Response to Sara

The selection from “Listen Up” was especially interesting to me because it was a radical feminst view of a minor part of women’s lives. The author explores the role of shaving her body and her choice of haircut in her life. She decided while in college she would stop shaving and cut her hair short. This was all done in an effort to save time and also because the author did not particularly care about those aspects of her appearance. She noted the differences between male and female appearances- female appearances are much more labor intensive. More time is required for women to set their hair, put on makeup and (presumabley) select stylish outfits. The author states that it became a feminist statement to stop conforming to the female norm. I, however, feel that her point is not very effective.It seems to me that the author stopped following female norms and instead followed male norms. Conforming to male appearances is not what the feminist movement should stand for. To me, the feminist movement means the right to choose to look however you wish to look. That means you cannot shave your legs, but have long hair if you so desire- straddling the lines between male and female expectations. It should not be that you must fit one mold or the other; humans are unique individuals and should therefore look unique. By choosing the male norm it seems as though the author is just another cross-dresser of sorts. Furthermore, the author is presumptious when she assumes that all males revel in the fact that they do not have to shave. I was reminded of a time when my male cousin had to shave his body for a swim meet. He half- jokingly noted that he loved his smooth legs. This got me wondering and I searched the internet for opinions on men shaving their bodies.
http://hairremoval.about.com/u/ua/menshairremoval/should-guys-shave-their-legs.htm
It seems in this particular discussion board that more men are open to shaving their bodies than the author realizes. All people seem to take pride in a certain appearance. Also interesting on this board is that women are mostly the people that are demanding men be unshaved. Men seem to be more open minded.
The author did make a good point when discussing people’s reactions to her new style. I think these reactions are more so directed at the violation of social norms rather than at the actual hairiness of author’s legs. Again, I checked online to see more people’s reactions and they were all pretty similar.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080127130409AAAkEnR
there was also a sarcastic column that listed awful reasons to go unshaven, thus reiterating the fact that women should indeed shave.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/29838/5_reasons_girls_shouldnt_shave_their_pg2.html?cat=46
Overall, I think the author made some valid points but unfortunately fell short of an effective argument and may have instead distanced herself from her target audience.