"Many women start struggling with new facial hair growth later in life.... Some said they had made friends or relatives promise to pluck their hairs for them..."

"... if they ever ended up in a hospital or a care facility. 'We made a pact: When we were old and maybe unable to care for ourselves, each of us would make sure that hairy ugliness wasn’t noticeable on the other,' said Debbie Russell, 68. But there is the possibility of finding peace with age, too. 'To me, my facial hair feels like a part of my gender identity, and since menopause I have a little goatee now, which I shave,' said Mitzi Cowell, 60, 'but I dream of the day when I can just grow it out, braid it.'"

From "Is Facial Hair the Last Taboo in Women’s Beauty? Millions of women regularly remove it. Does it have to be that way?" (NYT).

Also: "Women with facial hair have been documented throughout history, often in ways that make current attitudes seem modest. (Take, for example, Annie Jones, P.T. Barnum’s bearded lady, who was billed in his circus as a 'freak' — a term Jones protested.)"

From that link about Annie Jones: "Annie Jones was born in Virginia in 1865, reportedly exiting her mother’s womb with her chin already covered in hair.... Jones was not even a year old when her parents first pushed her into P.T. Barnum’s exhibition in New York City. The tiny girl was billed as 'The Infant Esau'.... As time went on, the 'Infant Esau' grew into the 'Esau Lady' and, eventually, the 'Bearded Lady.'"

"We think it may be to reduce competition and intimidation in the kinds of close-cooperation, within and between sexes, that’s required to make our complex, highly cooperative societies function."

Said University of New South Wales professor Rob Brooks, puzzling out why men shave given that facial hair is a "sign of dominance."

He's quoted in "This is the reason why men with facial hair are hotter — could this explain the Mark Zuckerberg ‘beard’ appeal?" (NY Post).

"I feel much more seen when I’m referred to as ‘they,’ but my closest friends, they will call me ‘she,’ and I don’t mind, because I know they know me."

Says Emma Corrin, quoted in Vogue, in "Emma Corrin on Fluidity, Fun, and Dressing Up to Stand Out."

I usually forget to read Vogue, but I saw that this morning because Instapundit linked to "Hairy Pits Strike Blow Against The Patriarchy" at Victory Girls, a discussion of the Emma Corrin cover photo at Vogue, which followed on a Wall Street Journal piece entitled "Armpit Hair Is Back, Whether You Like It or Not." 

The only hair the Vogue text refers to is head hair: "Emma Corrin’s... mop of short, insouciantly tousled blond hair." The armpit hair is just something to dare other people to talk about.

Is the body in its natural form unsettling to you? Must it be changed to suit your feelings of unease? Ironically, the people saying yes are (probably!) the same people who think those who feel unease about their natural genitalia should not undergo surgery.

Should we alter ourselves with sharp blades or not? 

Charlie Hebdo appropriates the death of George Floyd to mock Meghan Markle and the Queen.

Via The Sun:

1. The headline translates to "Why Meghan left Buckingham...." and the speech bubble says "because I couldn't breathe anymore." 

2. Now, for the first time, I'm thinking about whether the Queen shaves her legs.

3. Is the image outrageous? But Charlie Hebdo wants to be outrageous... so it is immune to any criticism people might choose to lob. Still, the question remains: How outrageous is it and what are the elements of outrageousness?

4. The most outrageous part — if I consult my own sensitivity — is the appropriation of the pain surrounding George Floyd for a comical presentation. The second most outrageous part is connecting Markle to Floyd because she is black. 

5. Those outrageous things are not, however, purely gratuitous, so it's not just a case of laughing at George Floyd and finding it worth pointing out that Markle, too, is black. What's not gratuitous is the radical contrast between what happened to Floyd — suffering and death on the street, under the knee of a cop — and what happened to Markle — palace life insufficiently pleasant.

