March 2010
6 posts
February 2010
40 posts
After following this blog for a bit I realized that I wasn't the only really hairy girl out there, so I decided to let the hair under my chin grow out. It is rather dark and noticeable but after a couple of days of no one saying anything about it I got more comfortable with it and now I don't even notice it's there. I have to wear my hair up for work and for once I don't feel ashamed for being natural :O) Thank you.
:) I really am super happy that this tumblr is providing support for people. I am glad you are gaining confidence. You’re welcome!
Facial hair: the construction of female bodies →
genderkid.wordpress.com
I have facial hair. I haven’t been injecting testosterone: it’s just been there for years. I remember being embarrassed about it when I was 13 or 14. I hadn’t seen any media images of women or females with moustaches, so there surely was something wrong with having facial hair (I use “women” and “females” interchangeably because, at that point, I thought they were the same thing). The same went for leg hair, and for a while I was really paranoid about the hair on the back of my hands. I had heard that shaving made things worse –since you can see the thick base of the hair instead of the thin tip– so I tried depilating creams, plucking and wax. Ouch!
Eventually, I realized that there were women with body hair — lots of them. Who would have guessed that media representations of women were far from accurate?! I had been so busy feeling ashamed of myself that I hadn’t realized that some of my female friends had even fuller moustaches than I did. If I hadn’t noticed, maybe no one could notice my hair, either. I relaxed a little, although tried to I keep my facial hair at a minimum until I started identifying as male. That’s when I started shaving.
I thought that shaving didn’t truly stimulate growth, but in the past year I started noticing that my facial hair was more visible. My moustache and sideburns probably look darker due to shaving, but my chin is definitely developing more and more thick hairs — not a full-blown beard, but past the “allowed” female amount. It might be the shaving, it might be hormonal; I only know that it’s there. My body is typically female and it grows facial hair. So why are beards construed as male? No wonder Leslie Feinberg includes (cissexual) women with beards under the gender-variant umbrella: they’re defying the very rules of what female bodies are allowed to do.
I’m trying to tie in my critique of male/female body construction with the fact that I want my body to look more male-typical: I want the narrow hips, the beard, the low voice. Those seem like opposite notions — my desire to transition physically appears to reinforce the construction of a male, masculine, man’s body.
I think the connection lies within the idea of freedom: people should be allowed to do whatever they want with their bodies, no matter if they don’t fit into traditional notions of what a “normal” body looks like. And I should do whatever I want with my body, even if that brings my body closer to the standards of what men’s bodies look like — after all, if I withheld my deep desire of transition in order to “free the gender/sex system”, how could I be freeing myself? I’d just be creating a new set of standards that limit my liberty.
I know that my facial hair doesn’t make me any more of a man. I could identify as a woman and still embrace it. But it’s something I enjoy, so I’m going to go ahead and embrace it. As a person.
“
In the West, female hair growth is a particularly interesting subject. Certain women, one could say emancipated, or who consider themselves emancipated do not subscribe to these beauty ideals. In some cases, they will deliberately allow their facial hair, their underarm hair to grow out. The legs will be enshrouded in hair, as will the arms.
In some cases, these women are disparaged by other women still well-ensconced within the lens-vision of patriarchy, as dykes, butch etc when in truth, not all women who choose to disregard such restrictive norms are gay.
Is it a self-perpetuating vicious cycle? Do women do it for the men, and the men in turn, cannot move past such superficialities. Men have been said to call armpit hair, “disgusting” whereas sometimes the most “disgusting” specimens of hair growth can be seen on men! It seems by this argument perfectly legitimate to ask a man to remove his bodily hair. However, this is quite rare, because interestingly enough, the male bodily hair symbolizes masculinity; that elusive yet much required trait in the male of the species.
A woman, then is making herself more feminine for male approval by removing hair. It is a deeply rooted ideal in consciousness that women adhere to.
Amongst the rural women, in Pakistan hair removal is not amongst the number one things that they do. Moustaches are not uncommon. Are they then the more emancipated women in a country that represses its woman? If we are taking hair removal as a symbol of emancipation, then certainly. However, it seems rather superficial.
” —The Curious Case of Female Emancipation in the Context of Pakistan
“
When I first grew out my goatee, I found myself running in and out of the grocery store; if I saw people I knew, I would try to hide and get to the next aisle so they would not see me. I was scared. I was scared of rejection or of someone saying something mean. I just did not want to find out that these sweet people might reject me or be as mean as strangers have been. I also felt that I may have to explain myself to them or justify myself and I did not want to do that. This fear of rejection comes and goes. Sometimes I can walk over to the neighbor’s house and say hello, sometimes I cannot. There are still a few businesses I will not ever; I just do not want to face it yet.
