A
Young Woman's Perspective
Yes, there is hope. Not all young women out there are
controlled by the media's control on appearance and
fashion. They all don't feel the need to be anorexic,
wear make up, have expensive hair styles, pour chemicals
on their bodies (hair colouring, nail polish, depilatories),
or shave their body hair. Paula Cole stands out as a
pop star who was able to achieve success without succumbing
to Madison Avenue.
However, there are other young women who
are not famous, who face severe peer pressure, who are
bombarded by a media that favours "Barbie doll"
stereotypes -- but, somehow they manage to discover
who they really are and they're courageous enough to
be themselves. Here is an example of one such young
woman (she is 17 years old). I found her writing at:
http://www.eccentrica.org/gyps/b-1.html and have reprinted
it here with her permission.
Jennifer has a new "hair page" at: http://www.eccentrica.org/gyps/hairygirl.html.
She is quite prolific.
--may 25, 1998--*hair*--
today i took a shower, and i finally shaved my armpits.
why this is an important thing, i dont completely know.
i hadn't shaved them in a while, like, a few months,
i dunno since when. but i've loved it very much .....
yes, i loved my hair. i grew out almost all my hair.
shaved my legs for p.e. tho. i love hair.
so this new hair under my arms was new and fun, and
i felt ..... lovely. it was a part of me. hehe. i must
sound awfully odd :P i stopped wearing my tanktops.
but i liked to wear them other places other then school
.... or on my bus i would take my jacket off. funfun.
stupid immature 9th grade boys looking at me like i'm
weird. like steve said to me once when i told him maybe
i just won't shave, "but .... you're pretty"
haha. so i must shave b/c i am pretty? what punishment!
:P hehe.
well, i did see why a guy would be bothered by it.
(but god, it's only hair. and i happen to love it) but
it doesn't look feminine. but i still felt beautiful
in a sense when i saw it. it was fun wearing tanktops
w/ hair under my arms. (simple minds, simple pleasures)
and i didnt want to shave it at all .... especially
before b/c it was still growing. and i wanted to experiance
it totally grown. and i did.
so today i shaved it. and i wore one of my shirts i
havent worn b/c if i had you could see hair. it was
fun shaving. but i felt like i was bald. i know! it
sounds nutty! but it's true! it was like shaving my
head...only....less dramatic or something! haha. whatever.
so now i look feminine again. or something. i did look
feminine before .... just .... in a different light.
and yes .... a little thing like armpit hair does make
a difference like that. :P
i dunno how exactly it made me feel. maybe powerful
hehe ...... like ... i was going against what all my
friends do! :P i didn't show anyone....except arica.
so now i'm back to um...normal or something. maybe i'll
shave for the week. and then i will grow it back out.
maybe i will grow out all my hair for the summer. i
don't know tho. people suck. i always feel like i cn't
do that b/c of them. but i can. heh. silly really. i
like having smooth legs, and i like seeing myself in
the mirror all smooth and hairless (except for my lovely
hair on my head teehee) well...and maybe some other
places *rolls eyes*
funfun. babble about hair. i love hair. carl has a
lot of hair :) *sigh* i would love to be w/ him. i dunno
why i like it so much. it's just....neat. heh. yeeeah,
ooookie. :P i should do a speech on hair in speech class,
lol. funfun. smoothness is fun too. but im lazy. so.
hair is fine w/ me :) yay.
i am not nutty! you should love hair too!
©1998 by Gyps
When I asked her if I could reprint her story, she said
"of course" and provided the following update
to her thoughts and perspective (as of October 1998):
i changed since i wrote that actully, that was in may
[1998].
now i couldnt give two shits about wearing tanktops...i
do all the time now (and i dont shave for anything now)
and i wear my shorts for my p.e. class...and my mother
thinks i'm weird...along with the rest of my family.
and my best friend thinks i'm weird...well..everyone
thinks i'm weird :P
but i think they're all weird for shaving...yeah its
nice...silkyness kicks...but it's silly to Have to do
it. b/c u dont *der*
i was more ashamed in may about my hair...
i'm growing tho :)
You sure are growing! You demonstrate maturity beyond
your years. You are an inspiration. I hope that you
can serve as a role model for other young, free-thinking,
independent women.
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