All over the place lately I have begun to notice advertisements for shaving and all of the tools that accompany this daily routine. Advertisements perpetually enforce the necessity for females to remain hairless, including, I believe, a more current obsession with getting rid of pubic hair. I remember being completely embarrassed that all of my friends were shaving their legs in elementary school and begging my grandmother to allow me to join the ranks of hairless prepubescents. My best friend and I even shaved our legs for the first time together. Shaving transformed you from girl to woman, or so we thought. The latest MARTA bus advertisement that I have noticed lately, depicts two freshly shaven, shiny legs pointing in the air next to one of the various million blade razors that is currently hot on the market. Pointed out in the Killing Us Softly series, many advertisements, like the one from the MARTA bus, hone in on specific female body parts, eradicating any real identity from the individual. The usage of code words and symbolism enable the media to avoid words like pubic hair and vagina. When did vagina become such a dirty word? Our favorite witty lady from Informania's Target Women, Sarah Haskins, has also noticed this preoccupation with bush maintenance. Here's the clip from Haskins' latest greatest:
There's also an excellent excerpt from Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues that depicts a woman's attempt to please her unfaithful husband by shaving off her pubic hair. In the end she decides that going bald is far more trouble than it's worth.
To this day I still shave my legs and perform routine maintenance on my "garden." I am as much a product of society as anyone else. But I can't help but scoff at these ads that reinforce the female need to monitor and obsess over her appearance. Not to mention that shaving one's legs proves to be quite an arduous task.
Until next time, hairy or hairless, keep the spirit alive!
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