Where did the concept of the "hairless female" originate?

[ceryna]

Pavlovkitty's thread about her daughter shaving inspired this, but I didn't want to hijack it to ask my question.

I've been thinking about this lately. Back in the old days, did women remove their body hair? When did it become attractive for women to remove their body hair? Where did the trend start, and why?

It seems so deeply ingrained in our culture now, that when I get lazy in the winter and don't shave for three months, my mom calls it "gross".

How is hair gross? :surprised

[Alfiedog]

Interesting question. If you look at issues of Playboy in the 70s, the girls are pretty natural. And then of course even now, in Europe, natural seems to be the standard.

[*AHIMSA*]

It seems so deeply ingrained in our culture now, that when I get lazy in the winter and don't shave for three months, my mom calls it "gross".

How is hair gross? :surprised

That sucks! That would hurt my feelings if someone said that to me! Something similar happened, but not with a family member...

When I grew the hair on my legs out for 6 months to help a friend learn how to wax (don't ask...I'll NEVER do that again! OUCH!) a girl at the Spa who was a co-worker was SOOO grossed out by it, that she said to my boyfriend:" I don't know why you let her do that." She acted as if I was growing a penis or something! I am someone who shaves randomly...I am a natral red-head, strawberry blonde so don't really have much of an issue with discomfor or other issues with hair on my legs but my hair was longer and visible for the first time I guess...I was just really taken aback by her reaction. She looked at me with contempt and revulsion.

The point of my sharing this is that it is so deeply ingrained in "popular" culture that women must to adhere to these "specifications" of what a woman "should" look like and it sucks.

My reaction would have been more like: "Wow! How nice of you to grow your hair out for your friend to practice on!" (It can really hurt to get waxed by a beginner)

[Rebel Girl]

the hairless thing started during the great depression, really. gillete (i think it was them..) needed to stay afloat during the fincial crisis, so they thought "hey, wouldnt it be novel if women thought they had to shave to be beautiful?" so they put in all the ads that gorgeous women didnt have hair, so it became all the rage then, but still in most european countries, the only women who shave are the prostitutes.

[Life2k]

Gillete needs a beating. :whip:

[Alfiedog]

here's an interesting link on the subject:

http://webhome.idirect.com/~brucer/RAZ_WOM.html

[Rebel Girl]

Gillete needs a beating. :whip:

definitly. :mad: :gun:

[kristadb]

I vaguely remember from university about royal ancient Egyptians using a sugar mixture to wax themselves. I also remember reading Ovid (a roman "love expert" and poet) taking about how women should keep their bodies free of hair.

So it really isn't just a new thing.

[kat]

I once heard something about how women rolled bits of string along their legs. So the hairs get stuck between the bits of string and get pulled out! Ouch!

K

[*Star*Lass*]

I once heard something about how women rolled bits of string along their legs. So the hairs get stuck between the bits of string and get pulled out! Ouch!

That's a technique they use now for eyebrows.

[kat]

really- i only ever pluck mine! It sounds kinda painful. I think what I was talking about was or is done in africa. Though don't quote me on that...

[sky73]

That's a technique they use now for eyebrows.

Yup, it's called threading.

[catswym]

yeah, hairlessness has been around forever--like krista mentioned, even the ancient egyptians did it--only then, men did it too.

in america i think it started before the great depression actually--in the 20's when women started dressing in ways that showed off more of their bodies. but yeah, a lot of it was due to marketing campaigns.

i think in general it all evolved out of the idea that hair is gross--because it can be gross. when you're sweaty, hairy areas get nasty first and stay nasty longer. it can be breeding ground for lice, ticks, etc. so in order to be clean and "attractive" one should be without this hair. in the 20th century america, women were the ones deemed to have to be "attractive" and therefore hairless.

[Christy]

I blame porn.







j/k :p

[ynaffit]

i think in general it all evolved out of the idea that hair is gross--because it can be gross. when you're sweaty, hairy areas get nasty first and stay nasty longer. it can be breeding ground for lice, ticks, etc. so in order to be clean and "attractive" one should be without this hair. in the 20th century america, women were the ones deemed to have to be "attractive" and therefore hairless.
i think it might also be that body hair is just generally considered masculine, since men have much more body hair than women, making the feminine ideal the opposite of hairy.

[DeeDee2012]

i think it might also be that body hair is just generally considered masculine, since men have much more body hair than women, making the feminine ideal the opposite of hairy.

It also seems like a lot of people are turned off my hairy men too, though. I can say I personally am not a fan of a hairy back.
I don't remember where I heard it exactly, but I remember reading an article about it having to do with the human "evolution" and our desire to distiguish ourselves from our slightly more hairy primate brothers. I don't know if it is really directly related to the whole obsession with hairlessness on women, although.. but it may have grown from something along those lines..

[ynaffit]

yeah, but many people are also turned on by hairy (to a degree) men.

[CarbLover]

i think it might also be that body hair is just generally considered masculine, since men have much more body hair than women, making the feminine ideal the opposite of hairy.

I agree with this. It seems like human culture has always striven to exaggerate differences between the sexes, for some reason.

[DancNSpin]

I always thought it was mainly in North America...mainly to copy the native americans who (lucky them) don't really have body hair. Something about how that used to be the differentiating factor b/t them, but then they starting doing it later (or something to that extent).