6. It's important that Charlie Hebdo avoided using stereotypical features in drawing Markle, but unfortunate that the drawing doesn't look much like her. I'm interested in the window pane image on Markle's cheek. I believe this is the classic cartoon way to signify shininess. I guess Markle indulges in the makeup convention of dabbing shiny highlighter on the cheekbones. It would be a real stretch to connect that to the racial slur "shine." The slur has to do with the occupation of shining shoes — though Markle's face is right next to the Queen's shiny shoe — and not to some notion about how black people look. 

7. It's important to be able to make fun of public figures. Markle is actively using accusations of racism to fend off criticism. This might work, for her and for many others, if the fear of these accusations is too intense. In that light, Charlie Hebdo is doing us a service, taking the heat, and — if you think about it the right way — contributing to racial progress.

"I dare you to name something more archetypally boomer than these two cherished idols—the Boss and the Chief—dubbing themselves rebellious in a Spotify-exclusive podcast..."

"... sponsored by Comcast and Dollar Shave Club. ('How do I handle grooming below the belt?' the ad spot asks; mercifully, neither host is made to read it.)... As a cultural figure, the Boss sits in a cross-racial sweet spot, as an anointed idol for the coded white working class who pairs his aging denim with bright-blue politics. He is also comfortable playing the good white liberal without self-punishing overtures. His home town of Freehold, New Jersey, was 'your typical small, provincial, redneck, racist little American nineteen-fifties town,' he says plainly, without squeamishness.... Discussing the protests of last summer, Obama comes just short of infantilizing the activities of those who were on the ground. 'I think there’s a little bit of an element of young people saying, "You’ve told us this is who we’re supposed to be."' A guitar strums gently in the background. 'And that’s why as long as protests and activism doesn’t veer into violence, my general attitude is—I want and expect young people to push those boundaries.'...  But I can understand the people who might still take comfort in hearing Obama right up against their eardrums, doing his host schtick, asking, 'Did you see the movie "Get Out"?,' referring to a memorable line that invokes his name."

From "Obama and Springsteen Are Here to Lull America" by Lauren Michele Jackson (The New Yorker).

The line in "Get Out" is: "By the way, I would have voted for Obama for a third term if I could." Read more about it in "Bradley Whitford didn't realize Get Out's Obama line was supposed to be a joke at first" (AV Club).

"Legs have bristled beneath the embrace of thermal leggings. Chins have sprouted solitary hairs, like lone flags atop the summit of Everest..."

"... fluttering proudly in the wind. It was not a strike, per se, but a nationwide grooming hiatus.... Practical  reasons alone cannot explain why so many women have opted to grow out their hair colour, or rewild their eyebrows. 'The pandemic has uprooted all of our ways of being in the world,' says Jaclyn Wong of the University of South Carolina, an expert in gender and attractiveness. 'The fact that women aren’t doing this beauty work is exciting to me, because it represents a disruption of how they normally comply with our society’s expectations of femininity.'... 'When I stopped shaving,' says Georgia Collier, 26, from London, 'it started out because I wasn’t leaving the house, so there didn’t seem to be much point. But then it changed.... When everything else was spinning out of control.... I stopped trying to control my body. I decided to just be who I am.'"

From "'I stopped trying to control my body': the women who gave up grooming in 2020" (The Guardian).

"Merkins — pubic hair wigs — date back to at least 1450 and seem to be largely related to lice and syphilis."

"Shaving pubic hair was a strategy to combat pubic lice before there were medical treatments available. However, the absence of pubic hair was a visible sign of a recent outbreak of lice, which was socially undesirable. In addition, without pubic hair, syphilitic ulcers were visible. Merkins offered camouflage for the ulcers and hid the fact that shaving had been needed in the first place. It’s also possible that for some, merkins were fashion."

Info from the NYT.

Joe Rogan rants about the Gillette "toxic masculinity" commercial...

... and — within 3 minutes — gets on to the topic of southern accents and the fact that — because of the internet — there are now "cool people everywhere":



IN THE COMMENTS: Tim in Vermont says:

“Toxic masculinity” is either sloppy language, or a slur against all men.

I've been meaning to write a post about the phrase. There is a big problem with it, because there are basically 2 ways to understand it and one is so offensive that it should probably be avoided, because if you mean the one that I think is okay, you're still likely to be misunderstood and you are — even if only unwittingly — emitting some hate vibes.

