn't you?

MaraDiaz

I shave when I'm dating someone, otherwise, who cares? I do it because I'm no fan of man hair, so I can deal with a guy who doesn't like furry legs and pits. But I'd be even happier if more men felt obligated to shave, too. Oddly enough, caterpillar eyebrows never bothered me on a guy, though, and I almost never bother with mine even if I am seeing someone. Which always horrified my sister.

xHelloQuincyx

underarm hair would be to goss for me to put up with (seriously no offences i just dont like how it feels)
leg hair i can understand. im allergic to a bunchhhh of things including chlorine and dyes and stuff thats in water in the city sometimes
so when i have to shave it takes for ever and hurts like a ***** :c only on the top parts of my leg and only for 2 days after. but i usually dont shave and my boyfriend dosnt mind he would rather have me happy then a smooth leg. thank god im blonde and my hair dosnt grow like a guys

echoica

I find it very unattractive. Even on men, I like very little body hair. Men should keep things nicely trimmed, and women should be clean-shaven, for my preferences.

I realize it isn't all about me, though. So if you find it preferable to have hair, go for it. It's just not what I find attractive.

i agree with this :flowerforyou:

hedgiie

yes for me

hedgiie

yes for me

I think there is a difference between ladies attraction to that and men's attraction to that. Based from this discussion feedback, it seems that most ladies don't like it but most men are alright with this.

kyle4jem

Of course they can... and anyone who says otherwise needs to take a large dose of reality check.

Sure, we all have our own personal preferences... I like hairy, hairy men... the hairier the better... others like the smooth and utterly hairless look, but one is not more beautiful than the other... it's just a preference.

Way too much emphasis is placed on so-called "norms" of physical beauty.

True beauty comes from within... and anyone who's seen Shallow Hall will know what I mean :happy:

susannamarie

*shrugs*

I don't shave.

I don't stink, either.

Tindomerel

Let's not forget Charlotte Free


Have to say, not for me though but each to their own!

hollyeverhart

I shave off everything.. I don't even have 'real' eyebrows lol (I draw them on) but I totally think you could preform & have body hair! why not? Dancing/etc is an art form, having/not having body hair isn't going to change your performance. Honestly I think you would look like a total badass doing burlesque with underarm hair.

edit- I actually hate shaving now though, I'm an exotic dancer so I get stuck shaving everything days in a row, it sucks! lady areas + razor burn + lap-dances = PAIN lol (not nude lap-dance btw, gstring rub is super uncomfortable, not sure how girls stand it at clubs that do nude dances..kinda gross)

CADreaming09

(That's very true, there are awesome guys out there who see past a little hair :-) ) The question specifically relates to performing in public though.

Just remembered I have a funny story to share. I'd actually forgotten that girls aren't supposed to have hair, out of high school, hanging out with hippies, doing my thing, then one day...

I'm a sound tech by trade and one night I'd finished up working a gig in a pub and was propped up on the bar by my elbows waiting to get paid. It was a hot day so I was in a singlet and and bit sweaty after a night of working. Suddenly I feel something under my arm, I spin around, there's a group of guys sat in a circle, one of them is gesturing towards my underarms going "what's that" (Like he'd never seen underarm hair). A conversation ensues "underarm hair" "are you a guy?" "no, women can grow that you know". That was about the extent of it actually. In hindsight, the little bugger must have actually reached out and pulled my underarm hair. What a cheek! Anyway, that was when I remembered it's taboo.

I definitely feel that it's your decision and you should do what you want, but if you're performing on stage anywhere in the US, I'm sure they will want you to shave. Not saying it's fair, but most people think underarm hair is gross. Legs might be easier to conceal or ignore, but I don't think the underarm hair will be...

TriforceRaven

I find it very unattractive. Even on men, I like very little body hair. Men should keep things nicely trimmed, and women should be clean-shaven, for my preferences.

I realize it isn't all about me, though. So if you find it preferable to have hair, go for it. It's just not what I find attractive.

Although I understand where the other posters are coming from, I agree the most with this. It's just a personal preference. I find boys that are clean shaven with not very much body hair (though clean, neat facial hair is attractive). Like shaved arms and legs. Not necessarily to the point of a woman's, but not like gorilla hairy :laugh:
As for me, I just enjoy having smooth, soft legs. Plus it makes me swim faster at swim meets xD