via Feministing, an Australian website is marketing Brazilian bikini waxes to ten-year-olds. And if that doesn’t squick you out enough, check out their pitch:
The website, which appears to be mostly read by girls in the nine to 14 age bracket, says of the Brazilian: “Nobody really likes hair in their private regions and it has a childlike appeal.”
Let me repeat that last bit for you: It has a childlike appeal.
Just… aack.
First, ten-year-olds don’t need their vulvas to have “childlike appeal” because they’re already children. And because they’re children, their private parts shouldn’t be marketed as sexually appealing.
I’m not going to get into the politics of body hair here. I will say that I find the statement “Nobody really likes hair in their private regions” particularly troubling because, well, it’s simply not true. Plenty of people — I’m gonna go out on a limb and say most people — are perfectly satisfied with having pubic hair. You wouldn’t know that if you got all of your sex education from porn, but that’s generally a bad idea. And plenty of people remove their pubic hair. More power to ‘em. While I’m sure there are varying reasons for pubic hair removal, I’m gonna go out on a limb and suggest that much of the time, sex and sexual pleasure is a pretty heavy factor. I’ll go out even further and suggest that it’s incredibly disturbing that we’re telling pre-teens that they should be worried about having sexually appealing genitals.
Finally, I’m gonna throw it out there that it’s pretty messed up when “childlike appeal” is synonymous with “sexual appeal.”
Ugh– someone needs to give these people a copy of the “hair” monologue from Eve Ensler’s “Vagina Monologues” — and I am so sick of this new generation of young men expecting women to be bare down there. Again, we have porn to thank.
It’s like it never occurred to them that the last thing that should be sexually appealing to people is something that’s specifically childlike.
I like having armpit hair, for goodness sakes. I don’t shave my legs, either. (Yes, I really am a hairy-legged feminist. Deal.) This is just way beyond the pale, as far as I’m concerned.
I’m so hard-core about this issue I’m actually interested in seeing people discouraging their daughters from depiliating. The world will not end if you have hairy legs, and if more people had them, maybe fewer people would look at those of us who do like we have three heads (instead of just naturally-occurring hair where it ought to be).
Transgressively yours…
That’s just… really disturbing. I’m with you, if adult women want to remove their pubic hair they don’t have to justify it to me. (It’s sort of sad if porn influences people’s expectations in that area, and I like the “natural” look, but still, whatever crumbles your cookie.) But ten-year-olds feeling wrong for having pubic hair? That’s just messed up.
We sure this isn’t some kind of pedophile site?
Yeah, “childlike appeal” is horrifying. I get the reasons why folks do it, even though I don’t like the practice. (As my wife will tell you, my own entirely personal preference for my partner, if we’re gonna head towards TMI, is to minimize grooming. Everywhere. I’m from the Napoleon school, myself. And I hate bathing/shaving myself, and do so largely to be inoffensive to others.)
Anyhow, this is where I don’t have trouble advocating paternalism. No cosmetologist or other beauty professional may wax the vulvas of girls under 14, with or without parental permission. I ain’t got no trouble with such a law. Who would?
Um. . . . ick. Just ick.
[...] via Feministe, an Australian company is marketing Brazilian waxes to ten year old girls, using the argument that [...]
Wow. I have a daughter who’s just going on 15 months now. I shudder to think that this is the world she’s going to be growing up in. Appalling and disgusting on so many levels I just don’t know where to begin. Makes me glad we don’t have cable (and never will) so she’ll only see ads for this crap at her friends’ places. Even more glad that her mother will be setting the fine example she already does, too.
My wife informs me that I should have gone ahead and mentioned the fact that she doesn’t even shave her armpits either, and it’s really not a big deal (hell, once I got used to it, it’s kinda hot).
Interrobang,
I agree with a lot of what you said. I have never shaved my legs or arms. Of course, I must also admit that my particular Native American background means I don’t really have any hair to shave. I have a latina friend who has thick hair on her arms and legs and she has to shave every couple of days just to keep the bare look.
I’ve tried shaving the nether regions but I just couldn’t get into it. I don’t know how people can do it and not end up with a horrible itch as it grows back. I do shave under my arms from time to time but not regularly.
I’ve taught my daughter that she doesn’t need to shave but if she wants to she can and I’ll support her decision. She’s tried it a few times and then didn’t bother with it either. A lot of the girls in her class (middle school) are already shaving–everywhere–so there is some pressure involved with this. However, I hope she will continue to see her body as just fine the way it is.
Umm, someone tell them that pubic hair isn’t “childlike”, it’s a sign of puberty, which is basically the physical demarcation of maturity (not that we socially draw the line there, with menarche earlier and earlier, etc.)
..or maybe I’m reading it differently than everyone else, but it’s still really screwed up.
I just don’t know what to say about something that disgusting. We really are letting people get more and more confused about their bodies. We really are trying to sexualize the child and take the woman out of sex. I am glad that I grew up, my husband is glad that he is with an adult and neither of us want the rigors of sexuality forced on someone who isn’t ready for it. And behind me someone is babbling about on-line predators who would probably support the business’ right to operate on a free market basis, yuck.
*gaps*
Really? I mean… come on! I remember being scared when my pubic hair started to come in, when I was 12. But then I was proud, cause it meant I was growing up. I tried shaving it for a boyfriend in high school once, and hated it. It was uncomfortable, and honestly… I’m too sensitive down there. I need that layer of hair to keep me from squirming in my seat all the time. My first girlfriend shaved down there, and I never really cared for it much. My current girlfriend actually actively enjoys my hair and begs me to never even trim it.
