Unshaved: Resistance and Revolution in Women’s Body Hair Politics

Fahs (Women, Sex, and Madness), a professor of women and gender studies at Arizona State, explores the cultural dynamics of body hair in this comprehensive scholarly treatise. Drawing on data collected during a 13-year classroom study in which her students reflected on the idea of growing their body hair (if female) or removing it (if male), then documented their experiences of doing so for the rest of the semester, Fahs explores the concepts of gendered shame and performative behavior and women’s tacit participation in them. She notes that even “self-identified feminists in an upper-division feminist critical cours” expressed “an intense level of internalized sexism and homophobia, as well as personal fears and reservations about violating gender roles.” Elsewhere, she discusses body hair zines, art photography featuring women with visible body hair, and a 2015 “hairy armpit contest” in China. Fahs also includes firsthand testimony from “body hair rebels,” some of whom stopped shaving for medical reasons, while others did so “as a rejection of constricting, sexist, and misogynistic norms about bodies.” Throughout, Fahs interweaves Julia Kristeva’s abjection theory, Foucauldian power dynamics, affect studies, and other complex philosophical and psychological concepts. Though the theoretical discussions can be heavy-going, this is a thorough and revelatory treatment of an underexamined aspect of feminism and body politics. (June)