Attack of the clones
I was watching a tv show on the topic of hair removal a couple nights ago. In this show they were talking about the American and British compulsion to remove all evidence of body hair from women, and people who are obsessed with removing hair and people who couldn't care less about it.
I personally come from a hairy family, but I really don't care about removing all of it. I shave my legs and armpits whenever there's a chance they'll be visible in public. But I cover most of my skin all the time, so most people don't know or care if I have hairy legs.
There was one woman who shaved her entire body every day, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day. She very literally had obsessive compulsive disorder surrounding hair removal. But she was not the most disturbing person on the show. The one that disturbs me the most even several days later is the one they interviewed about why she was getting a "Hollywood" wax (removal of all pubic hair). Her answer with no irony or joking in her expression was, and I couldn't make this up:
"I used to get a Brazillian wax, but then everyone started getting the Hollywood wax, and you have to follow the trends, don't you?"
Wow. I mean, wow. So this woman is getting all the hair forcibly ripped from her genitals by a complete stranger on a regular basis just because she thinks that everyone else does it. She is the living example of, "If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you?" She totally would.
Do they even teach the concept of individuality and resisting peer pressure here? Probably not, I guess. I mean, you would get Americans who are slaves to fashion, but none of them would ever admit it. My parents and friends in the US complain that the heavy influence on individuality in America is destroying the concept of community. The people here are in no way indivifual, and yet there is still no sense of community. Conformity doesn't equal community. Conformity just makes you unoriginal and boring.
Alana