*shrugs* I shave the rest of me fairly often, mainly cause I like the smooth feel, but my girlfriend will go a month with out shaving her legs so it doesn’t really bother me. I tease her about it, but that’s about it.
Why would anyone want to look like a child to be sexy? I don’t find kids sexy. They look like *kids* to me.
Micheyd, I think the “childlike appeal” was referring to the Brazilian wax, not pubic hair.
I fully admit I shave, but I find this to be disgusting. For one, I’m an adult and I find I prefer it (I shaved even when I was single and had no sex partners or desire to be with anyone). I would never, ever tell another woman to shave or not to shave and I would especially never tell a ten year old to get a wax!
The only thing I can think of is that maybe some 10 year-old girls are maturing faster than their peers and maybe they get a little anxious about having hair “down there.” Yet, I don’t think we should encourage them to get rid of the hair. Instead we should be reassuring them that it’s completely natural and that in time all girls become women and will have hair.
Also, how can a 10 year-old be anything but “childlike”? Man, that language is just all kinds of creepy.
Jill – thanks, I got that. I went from confusion to disgust pretty fast there, ha.
I guess there’s no female too young enough to enforce strict social gender standards on. What’s next, laser for toddlers so they never have to encounter the indignity of hair growth?
No kidding. Yeesh.
Do ten-year-olds even have pubic hair, as a general rule?
Christ, this is disgusting.
If I may just toss one more “are you fucking kidding me???” into the ring–
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME???
This is so far beyond merely perverse I’m not even sure what to say to it.
As a 12-year-old I found my own pubic hair disgusting. (Still do.) I do not *like* the fact that some of the markers our bodies display of our adulthood are unpleasant, itchy, wiry, or painful. I don’t like stinky B.O., I don’t like menstruating, and I don’t like pubic hair. And because my hair grows down the side of my legs, it embarrassed me so badly that I stopped swimming as a teen (I *loved* swimming as a child) because I couldn’t find any bathing suits that didn’t go out of their way to display that part of my body in loving detail, and I didn’t want to have to shave it.
But I’d never have gotten a wax at that age. (Or any age. Ow!) And if someone had told me at 10 that my body needed to be sexually appealing, I would have had the same reaction *my* ten year old has anytime someone mentions the word “sex” to her — I would have gone “Ew!” and made a mock retching noise or pretended to hide my head in my arms. 10 year olds should not be sexually appealing, and they should not be worrying about if they are or not.
I was once at a bar talking to a cute guy. I raised my arm while dancing and he noticed my unshaven armpit hair. Then he started asking me if I don’t ever shave, and I explained that yes, I didn’t ever shave. Then, he thought it was appropriate to tell me that I should shave my genitals because “I like smooth p***y lips hugging my c**k as I slide into you.” I told him that that wouldn’t be an issue, because we would never be in that position, and got away asap.
It’s so horrifying it makes me want to cry.
My sister is 11, and I’m always wondering what I can do to counter the negative messages she receives every day.
And I didn’t have pubic hair at ten. =<
aside from being insanely creepy, this is just bad marketing. what pre-teen girl wants to do something that is going to make her look “child-like”? she most likely wants to look OLDER (or isn’t brainwashed by marketing, and therefore still isn’t interested).
Yes, you demented ad people get us to spend millions trying to look younger, but that generally doesn’t start until at least 26.
Here is the quote from their website:
The Brazilian bikini wax is an acquired taste and is not for everyone. Some women can endure the pain while others it’s just too much to bare. For those of you interested in modeling it’s a must, but I’d recommend a lead up before you take the plunge.
[snip]
So why does it appeal. Nobody really likes hair in their private regions and this removes it.
They either removed the “childlike appeal” part, or the news article misquoted it.
Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the reporting on this was hype. The site has a bridal section…clearly not for 10-14 year olds.
I’m also not sure how “childlike appeal” is supposed to equate to “sexual appeal.” BTW, removing pubic/body hair isn’t specifically done for sexual reasons (tho there may be exceptions).
For the person who asked whether 10-year-olds had pubic hair: Yes, it’s rather common. In girls, body hair growth is one of the changes that occurs earliest, a few years ahead of menarche.
When I started growing body hair, I was horrified. To me, it was the last fucking straw… I started menstruating at nine, was the tallest in my class, and the first to need a bra. The hair made me hideously depressed, and elicited many comments from me to my mother that “I didn’t WANT to grow up”. So yeah, I can understand girls being won over by the “childlike” label. I also think it’s horrendous that people would cash in on that.
Full disclosure, though: These days, I shave my legs and armpits, and get a (mostly) brazillian wax. No-one’s taking that precious, so-sensitive bare “down there” skin away from me…. but I AM an adult, and I readily admit it’s a largely sexual thing, ,even if it’s sexual with ME in mind rather than my partners. Young girls should just be left to develop without yet another piece of body hate piled on top of the mountain they’re already fed.
This reminds me of Abercrombie & Fitch’s children’s thongs; does anyone remember the outcry when those hit the market? What kind of person would you have to be to have come up with such an idea in the first place?
“By the way, if anyone here is in advertising or marketing, kill yourself. No, this is not a joke: kill yourself . . . I know what the marketing people are thinking now too: ‘Oh. He’s going for that anti-marketing dollar. That’s a good market.’ Oh man, I am not doing that, you fucking evil scumbags.”
What would Mr. Hicks said of these particular ‘fucking evil scumbags’?
That last sentence should read, of course, “What would Mr. Hicks have said…”; yes, I’m pedantic and proud of it!