The okay meaning sees the adjective "toxic" in "toxic masculinity" like the adjective "red" in "red shoes." It identifies a subcategory — the shoes that are red (as opposed to all the many other shoes) and the masculinity that is toxic (as opposed to all the other masculinity).

The hateful meaning sees the adjective "toxic" in "toxic masculinity" like the adjective "beloved" in "beloved country." You're referring to one thing — one country or masculinity as a single concept — and you're branding it as "beloved" or "toxic."

Let me use a survey to try to understand how you have been reading the term. I have not found the Gillette commercial hateful, and a lot of you have disagreed with me, and I suspect it's because I'm hearing the okay meaning and you're hearing the hateful meaning. (You can watch the commercial at that link.)

When you hear "toxic masculinity" in the Gillette commercial, what meaning do you hear?

The "okay" meaning and nothing more

The "hateful" meaning and nothing more

Mostly the "okay" meaning, but the hateful meaning is there in the background

Mostly the "hateful" meaning. The "okay" meaning isn't clear enough to overcome the hate.

I hear both and the "hateful" meaning is so bad it doesn't matter what the balance is.

I need another option. None of these are close enough to what I think to deserve my vote.

 

pollcode.com free polls

"These strong claims—cultural Marxism! SJW jackals! Leftist social priorities!—should strike anyone who actually watches the ad as fairly ridiculous."

Writes Robby Soave in "The Gillette Ad Tells Men Not to Hurt People. Why Is This Offensive?/'Toxic masculinity' is sometimes a scapegoat for the left, but this particular commercial makes no grand anti-male claims" (Reason).

I agree. The ad is full of men stopping other men from doing bad things. That's one of the best things men do, and it's what the ad highlights. The ad ends with shots of beautiful boys and — in the logic of the sequence of images — they are learning — from men — how to be good men.

A Gillette ad, titled “We Believe,” speaks of #MeToo movement,"toxic masculinity," and question whether "boys will be boys" is "the best a man can get."

The Wall Street Journal reports (in "P&G Challenges Men to Shave Their ‘Toxic Masculinity’ in Gillette Ad"):

“This is an important conversation happening, and as a company that encourages men to be their best, we feel compelled to both address it and take action of our own,” said Pankaj Bhalla, Gillette brand director for North America in an emailed statement....

Gillette needs to appeal to millennials who care about what companies stand for, he said. “There’s a demand for this, for purpose, for brands to be tackling tough issues in the moment.”

But the ad could backfire and alienate Gillette’s base, [said said Dean Crutchfield, CEO of branding firm Crutchfield + Partners]. “Does the customer want to be told they’re a naughty boy? Are you asking too much of your consumer to be having this conversation with them?”

Here's the ad:



Full disclosure: The shots of the little boys in the end made me cry.

By the way, women buy a lot of Gillette products too.

Razor ad that's "a celebration of body hair."

For more than 100 years, women’s razor brands haven’t shown women’s body hair... until now. Introducing Project Body Hair. A celebration of body hair, wherever it is or isn’t. See more: https://t.co/UdKKQApFoF. pic.twitter.com/Aj4CNTtdHQ

— Billie (@billiebody) June 26, 2018

Via The Guardian, which says:

Billie co-founder Georgina Gooley said: “Only showing smooth, hairless legs seemed like an archaic way of representing women. We have always said shaving is a choice. It’s your hair and no one should tell you what to do with it. We’re excited to launch a campaign that will help normalise body hair and change the one-dimensional way in which women are portrayed.”

But there's still some reticence:

As well as showing women shaving their legs, the Billie ad shows women combing and blow-drying underarm hair and addresses the prickly subject – via images of a cactus – of shaving pubic hair.

Cactus!!

Did you know that Frank Zappa and Linda Ronstadt once did a commercial for Remington electric razors?

Ignore the visuals. It's a radio commercial:



I found that via a new Guardian article titled: "Linda Ronstadt: 'I don’t like any of my albums.'"

