Are Women Pitted Against Razors?

Kelsey Lindsey

The hot beauty statement of the summer has nothing to do with bright lips, dewy cheeks, or ombre hair. In a slightly unusual turn of events, more attention seems to be focused on women’s armpits rather than their quest to procure the best beach bod or glistening, sun-soaked skin. The armpit, or I guess I should clarify the hair of said armpit, is being assimilated as one of the de-facto feminist symbols of the season, perhaps even trumping past beauty statements like going au-natural (both on the face and down there) and flaunting tattoos and piercings.

It all seemed to start when celebrities co-opted the long hair/don’t care feminist statement. Jemima Kirke, of indie-twentysomething-life crisis comedy Girls fame, showed off her long pit hair at the CFDAs in June, while Miley Cyrus paraded around with colored armpits for months before. These women have contributed to the feminist discussion, both in their actions and unconventional acceptance of Hollywood beauty standards.

The practice has even gone overseas, with the New York Times reporting that women in China are using the trend to battle unfair standards of beauty in the country. Women’s rights activist Xiao Meili is collecting pictures of Chinese women showing off their unshaven pits, organizing a contest around the trend. Meili made a point to say that the practice of shaving armpits for women wasn’t even a thing in China until the 1990s, and that not shaving for generations of Chinese women before now had been considered totally natural.

Of course, with any sort of publicity comes the backlash, the naysayers that use the popularity to call out armpit hair, man buns … insert your favorite trend here as a cultural trend — like that’s a permeable thing that can be quantified — another case of the insular urban liberal media highlighting a minimal hipster movement that has no continuation in the “real world.”

The LA Times said they weren’t “buying it,” that this armpit renaissance was a trend, while The Federalist dubbed the action a “terrible idea.” While they did bring up valid points — just because celebrities are doing it doesn’t label it a trend; the real cultural revolution would be for men to start shaving their armpits — the conversation still continues throughout the summer months.

Perhaps the determinate of this trend is to wait until the frosty months, where most underarm hair is concealed by heavy sweaters and parkas. If the hairy beauty statement lives on, great. Either way, we can all appreciate the gender questioning and feminist conversation that a pair of fuzzy pits sparked in this summer of the underarm.