Mowing the Grass

At first glance, I revert my eyes because I don’t want to be looking at another woman’s pubic hair or region. Then I look back and chuckle a little. Is it meant to be a statement about shaving pubic hair or just something funny? Does the woman who’s wearing it have a stance or opinion about shaving? I’d like to think she does.

She got this because her boyfriend of 4 years just broke up with her. While not the exact main reason, it was in part because, in the end, she refused to shave and wax her legs, armpits, and pubic region. When he first told her that he liked smooth, hairless women, she didn’t think much of it and removed her body’s hair. After her first Brazilian wax, she was shocked. It has hurt so bad to lye on that table and have a stranger scrutinize the place between her legs, violently ripping the soft and natural hair off her sensitive skin. She couldn’t believe that so many women went through that process routinely and willfully, actually paying for it to be done. And for what? For whom?

In her case at least, it was for her boyfriend. This guy who she thought she really liked and who supposedly liked her equally. But did he like her equally, if he wanted her to go though such an unnatural, unpleasant and painful process? Before she new it, 4 years had passed and she had become a regular at the local nails and waxing place. It was only after their breakup, which of course was a result of her realizing she would and could never be the person her ex wanted her to be. It was with this tattoo, that she was able to create humor out of pain—both physical and emotional—and remember never to go down that road again.

I am writing from a western woman’s position. I am a young woman with parents whom have tried to shelter me from the idea of changing oneself for others and participating in unnatural acts of using makeup, shaving, or dying hair. For the most part, I don’t mind trying things once or twice, so I can form my own opinion on things. But currently, I am in a gray area, a middle ground, where I haven’t figured out what types of modifications are ok and what kinds aren’t, or if one can even make clear opinions or generalizations about actions like that.