THINKING ALLOWED

Thinking allowed BY Anneke Smelik. FROM RADIO 4

[Name of the institute]

Thinking allowed BY Anneke Smelik. FROM RADIO 4

Introduction

The article “The Hairless Body” was discussed on the radio 4. It has talked about the feminist aspect of removing hair, which has also affected men. Now the time has come, when both; males and females have started removing their hair, either by waxing or shaving them. Anneke Smelik is feminist, and mainly talks about the feminist aspects. In the article, “The Hairless Body”, the author has talked about the feminist aspect of removing from their body. It also talks about that, nowadays it got highly accepted that even men has starting waxing or shaving their body hair (Poteet, 2006). It has become the culture in the society that even men have to shave, and make sure that their body is clean.

Discussion

The article states that, “It used to be a feminist faux pas but now over 99% of women regularly remove hair from their bodies. Men are doing it too, Peter Mandelsson waxes the back of his hand and sportsmen, like Gavin Henson, shave their legs. Anneke Smelik, Professor of Visual Culture at the Department of Cultural Studies, University of Nijmegen (Netherland), tells Laurie what she thinks lies behind this war on body hair.” This tells that now the hairless body is the war in the culture, as it is the feminine thing, but men are also interested in doing so.

Talking about the increased interest in shaving or waxing the hair, an excellent example can be of male models, who wax their chest and arms for the modeling. The reason is that they want to look clean, and attractive, as it is the requirement of their work (Zack, 2005). The adoption of feminine habit of waxing or shaving the body is now being accepted by most of the men. It is also the necessity of work, as models have to adopt this feminine waxing habit for the security of their job. No model got accepted if he is not waxed, or shaved.

Models wax because of their work requirements. There are men who wax or shave, because they are influenced by this feminine activity. It makes them feel that they look good, and more attractive if they shaved. It is one of the ways of attracting women these days. In the western society, most of the husbands opt for waxing or shaving their body. ...