Although fear still holds me back at times, a shift in thinking is taking place; I am acknowledging that it is their problem, not mine. I have little to do with their reaction or the feelings evoked in them by my appearance. I am slowly letting myself off of the hook or being responsible for their reactions; I do not have to justify or explain myself to anyone.
This shift in my thinking has moved me from being passive and people pleasing to angry and resentful. As I moved through this shift, walking into women’s bathrooms got easier because instead of shying away from women, or feeling bad or allowing their reaction to rule how I felt, this new self emerged. This “Fuck you, I am a woman no matter how I look and you can kiss my ass if you have a problem with it” self came out kicking and screaming…the teachable moments were gone.
” —How Facial Hair Influences Women’s Everyday Experiences by Debra Anne Beechy
“Hair has always been a sign of masculinity…[the phrase] “puts hair on your chest,” men have beards; if a woman has a beard then she’s breaking a gender defining line. A beard is a really specific gender defining line and so it’s treading on male territory which is treading on male power…historically hair has been a symbol of power, that’s why the men don’t want the women having too much of it in too many places — you get it!”
—Jennifer Miller (Juggling Gender, 1992)
What kind of posts do you want to see on fybeardedladies?
What would you like to see more of on this tumblr? It’s important that I know what you want so you can see that content on your dash! I know we all want more people to submit their personal stories and photos but I can’t provide all of that, you need to. But what else can I do for you? Let me know. Be specific if you can.
“Under the current ‘tyranny of slenderness’ women are forbidden to become large or massive; they must take up as little space as possible. The very contours a woman’s body takes on as she matures - the fuller breasts and rounder hips - have become distasteful. The body by which a woman feels herself judged and which by rigorous discipline she must try to assume is the body of early adolescence, slight and unformed, a body lacking flesh or substance, a body in whose very contours the image of immaturity has been inscribed. The requirement that a woman maintain a smooth and hairless skin carries further the theme of inexperience, for an infantilized face must accompany her infantilized body, a face that never ages or furrows its brow in thought. The face of the ideally feminine woman must never display the marks of character, wisdom and experience that we so admire in men.”
—
- Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power, Sandra Lee Bartky (via fuckthetrees) (via fuckyeahwomynwhodontshave)
My mustache is a mark of character. Fuck yes.
(via lavenderlines)Femme a Barbe Vol. 1 now available!
submitted by sassyfrasscircus
added by fybeardedladies: 43 pages, half size photocopied, featuring writing and art from 12 different contributors on gender and hair, sliding scale 2-5$. The best way is probably to paypal me at jenna [dot] brager [at] gmail [dot] com or order off my Etsy. Alternately you can mail well-concealed cash to j.bee, 2601 cool spring rd. adelphi md. 20783, until May. Or you can mail me a sweet zine and we can trade.
<3 j.bee
p.s. clicking the image will give you the same awesome information!
Play
Groom goes to kiss bride - and discovers she is bearded
From the Age. February 11, 2010
An Arab ambassador called off his wedding after discovering his wife-to-be, who had worn a face-covering veil whenever they met, was bearded and cross-eyed, the Gulf News reports.
The envoy had met the woman only a few times, during which she had hidden her face behind a niqab, the paper said on Wednesday.
After the marriage contract was signed, the ambassador tried to kiss his bride-to-be. It was then that he found she had facial hair and was cross-eyed, it said.
The ambassador told an Islamic sharia court in the United Arab Emirates that he was tricked into the marriage as the woman’s mother had shown his mother pictures of her sister instead of her, the report said.
He sued for the wedding contract to be annulled and also demanded the woman pay him 500,000 dirhams ($156,330) for clothes, jewellery and other gifts he had bought for her.
The court annulled the contract but rejected the ambassador’s demand for compensation.
The report did not identify the ambassador nor give any further details.
submitted by faketrain
Who are your favorite hairy ladies?
Your mom? Your cousin? Sister? Singer? Actress? Best friend? Yourself? What lady inspires you to look past the social norms and love bearded/hairy ladies?
Do you Ladies have a hairy legs site too?? I'd be more than happy to submit my pics! =)
I don’t know of a hairy legs tumblr! If someone knows of one please send a message my way and I’ll post the link. If there isn’t any maybe you should start one. :) In the meantime I’d be happy to post it here, it’s not a problem.
