Woman Advises Women To 'Run Away' If Your Man Won't Allow You To Stop Shaving
Our body hair, our choice.
@orim / TikTok Women shaving their body hair has been a beauty standard in America since the early 1900s when Gillette first marketed a safety razor for women because body hair on women was seen as “inherently masculine and indelicate.”
TikToker Orim weighed in on this beauty standard in a recent video answering a viewer’s question. The viewer asked Orim what to do because she wants to stop shaving but her man won’t let her. Orim acknowledged that it has been a beauty standard for quite some time for women to shave, and it is easy to misunderstand and fear the unknown.
However, that does not give any man the right to tell a woman what they can and cannot do with their body.
She told viewers to run for their lives if your partner won't let you shave your hair.
After one of her viewers wrote in saying that her boyfriend doesn't let her shave, Orim went on to say that if a man loves you, they will respect your choice and will be supportive. If body hair makes you feel good, they should support that, even if they are not attracted to it. It is inherently your choice.
Users in the comments agreed with this notion. One user wrote, “‘won’t let you’ — you’re an adult. He is not your keeper.” Another user told a story about how she asked her fiancé what he would think if she stopped shaving, and he said that she should do what makes her happy, so she caught herself a good man.
Orim says that from a young age, women are taught to be disgusted by their own body hair and it makes her mad.
She claims that since she stopped shaving, she has felt “more confident, more free, and more powerful” than she ever has before. She says she feels this way because she is no longer rejecting a part of herself and is learning to embrace her whole self. It symbolizes acceptance and letting go of insecurities.
In her opinion, it should not matter what men think of your body hair because the relationship you have with yourself is the most important thing. She reiterates that a healthy relationship is two people coming together with mutual respect and acceptance for each other without trying to change the other person.
We need to stop surrounding ourselves with people who do not allow us to grow into the people we want to be and make it hard to love ourselves for who we are.
Orim ended her TikTok by telling the viewer she originally responded to that she hopes her man is just not used to the idea of women not shaving and is willing to open himself up to the idea, but if not they shouldn’t be afraid to “throw him back into the sea.”
Women shaving their body hair sparked a conversation about self-love and beauty standards.
One male user commented, “As a man... the social construct of body hair is crazy... it’s hair. We all have it. You be you!” Another user said that natural women are beautiful.
It is so interesting that a beauty standard from the 1900s is still dominating our world today. Trends change and evaporate so quickly that it is weird that this beauty standard has overarchingly gone unchanged for over a century. It has become more acceptable for women not to shave, but it is still a social "norm" for women to shave their body hair.
But women who wish to have body hair should not be shamed by society.
One user shared that she hasn’t shaved in years and has felt more comfortable with herself since making that decision. Another user said, “When you see past the physical body, you meet the soul. When two souls meet the union is fire. The ego sheds and love thrives.”
All in all, we should all do the things that make us feel happy, healthy and confident, despite what others think.
Tarah Hickel is a Washington-based writer and is a frequent contributor to YourTango. She focuses on entertainment and news stories, including viral topics and pop culture.