Comments on: Buffing The Teen Beaver

By: Rocio

Rocio — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 04:10:32 +0000

i ran into this article when i googled ” why should women shave underarms?’ i am a 14 year old girl, and some of you might not be aware of it but there are many 14 year old girls that are sexually active and trying to be adults a bit too fast. I blame the media for being so uptight about body hair and it affects every age group.I’ve decided its pretty silly to shave underarms and i’ve never gotten a bikini wax and never in my life has it occured to me to get a brazillion wax..ouch. this is a very interesting article.

By: Steph

Steph — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Fuck, one more thing to worry about parenting a young girl. I must get my 6 year old to practice blaming the patriarchy more often.

Your post is right on the mark. Why the hell does a minor need to rip off all her hair anyway?

I did notice the article does not discuss the rise in nasty bacterial infections that has accompanied this trend. Seems all those little hair folicles can get really infected. An outbreak of a strange “flu” in a college football team was traced back to their hair removing practices–they figured less hair was more hygenic.

By: Mistress

Mistress — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bacterial infections? I’ve been getting my Brazilian done regularly for nearing a year now & the worst that’s come of it is a few nasty ingrowns. But hell, I’ve seen worse from shaving.

As for 13 year old girls, where the hell would they get the money? It’s an expensive habit. Anywhere from $35-100 depending on who does it.

And are my waxing habits still patriarchal if I’m a lesbian? Thoughts?

By: Nikki

Nikki — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I was initially outraged about yet more legislation saying what women can and can’t do with their bodies, but I see what you’re saying. This is all a result of patriarchal objectification bullshit. Women aren’t valued for their age and experience, especially if that experience happens to include their vaginas (thinking childbirth, and, well… sexual experience, too) so we’re made to believe that younger and sexier is better. We then rip the hair off of our bodies in an attempt to conform to the hegemonic ideal of womanliness… and now the ideas have trickled down so that young women aren’t even valued for their youth.

Disgusting. Makes me proud to be a spinster aunt who has her nieces over to party like rock stars without the bullshit of men.

By: Winter Woods

Winter Woods — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ugh! Ugh! Ugh! I’m sorry (no I’m not actually), but allowing 13 years olds to get waxed without their parents’ consent is pushing a very insiduous and dodgy agenda in my view. As you rightly ask , why would any 13 year old want or need such a thing? What, is she a child prostitute, or working in the porn industry, or wandering round in pubic area revealing clothes? As one one of my more upfront friends screamed at me, “That sounds paedophilic!” Ok. maybe that’s a bit extreme, but it certainly sounds like it would soften girls up for all the painful, tedious, and expensive body maintenance practices expected of women. Really, they probably just want to exploit girls – get their pocket money – but it has more even sinister implications than that. I guess my friend also meant it’s yet another effort to impose sexualised adult practices on children. I really don’t like the whole encouragement of pubic waxing, cos not only does it hark to pornorgraphy, it seems like an aspect of the bigger patriarchal drive to reduce women to little girls.

I’m not sure what I’d make of lesbians having Brazilians! I guess I’d just say, well, if you’re a grown up woman it’s your body, you can do whatever you like, but it wouldn’t sit right with me.

By: Twisty

Twisty — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Mistress, I’m all for everybody doing whatever the heck they want with their hair; wax away, if that’s what bangs your box. Some of my best friends have Brazilians!

But I firmly believe–and of course this view is controversial, because it implies that we are all more mind-controlled than we’d like to think–that it is absolutely impossible to live entirely outside the heterosexual porn paradigm. If it tells us a crew-cut cooter is hot-hot, then a crew-cut cooter is hot-hot.

Fans of the Brazilian should heave a sigh of relief that the Twisty Revolution is unlikely to succeed anytime soon, since if I have anything to say about it, hotness will be a lot hairier, be entirely painless, and require no maintenance whatsoever.

By: Samantha

Samantha — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Think about all the places on your body hair congregates and consider the role hair plays in keeping dirt and other schmutz out of the sensitives like eyes, ears, and genitals. Even your lungs have tiny hairs called cilia to help keep them clean.

I read an incredible book about the socialization of women into “Americans” via baby delivery practices, “Birth as an American Rite of Passage”, that had a lot to say about the harms, physical and mental, of shaving women’s pubic hair before delivery. I always come back to this amazing book when thinking about the recent trendiness of genital waxing.

By: Steve Pick

Steve Pick — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’m no parent, and I’ve had very little close experience with teenage girls. But, I think it is a given that teenagers in general will go ahead and find ways to do things that are forbidden to them. Did you know that it’s illegal for teens to smoke, drink, get tattoos, and have sex? How is it going to be any more likely that they’ll obey a bikini wax notification law than all these others?

I think it’s been an interesting ride to watch the evolution of the shaved groin over the last ten or so years. It’s a fad, fueled by the patriarchy of course, but no more than make-up, clothing, or hair-style fads have been. I do think, however, that it’s always wiser to attempt to inform children and teens of the existence of the patriarchy itself, thus allowing them to make their own choices as far as participating in it, rather than trying to forbid specific outcomes of the paradigm. Besides, everybody knows women can’t resist forbidden fruit. Wasn’t that in the bible?

By: Twisty

Twisty — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Well, you’re right, Steve. Of course you can’t keep a teenager from doing jack. But can we at least try to get’em to absorb a little critical thinking of the anti-establishment variety? If it were me, I would hope to raise a kid for whom the idea of waxing her pubes would seem the height of sexist stupidity, but of course, I am child-free, so I content myself with telling other people how to raise their kids.

By: Rene

Rene — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Here’s an interesting irony regarding the original presentation of Randall Roberts’ story about the underage-waxing legislation; I’m sure it will come as no surprise to Twisty or anyone else familiar with the New Times corporate ethos. The story was paired with another writer’s shortish feature about some insane perv who was stalking a newscaster. The issue’s cover featured a photo of a model’s disembodied (and, naturally, perfectly nubile) torso in a bikini — cropped from maybe the collarbone to the upper thighs. The story began on a two-page spread (insert Beavis and Butthead chuckle here) that was laid out (another B&B chuckle) in the form of two tits and a bikini bottom. Way to pander to that coveted dude demographic, New Times! Publish two stories about the patriarchy, and surround ‘em with patriarchy-affirming photos of disembodied titties; make sure the editors douche away any subtextual vestige of that dick-wilting NOW shit that sometimes afflicted the old hippie-dippy give-a-shit regime. I don’t blame our beloved old boss, Randy, but I do blame his bosses, who are misogynes and fools. — Rene