She doesn't like any of her albums, and she also says things like:

I had a house in Tucson for 10 years, but I sold it and moved to San Francisco because of politics and global warming, which the current Cheeto-in-Chief will not admit is happening. It became so unbearably hot in Tucson, and I think cities that depend on air conditioning just won’t be sustainable in the future.

Bonus: Here's an ad Frank Zappa did for Luden's cough drops. This one's a TV ad, so go ahead and watch the video — it won a Clio in the 1960s — though Zappa's only responsible for the audio:

How does Gillette know you are an 18-year-old guy?

It doesn't always:

Dear @Gillette
Two things: I am no longer 18, and no amount of shaving will make me a man.
I am keeping the razor though, it's really nice pic.twitter.com/5BvDZuEUPx

— Kody Meyer (@KodyMeyer17) June 30, 2017

Via the NYT, which says: "Gillette, which is owned by Procter & Gamble, has mailed razors to young men for their 18th birthdays since the 1990s." The spokeswoman for Gillette says: "it takes a lot of data to reach two million men — and there are a number of steps between identifying the men, securing shipping information and then fulfilling the razors."

Fulfilling the razors is a funny expression — as if the razors were getting off on their skin contact with you.

Olympic hair... why is this even a subject?

1. From "The Olympic Games: Time to Stop," by Mark Rippetoe in PJ Media:

... NBC Sports, the de facto owner of the Olympic Games, just doesn't include the “testosterone” sports in their coverage -- unless there is a severe injury that looks very bad on TV. Swimming is fine (no hairy men), all women's sports are fine (no hairy men), gymnastics, ditto (basically a children's sport), skiing is okay (hair doesn't show through lycra), and the equestrian events are just fine (horses are innocent even if hairy).

2. In The Daily Mail, "Why Olympic cyclists DON’T wax their bikini lines: Pubic hair protects against saddle soreness":

Pubic hair helps with the transport and evaporation of sweat away from the skin and also provides some friction protection. [And] hair removal methods, such as waxing, shaving, depilatory creams and epilation, damage the top layer of skin - the epidermis....

'But we knew that we had to try to persuade the girls to stop shaving and waxing if we were going to sort out the saddle pain we knew all of them were suffering with. 'At one point we were saying: 'Should we be buying the girls beard-trimmers?"'

3. And this is just one example of a category of article — "Fear of hair politics stopped me from being an athlete - luckily, it didn't stop Gabby Douglas":

My mom didn't have anything against natural hair. In fact, she wore an Afro into the early '80s. She did, however, know to follow the strictest of fashion rules for all well-groomed black girls, which clearly state that, without exception, the hairline (which, from this point, I'll refer to as edges) should be smooth and, if need be, brushed down and secured with plastic barrettes....

Last Tuesday, shortly after our Final Five took home the gold, Twitter was aflurry with criticism over Biles' and Douglas' hair. Douglas took the brunt of the nastiness - after all, wasn't this her second rodeo? Douglas should know better, especially because, during the 2012 Olympics, in which she took home two gold medals, the then-16-year-old got the same social-media finger-wagging because of her fuzzy edges....

It's one thing when the world knocks you down, but when your own people do - over this kind of ridiculousness - that's a special kind of hurt....

Eye-catching tweet of the afternoon.

A new survey shows most women groom their pubic hair. Should we be concerned?https://t.co/zMvYqCxu4y pic.twitter.com/BT40TjdtfI

— Double X (@DoubleXMag) June 30, 2016

"And everybody hates it. My wife hates it. My son hates it. But it's interesting."

"But it's interesting. I've kind of developed a real creepy look with it that I'm sort of enjoying. And I can tell that people are off-put by it. And the more people implore me to shave, the stronger my resolve is to not shave."

"My guess is that many women my age brokered a series of compromises, shaving our legs (but only when people would see them)..."

