| 30.7.04 |
| women's hair removal |
something tells me i may get overloaded from google because of this post...but here it goes anyway....jenn, allison, sarah and tracy, this one' s for you:
a few weeks ago i was having a conversation with some of my girl friends about the origins of women's hair removal. really it is an interesting question - where did this obsession for smoothness come from? although we all were clueless, i posed the thesis that it related somehow to prostitution. i found this answer, from the world's smartest human being, and i thought it would make for an interesting post. reflecting back on that thesis first posed, i realize i mis-stated it by not fully explaining how i got to that end result. therefore, here is my rationale:
most of us would agree that fashion trends are very strongly related to sex, if not directly related. by this i mean sex less in terms of the actual act, but really the relational dynamics that lead up to sex. the forces that compel us towards a relationship with the opposite sex are strong - jealousy, desire, companionship, etc. i once heard it is the second most powerful need that we have as humans, under that of food and water. since those emotions are so powerful, it would follow that they would dictate certain aspects of our life, including our choices in fashion.
let's put this in practical terms with an example. let's use one i know something about, the gangster fashion of large denim shirts and huge baggy pants for men in the early 1990s. during the 1980s 'war on drugs', our state prisons saw an increase in the amount of incarcerated men. these men, while in prison, do not have much else to do other than lift weights, lose weight and therefore get more muscles. more muscles and leaner men = more masculine and attractive (i'm generalizing here, yes). when those men got out of prison, they are physically very attractive to the women. and, after being incarcerated and having no money, they are going to wear some of the same clothes they were issued in prison - dickies and pants. as for the size of the pants and shirts? explained by the desire while in prison to hide their body (for reasons you can probably guess) and also losing weight would make their clothes baggier. since the girlfriends of the unincarcerated men are now starting to eye the new parolees, jealously caused them to mimick the jailed-men's fashion. voila, a fashion trend has begun.
now, regarding shaved legs. apply the same theory, that the impulse for sexual relationships impacts the fashion trends. the fashion industry knows that a woman will become jealous when men pay attention to other women so they place jealousy-inducing photos of women in their advertisements (the concept, of course is still in use today). the message to women becomes "men want this and will get it from another woman [i.e. prostitution] if you don't do it" - a very powerful message to a woman. hence, my original statement that women's hair removal has its roots in prostitution. even though i was a little off to limit it with the term prostitution, i believe the underlying force is still there - our desire for a relationship is a driving force.
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| posted by Paige @ 11:13 AM |
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