When it comes to body hair, it's simple: Women are expected not to have any. We've been brainwashed to believe female body hair is taboo, and it should never be seen or displayed.
Ever since I can remember, advertising for razors or hair removal products has never — ever — showed women with actual hair. Models are shown shaving their already hairless and airbrushed legs, which makes literally zero sense. But hey, anything's better that showing women with body hair, right? *eye roll*
Showing perfectly retouched people creates an unhealthy and unrealistic expectation that women are expected to have hairless bodies.
But like always, women are told what their bodies should look like and are held to ridiculous body standards.
Which makes Billie's Project Body Hair so refreshing. Billie, a razor company, launched this campaign in order to acknowledge and celebrate women with body hair, aka all of us.
“Only showing smooth, hairless legs seemed like an archaic way of representing women. We have always said shaving is a choice. It’s your hair and no one should tell you what to do with it. We’re excited to launch a campaign that will help normalize body hair and change the one-dimensional way in which women are portrayed in mass media,” Billie's co-founder, Georgina Gooley, said in a press release to As/Is.
Besides releasing beautiful images and kick ass video featuring Princess Nokia's song "Tomboy," Billie is also donating their photographs to Unspalsh, a stock image website. It's probably not a shock to anyone, but it's very difficult to find women with body hair portrayed positively on the internet. So yay Billie, for changing the way ~hairy~ women are showcased.
“It’s amazing that Billie is the first shaving company to actually show women with body hair. In all razor commercials, for some reason I can’t wrap my head around the fact that models already have smooth hairless skin. How can you know that a razor is even doing its job if all it's doing is swiping off some shaving cream? And more importantly, why is showing female body hair so taboo?” said director and photographer Ashley Armitage in a press release to As/Is.
For more information and to check out all the images from Project Body Hair, make sure you visit their website.
