http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/tribu/askamy/ct-live-1104-amy-20101104,0,6896125.column
Please read this article first. Below is a comment written in response to above article. Emphasis has been added by me.
"Part of being on a team is being a team player and doing what is best for the team. Coaches have rules in place and certain aspects are designed to promote a feeling of solidarity and unity, because the closer the teammates feel to each other, the better they will play as a team.
Uniforms and dress/grooming codes are one way to display that unity. By refusing to shave her pits and legs, she is indicating she doesn't want to conform to the team policies. Moreover, has she considered how incredibly distracting this is? Everyone on her team will be thinking about how she has hairy pits and legs. Everyone on the other team will be talking about the girl with hairy pits and legs. Her teammates will hear this, and lose focus.
The girl is simply being selfish. If she really wants to be an individual and stand up for her right to shout out "I am woman hear me roar" then she should quit the volleyball team."
This situation has got me asking a lot of questions. Why are women's bodies disgusting? Why would the whole team be distracted by someone's armpit hair? Are male athletes distracted by each other's leg and armpit hair? What makes this girl "selfish"? Why would everyone on the team be talking about her hairy armpits and legs? How does not shaving her armpits and legs make her a nonconformist?
I think it all comes down to the fact that women's bodies are viewed as nothing but sex objects. Whether women are running for political office or trying to stay on the volleyball team, women are expected to satisfy the male gaze at all times. Women can't do anything without enduring comments about out hair, clothes, weight and, of course, grooming rituals.
And men in our country have been conditioned to think that female body hair is unnatural, non-hygeniec, disgusting and wrong. Men have armpit and leg hair and no one views it as unclean. Why is it different for women?
If this girl is expected to give up her ideals for the sake of being a "team player" then I expect to see all the boys in that school with freshly shaved pits and legs before every game. After all, EVERYONE will be discussing armpit hair thoughout the entire game and be distracted.
(I truly love when sexism is shoved in my face like this. It gives me the perfect opportunity to go "see, I told you women have not earned equality in this country." Thank you, sexist, mindless, Tribune commenting asshole :>)
I think a lot of the anxiety over female body hair comes down wanting to control the female body.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if this is a hold over from the Victorian period, or the Bible, or what have you, but historically, it seems as though women's bodies have been specifically singled out as unclean and threatening in its potential sexuality. If you think of corsets, or foot binding, or waxing, or even the idea that men grow more distinguished and handsome with age, while women grow less so, there has continually been pressure on women in various societies to conform to a narrow view of femininity and female sexuality. And, imagine the money that's currently being made in the beauty industry. What if women stopped buying into that? There are institutions entirely invested in making women always strive to look (and therefore feel, presumably) "better."
But lately, it seems as though certain men (or a certain generation of men, perhaps) are also feeling pressure to subscribe to certain beauty norms.
Also, I'm glad this was a just a comment on Ask Amy's column, and not her response. Newspaper's online comments are usually cesspools of idiocy -- in the same way that angry, irrational letters to the editor, though they seem all too common, only represent a small slice of readership.
Wow, sorry for the rant. The short version is: I agree with you!
Thanks Amanda! That was awesome!
ReplyDeleteHaha, I'm glad you thought so :) I re-read it and thought it sounded random. I compulsively edit everything.
ReplyDeleteI ended up using the comments from that column for my WOMS course. We're required to post "sightings" -- basically, anything we see that can tie in to feminist theory. So, thanks for inspiring me! Though I'm a little disheartened at how dumb a lot of people are. I really don't get the "conform or quit the team" responses for this one, since shaving has nothing to do with performance (unlike, say, a swimmer, who could benefit from shaving his/her body hair).
I digress. Thanks for posting!