"... performing oral sex like porn stars but insisting on reciprocity (because Betty Friedan would have wanted it that way). We’d drink shots in short skirts, but we’d come up with a series of code words and signals so that our girlfriends could steer us safely home; we’d go teetering down the streets in our cutest, highest heels but clutching cellphones and a bristling fistful of keys as we walked; trying to have it all, do it all, be it all, sometimes without even figuring out which parts of it felt good or right or authentically pleasurable."

Just one paragraph from "Longing for the Innocence of Playboy," by Jennifer Weiner.

"Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor shaved their faces..."

"... according to ['celebrity facialist' Kate] Somerville, who said that an aesthetician who worked with them told her. She declined to reveal which of her celebrity clients shave their faces, but said that she recommends it widely and that many comply."

ADDED: An Esquire cover from 1965:

Comic manscaping.

The chest-hair bikini craze.

And for the ladies: fangs.

"One afternoon in August 1937, Ernest Hemingway strode into the New York office of a Scribner’s editor and slapped a book across Max Eastman’s face."

"He then 'bared his chest to Mr. Eastman and asked him to look at the hair and say whether it was false'... Next, he 'persuaded Mr. Eastman to bare his chest and commented on its comparatively hairless condition.'... Hemingway was simply very pissed off about a manhood-challenging review that Eastman had written for The New Republic four years earlier. Writing about Death in the Afternoon — a nonfiction account of the bullfighting traditions of Spain — Eastman repeatedly jabs at Hemingway, saying 'the only simple thing' about the book is Hemingway himself, and alleging that his literary style is the equivalent 'of wearing false hair on the chest.'"

From "The Review That Caused Hemingway To Slap the Critic in the Face with a Book."

Nice picture at the link of Hemingway sucking in his gut and looking in the mirror at his bare torso... bear torso.

No one speaks of hairy chests as the mark of manhood anymore. I watch baseball games and mute that commercial for a nose-hair trimmer that the male model uses not only in his nose and on his ears and at his nape but also on his chest. A dinky battery-powered hair trimmer on his chest.

And of course, no one admires masculinistic writers who stride into the offices of publishers and slap critics in the face with books. I doubt if it was ever admirably manly to behave like that. The verb "slap" gives it away. Well, at least he strode. He didn't slink or sidle, which is, perhaps, how today's male author would approach a publisher.

By the way... who was Max Eastman? He turns up in what might be one of your favorite books, F.A. Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom":

It is pathetic, yet at the same time encouraging, to find as prominent an old communist as Max Eastman rediscovering this truth:

“It seems obvious to me now — though I have been slow, I must say, in coming to the conclusion — that the institution of private property is one of the main things that have given man that limited amount of free-and-equalness that Marx hoped to render infinite by abolishing this institution. Strangely enough Marx was the first to see this. He is the one who informed us, looking backwards, that the evolution of private capitalism with its free market had been a precondition for the evolution of all our democratic freedoms. It never occurred to him, looking forward, that if this was so, these other freedoms might disappear with the abolition of the free market.” [Max Eastman, “Socialism Doesn’t Jibe with Human Nature,” Reader’s Digest, July, 1941, p. 39.]

Slow. Maybe he needed a good slap in the head with a book. Please, no violence. Slap somebody in the head with a book today only metaphorically. And — late clue to Hemingway —  "wearing false hair on the chest" was a metaphor. I hear the ghost of Hemingway — metaphorical ghost — saying "Fuck metaphor!" — "fuck" being, of course, another metaphor. Man and metaphor. It's a tricky business.

ADDED: That reference to Reader's Digest (where Eastman published his "Doesn't Jibe" piece) in the context of hitting somebody with a book got me thinking about Bob Dylan's "Motorpsycho Nightmare":

Well, he threw a Reader’s Digest
At my head and I did run
I did a somersault
As I seen him get his gun...

It's the old farmer who tries to hit Bob with the Reader's Digest and who (like the King of America) threatens him with a gun, and — resonantly enough — what enrages the old farmer is Bob's statement "I like Fidel Castro and his beard." Now, that doesn't mean Bob Dylan is a communist. Bob just needed to come up with something to say that would strike the farmer as "very weird" because he wanted to get thrown out. We all know Bob Dylan is right wing.