jmcquown wrote:
> Julia Altshuler wrote:
>
>>LittleGreyPoodle wrote:
>>Purely marketing hype, just like women "needing" to shave their
>>
>>>underarms and teenagers "needing" to wear Nike "sports shoes" and
>>>computer nerds "needing" to use a particular computer,
>>
>>
>>What do you know about the history of the advertising campaign
>>convincing women that they need to shave? I'm 47 years old, and the
>>idea has been around for as long as I've been alive. (I'm in North
>>America; I don't know about other parts of the world.) To the best of
>>my knowledge, my mother (81 years old) grew up with it too. But
>>common sense tells me that my grandmother (1896-1992) probably
>>didn't. I've never seen early ad copy of shaving products for women.
>>When did it start and become common place? Did it really start with
>>the advertisers, or was the practice common before the products
>>marketed especially for it? (I'm thinking of how shocked people were
>>when disposable sanitary pads and tampax were advertised on tv, but
>>obviously the products existed before the advertisements.) I'm just
>>curious.
>>
>>
>>--Lia
>
>
> I was always under the impression in the U.S. it had something to do with
> prostitutes, not an advertising campaign.
>
> http://www.4to40.com/health/index.as..._shavedarmpits
>
> On this site, it says:
>
> "None of many razor companies or cosmetic historians we contacted could
> pinpoint when woman first started shaving their armpits. The earliest
> reports concerned prostitutes during the gold rush days in California. Terri
> Tongco, among other readers, posited the theory that prostitutes shaved
> their underarms to prove that they have no body lice, which were rampant in
> the old West."
>
> Be that as it may (or may not), shaving dates waaaaay back, whether you are
> male or female. I suspect it has a lot to do with cultural and social mores
> (and what is "in fashion") at the time.
>
> Jill
>
>

I think it's completely ridiculous that women are expected to be
practically hairless these days. I don't shave my legs or my underarms,
and my brother always comments on how "disgusting" it is. I happen to
think that itchy pink sores that ooze (which is what happens when i have
kept everything shaved) are alot more disgusting than the hair that is
obviously supposed to be on my body.

ok, off my soapbox.

--

saerah

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