Justice

Women Are Sharing Pictures of Their Body Hair for a Powerful Reason

July 13th 2016

Dozens of women are posting pictures of their unshaven legs and armpits to help change the perception of one old beauty standard.

Women in France are using the hashtag #LesPrincessesOntDesPoils, which means #PrincessesHaveHair, to challenge the stigma surrounding the appearance of body hair.

The hashtag was created by 16-year-old Adele Labo after she was shamed for not shaving her legs, Labo told ATTN: via email. Based on this, she wanted to help empower women about their appearance.

"What inspired me to create this hashtag was the help it could represent for many girls, the help for them to be confident with their own body and with their hairs," Labo said.

Shortly after, the hashtag became a trending topic in France, with more than 25,000 mentions, according to The Guardian.

Women began to remove their body hair in "1915 when an ad featuring a woman with hairless armpits appeared in Harper’s Bazaar," as writer Ellen Kate pointed out in a piece for Everyday Feminism.

Since then, society has held a preferred expectation for women to remove their body hair.

As ATTN: previously reported, a 2015 survey from AskMen.com and The Huffington Post found that less than half of men said they prefer for a woman to be completely bare, and 38 percent said that a "women’s pubic hair should be 'trimmed and well-groomed, but a grown woman should have something down there.'" But "only 15 percent of men believed that women should do whatever makes them feel comfortable and sexy."

In addition, a recent study published in JAMA Dermatology found that 84 percent of women groom their pubic hair, according to SELF.

Although shaving your body hair is not a problem, Labo hopes that society can embrace women who don't.

"I hope people will be more tolerant towards other’s choices and, above all, I hope there will be less pressure put on people for something that is completely natural and normal," Labo said.

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