Advertising: The Hairy Double Standards

                 I was just mindlessly watching TV when a standard hair removal advert came on selling wax strips. It was your typical advert: the pretty girl smiled madly while she ripped the skin from her calves and instead of screaming in agony, she giggled with her friends while stroking her now smooth legs. But I felt uncomfortable watching it. What was it about this harmless advert that made me feel so awkward? Why did I feel this subtle yet sudden sensation of awkwardness? Then I realised the reason. It was because the woman in the advert had removed hair from her leg. Your thought now might be, "Well of course she did- it's a hair removal advert." but no, the woman's leg was actually hairy to begin with and then after using the product, she had a tanned hairless shin. In that moment I realised that no hair removal adverts for woman actually featured any body hair on the woman.

                I had spent years in front of the TV screen watching these women shave already hairless legs. Surely when you sell a product, the majority of adverts will show you the product being used but what use is a razor if you have no hair to shave off? It is not showing us how effective the razor is at all. But when we watch male facial hair adverts we do see the man actually shaving or at least trimming most of the time. Why is that? Why do I see plenty of beards being sculpted yet no legs being freed of furryness?

                I then realised it's because hair is masculine. Not feminine. The stereotypical image of a "masculine lad" has stubble. However if he chooses to have smooth cheeks he is not shamed. Our stereotypical picture of a "feminine lady" has shaven legs and armpits yet if she did have hair in these places she would be shamed. Hair is apparently not linked to femininity unless it is in the form of tweezed eyebrows or luscious locks. When Veet released this advert, they received many complaints explaining how insulting it was to be told that if they choose to embrace their hair they cannot be "womanly around the clock". People fear seeing a woman with natural hair so much that we can't even have a female hair removal advert where hair is actually removed without giving the viewer a feeling of uneasiness. Is it just me who thinks that is absurd? Maybe we need to get over these strange stereotypes and just not shame someone on their own appearance. Or maybe I should just flick over to another channel next time.