Body hair

So. Until December, I was 'normal' about my body hair routine. I say that tongue-in-cheek, because surely cutting, waxing, trimming, dissolving or using lasers to get rid of the hair that covers parts of one's body can't be a sane, or rationally thought out conclusion... 'I like that person. I will tear hairs out of my skin in the hopes that they find me more appealing.' I mean - what?

Yes, society has done a good job of making sure that we know that our bodies aren't good enough the way they are. 'Normal' bodies are not represented in the media, so we grow to believe that there must be something wrong with ours. For more on this, I recommend my friend's blog, http://argufemmetative.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/weight-a-minute-ho-ho-ho/. But I digress.

In November, I was in Austria. Azariah was coming out to visit me, so, in the 'normal' fashion, I removed body hair from my legs, I trimmed my pubes, and ran sharp implements over the soft skin under my arms, to make sure that he wouldn't see what I normally look like, because god forbid he should actually see a real human being instead of the airbrushed images we see in the media!

When he arrived and clothes had come off, he said 'Did you shave and trim everything because I was coming out?' I felt... slightly embarrassed, I didn't want him to know that I'd gone through all this effort just for him, I wanted him to think that this was just how I looked. Naturally. Y'know, because women don't grow bodyhair...

Immediately I realised what a ridiculous response and thought process this was. Why the hell would I want to have to go through all that effort, and have to keep it up because people assumed that it was normal? In fact, why should I even do that in the first place? It's not as if bodyhair affects who I am as a person, or even really changes what I look like.

So I decided there and then, that that was it. I would never rip bits out of my body again. And I haven't.

And you know what? No one has commented on the fact that my legs now sport a light covering of bodyhair, or that when I raise my armpits, you can see... wait for it... hair! Not one person has come up to me in the street and said 'Excuse me Miss, I couldn't help noticing that you seem to have more pubic hair than is strictly allowed.'

Because that would be creepy...

Also, I saw this picture: http://hairypitsclub.tumblr.com/post/15133779659/my-self-love-is-not-quite-radical-enough-yet-that

And my first reaction was 'wow, she's gorgeous!' It was not: 'Oh god, her body hair! It's present!'