W

henever a girl wants to take a stroll in a pair of shorts, she might look down and question: How do my legs look? Are they hairless? When a girl has to attend an event, she may spend time plucking her eyebrows in order to ensure that all the traces of that unibrow are gone. As for sleeveless clothing, she’d want to make sure her underarms are perfectly clean. 

This is the mentality that society has placed on us. The famed painting “Birth of Venus” shows Aphrodite with no body hair, and according to Allure, hairlessness was deemed to be classy during the Renaissance period. 

Personally, I had always been insecure about showing my body hair in public. I despised my unibrow, and would shave my underarms and wear full-length pants. One day, I decided to take the plunge and wear a cute pair of shorts. However, when someone pointed out that my legs were hairy, I went back to wearing pants.

Nowadays, things are starting to change for the better. A slew of female celebrities, from Miley Cyrus to Rihanna, have started to flaunt their body hair, both in public and on social media. Especially with feminism becoming increasingly rampant, beauty norms have taken a new look, allowing women to be more lenient with their body hair without being scrutinized by society.

A woman can rock a pair of shorts without having to worry about the hair on her legs. She can rock that unibrow without second thoughts. She can wear that cute top without having to care about some fuzz under her arms. Stigma is out of style, because hairless or not, she is beautiful. 

I had no idea how to reply to the comment I received a while ago, but here is what I want to say now: it doesn’t matter whether my legs are hairy or not because either way, I am beautiful.