On my first visit to the FLRC with Morwen so that I could learn Spanish, we had to ask the desk worker to help us out with finding the right computers with the requisite software on them. She was wearing a simple, spaghetti-strapped dress, and when she lifted her arms to give us the laptops that had the software, she revealed to us a patch of beautiful brown hair in either pit. She wasn’t afraid to show that she had hair, and neither am I!
For the first time in a long time, I wore a skirt to all of my classes. I didn’t notice other people looking at my legs.
Over the past weekend, I was hanging out with Tiger Lilly and Leto in our dormitory’s kitchen, and Leto made a comment about my leg hair! She said she was trying to grow hers out, too, and that hers wasn’t as long as mine – yet. I came away with the feeling that I had helped someone more confidently express themselves, or at least helped her to know that she was not alone. I believe that everyone needs a little encouragement every now and then. Like the FLRC worker’s role in letting me know I wasn’t alone, I was happy to pass it on and let Leto know she wasn’t alone, either.
I've been waiting weeks to post this! :D
ReplyDeleteLiz, you are definitely not alone - you are part of a sisterhood! Everyone I knew who went to Mills, Berkeley, Smith, Stern, Sarah Lawrence & Wellesley undertook a similar experiment. I would actually argue that it's something of a right of passage!
I think it's all about the sense of shifting boundaries and expectations, of being free not simply from supervision by one's parents or supervisors, but also from the "Supervision by the Other Sex" which one has internalized (even where it does not exist) and conflated with the expectations of the larger society. It is an expression of liberation and a reassertion of self-mastery, a display (whether public or private) of the reassuring fact that one is in charge of one's own body.
The only danger comes when one begins to expect or even DEMAND the same expressions from others - usually that betrays a level of insecurity and leads to the creation of another social standard, no different at its core than the one which seemed to mandate shaving.
An analogous phenomenon is the desire of many men fresh from their military service, Missions, Temple shifts, marriages, or relationships-with-women-who-prefer-metrosexuals to suddenly grow out their facial hair.