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+--- Thread: Plucked: A History of Hair Removal (/thread-571.html)
Plucked: A History of Hair Removal - C C - Feb 23, 2015
http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21642121-why-humanity-obsessed-its-fur-hair-erasing
EXCERPT: Most of Earth’s mammals possess luxuriant fur. Only one seeks to remove it. Rebecca Herzig’s delightful history of hair removal in America helps explain why: smooth skin is a cultural imperative. [...] What remains is the question of whether hair removal is a form of self-enhancement or oppression. Most men feel obliged to be clean-shaven for work or polite company, and the hairy woman is roundly scorned. Of a young woman with hairy armpits and legs, one writer for the Daily Mail, the world’s most popular newspaper website, recently wrote: “Watching her I nearly parted company with my breakfast.” For human beings to make themselves different from other animals, what is normal has been rendered monstrous....