The Hairless Ideal: Women and Their Body Hair

Abstract

A major component of “femininity” in the United States today is a hairless body, a norm that developed in the United States between 1915–1945. Little has been written regarding the development of this norm, and virtually no empirical research has been done to assess how universally ascribed to is this standard or why women actually remove their leg and underarm hair. More than 200 women from two national professional organizations responded to a mailed questionnaire (response rate 56%). The majority (around 80%) remove their leg and/or underarm hair at least occasionally. Two types of reasons for shaving emerged: feminine/attractiveness reasons and social/normative reasons. Most women start shaving for the latter reasons but continue to shave for the former reasons. Certain groups, however, were least likely to remove leg and/or underarm hair: strongly feminist women and self‐identified lesbians. The results of the study are discussed in terms of the function the hairlessness norm may serve in our culture.

Body Hair Removal: The ?Mundane? Production of Normative Femininity

“…The only two published social psychological surveys on women's hair removal strongly support this hypothesis: Basow (1991) found that 81% of the professional North American women in her sample reported removing their leg and/or underarm hair; and Tiggemann and Kenyon (1998) found that 91.5% of their Australian university student sample removed their leg hair, and 93% removed their underarm hair. Tiggemann and Kenyon also surveyed a group of Australian high school students, and found similar results: 92% reported removing their leg hair, and 91.2% their underarm hair.…”

“…Hair removal, then, may well be "[s]tatistically ...one of the most frequent ways women alter their bodies to achieve the ideal of youthfulness and attractiveness" (Tiggemann & Kenyon, 1998, p. 874). As such, women's depilatory practices not only contribute substantially to the cosmetic industry, but reinforce the view that underpins all the body-changing procedures, from make-up application to cosmetic surgery: that a woman's body is unacceptable if left unaltered (see Basow, 1991;Chapkis, 1986;Tiggemann & Kenyon, 1998).…”

“…This study, together with two previous surveys (Basow, 1991;Tiggemann & Kenyon, 1998), provides baseline data on women's everyday hair removal practices. We expected that a majority of participants would report removing at least some body hair, thus providing empirical support for an understanding of women's hair removal as a powerful social norm within the UK.…”

“…Moreover, there is strong evidence of a widespread symbolic association between body hair-or its absence-and ideal gender: to have a hairy body is a sign of masculinity; to have a hairless one, a sign of femininity 6 (Basow, 1991;Basow & Braman, 1998;Cooper, 1971;Ferrante, 1988;Firth, 1973;Greer, 1970;Hope, 1982;Simpson, 1986;Synnott, 1993;Tiggemann & Kenyon, 1998;Toerien & Wilkinson, 2003, 2004. Indeed, the depiction of the female body as depilated, with "smooth unwrinkled ... skin" (Tiggemann & Kenyon, 1998, 6 We would like to underscore that this dichotomous construction of gendered embodiment, whereby masculinity and femininity are seen as opposites (such that the association between body hair and masculinity means that body hair cannot also be associated with femininity), is not a necessary one.…”

“…Few social scientific studies have concerned the practices of women's routine hair removal (Basow, 1991;Tiggemann & Kenyon, 1998). Somewhat more common are psychological investigations into the impact on women of so-called 'excess' hair growth (e.g., Barth, Catalan, Cherry, & Day, 1993;Kitzinger & Willmott, 2002;Rabinowitz, Cohen, & Le Roith, 1983).…”