one of my friends from work came back from the Christmas holiday sporting a mustache.a few days later, i heard the other male in our group commenting on how he himself was thinking of growing a 'stache. this set me to thinking; you never hear a girl come casually into work and say, "i may just stop shaving for a while. i think it'd be stylish." or even better, "you know, i'm thinking about shaving stripes into my leg hair."
this presents a strange sociality for us: on the one hand, male facial hair is much more prominent and obvious than female leg hair. and yet, it is much more of a social faux pas for a female not to shave than it is for a male not to shave. why is that?
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I dunno. You just need to hang out with the right people. I'VE thought of doing fun stuff with my leg hair, and did the swim team not give an award for thickest leg hair? I believe we did. I always talk about how stylish and convenient, not to mention warm, not shaving is.
I dunno, I never shave. But it's not a fashion statement. I'm just genuinely lazy. And if you want to keep your legs warm, it's fine by me. As long as you don't rub them on my face. Gross.
Currently I have no way of getting my legs that high, so you're probably safe.
I wonder more about the discrepancy between armpits. Armpit hair is gross. Then again, guys don't wear sleeveless shirts or cap-sleeves.
Guys don't wear sleeveless shirts? Huh, all those folks on the track must not be guys. Go figure. I could have sworn they weren't girls. And basketball uniforms must have sleeves I can't see. Haha!
The point is, guys show their armpits all the time, but that discrepency is still there. It is not due to the manner of attire.
i too have wondered about armpit hair. it definitely is not my favorite thing in the world.
sometimes track guys are pretty girly.
I said guys on the track. Which includes the rugby team, some soccer players, etc. But yes, I can see your point. If they're wearing the short shorts, we can't use them as standard. But with nearly all basketball players thrown into the mix, I think that takes care of the assumption that all boys who wear sleeveless shirts wear short shorts.
I rarely have the occasion to wear a sleeveless shirt, so my armpit hair is usually hidden. Mostly I suck at basketball. But pretty much I see lots of girls walking around in public with no sleeves or super short sleeves. I think armpit hair is gross no matter who it's on. So I just don't make it a habit to watch track guys.
I think my original claim still stands for the general case. Of course male armpits are exposed on occasion; however, it's more of the exception and still considered uncultured in general (e.g., tank tops for guys are called `wife-beaters' and have a definite trashiness attached to them). For women, on the other hand, it is often seems fashionable to have as much exposed as one's conscience allows. Even among LDS girls on BYU campus, there is a strong tendency to wear shirts that can only not be called sleeveless on a technicality and that only cover the tummy and back if she stands straight and slouches her shoulders. I exaggerate, but perhaps not too much.
It stands so long as your sampling of both men and women comes from the right general group. I think the real issue here is why those men who do not fall under the same general circumstances still share the general outcome of hairy armpits.
And there are sleeveless shirts that men wear that are not wife-beaters.
I can't think of any that aren't either for a specific task (e.g., a sport) or trashy like a t-shirt with the sleeves cut-off to highlight one's muscles and tattoo. Since sleeveless shirts on a guy are going to look trashy anyway, why bother shaving? Women, on the other hand, are more likely to show-off their armpits to attract attention (for what it's worth) and they tend to care a lot more about what others think.
Ah yes, the good old "obsessed with image" card.
"Everyone's obsessed with image. Girls are obsessed with their own images, and guys are obsessed with girls images. Guys are like 'I don't care if I'm a big, fat loser. As long as girls are hott, it's okay.'"
(To make that mildly less offensive to those males reading, I'm quoting a male friend of mine.)
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