I was upset. I didn't want to.
But I didn't really have a choice. Sliding off my shorts, I stepped into the tub. Shivered as my mother slathered my legs with white foam. Waited, trying to keep a brave face, even though inside, I was questioning it all. 15 minutes of my life, wasted, each month. Money, down the drain- literally. I was shaving. I've never done traditional, razor shaving before. I was adamant to only use the stuff that smells horrid and essentially burns the leg hair off. Even from the time OI started, I questioned why I was being forced to go through this ritual. As a woman, it seemed my duty to rid myself of any hair except for the stuff on my head, like it was a sin to have leg hair. That was contrasted with the fact that my dad had hair in every single place it grew, yet nobody ever accused HIM of not shaving. My mom was the most adamant about me shaving, and I know I got on her nerves when I complained. Because to her, I needed smooth skin to be beautiful. I was fed these lies all the time. "You'll never get a boyfriend if you don't shave." Because of my perpetually single status, that one hurt the most. Every look of disgust, of pity- from my own parent. All over leg hair. It hurt. I cried, was angry, hated my body- but I haven't shaved in months. And I'm proud of that. My own mother taught me to hate my body if there was so much as a single hair out of place. She had always told me I had a pretty face, but when it came to exposing my legs, I was hideous until all the hair was gone. I was angry that she needed me to be smooth to think me beautiful. I know it was her own insecurities about leg hair that caused her to be so harsh to me, but that's really no excuse. Treating me like a disgusting monster because I refused to shave did nothing but damage the relationship, until it felt like there was no one else to talk to about it. A fear lingered in my heart- if I told someone, they wouldn't agree, and join the chorus of voices telling me to shave it all off. I almost didn't have a choice in the matter, even though it was My body, and MY hair. I would grin and bear it, but the resentment would build steadily under the surface. Any reason I gave not to shave, they reciprocated with reasons WHY, leaving me to feel more and more ashamed. I hated it. I hated the fact that women were expected to have perfectly smooth, flawless skin, something that could really only be achieved with thousands of dollars spent on laser hair removal. I hated the feeling of shaved legs, the unnatural smoothness, the hard, pointy little stubs as it grew back. Shaving was a never ending cycle, and I just wanted it to stop. The average woman spends almost $8,500 in her lifetime shaving. She wastes 8 weeks of her life getting rid of something that will just grow back. Lots of women defend their shaving with excuses such as liking the smooth feel, thinking leg hair is disgusting, or any other sort of reason. However, I believe that this is not true. Women are taught from birth that women should not have hair anywhere but their head- period. Even before it starts to even grow in other places, they are taught to hate it. It's no wonder so many women hate the feeling of hair on their legs- because they never give it time to grow naturally and actually experience the feeling. All they've had is the hard, pointy little stubs. Same goes for hating the look. In a natural environment, most people probably wouldn't care. But in an age of rigid, unnecessary beauty standards, leg hair is considered ugly, and anyone who disagrees is shamed. Which is incredibly stupid, seeing as we all could be $8,000 richer and have an extra 8 weeks to do whatever we want. Shave shaming is an incredibly destructive force of body shaming, and the stupidest. Body shaming originated from American finally recognizing the obesity epidemic, and that's what it's fueled by. At its core, body shaming has grown from wanting people to be a healthy weight to expecting unrealistic shapes that no human can pull off without any negative effects. Body shaming people who are larger than what is considered "normal" at least has a health related reason. Body hair has none such. Body hair is not dangerous to your health. Body hair is not caused by eating bad foods. Body hair does not cause diabetes, heart problems, or cancer. The main danger in deciding not to shave is- you guessed it- shave shaming. In a world where women are constantly surrounded by unrealistic, gross expectations of their bodies, leg hair is just another nail in the coffin. It serves no purpose except to get you ridiculed, made fun of, seen as disgusting, and being called out by random strangers about your life choices. Parallel this to breastfeeding. People are against it for many of the same reasons. It's considered disgusting by some, unnatural by others, and still something you JUST DON'T DO. Yet why have we been having a push for more rights for mothers who chose to do this? Women are banding together and supporting each other, because they feel THEY SHOULD NOT BE SHAMED PUBLICLY. But guess what? Where are the people that are standing up for those who choose to go Au natural with leg hair, armpit hair, even ARM hair, and no makeup galore? Where are the people who believe that women are beautiful no matter what? Once we get into the hard set beauty standards, perpetuated by companies that sell razors, cosmetics, and other "beauty" products, women lose the sense of who they are. They're bodies that mst look a certain way, follow a certain regimen, just to be "beautiful". And that is where these women go wrong, obliterating their faces with plastic surgery, overshadowing their natural beauty with enough makeup for an army of clowns, shaving and cutting their skin forever because IT IS NEVER SMOOTH ENOUGH. When will ewe release ourselves from this shame of our bodies and learn that we are beautiful without all these superficial things? Women need to get off their own high horses of social insecurity and instead of shaming other women, help them to understand that they are beautiful just how they are. Shaving is unnecessary. So why is is required???
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It was the year 3566, known as the common era before the discovery, that a crew of 53 members and over 75 prostitutes left a nuclear and radiation ridden Earth. The journey was sponsored by Kess & Kepler, Co.- a company known for taking advantage of the tumultuous situation on earth and engaging in some...questionably legal...activities. Their goal was to colonize the planet Kepler-438b. While approaching their destination, the ship got pulled into an unseen black hole, where, instead of dying, the crew was warped lightyears into the galaxy away from Earth. After drifting aimlessly for months, their ship suddenly got a reading on an Earth-like planet. Having nothing else to hope for, the crew landed their ship on the planet. It was remarkably Earth-like, and they soon made a small township. Over the next year, they explored what little of the planet they could access, interacting with the species that already existed. The crew had frozen eggs and sperm of many of the most useful animals on Earth, so they attempted to recreate those species on the planet they dubbed “Kerell-807a”. However, strangely, none of those animals were able to survive on Kerell-807a. Only after many failed attempts did the crew accept that the only earth creature that could survive on Kerell was humans. They began looking to the local species for transportation, food, and pelts. It was Year 3 NA when the starship Fantasi exploded. Only 7 people were killed, 30 injured, but the cause of the explosion was a mineral called Techor that reacted negatively with Earth technology. The explosion devastated the small area the humans inhabited, called Frycce, so before their numbers grew even more, the humans, using their newly tamed Laricons, moved their settlement east into a land of plains and trees they called “Eridus”. There, they settled permanently. Years 1-3 had been okay in terms of behavior and violence, as they were all depending on each other for survival, but once they were fairly settled in year 5, hell started to break loose. An intense land grab took place, resulting in a degradation of politics back to a feudal system, mainly run by men. Women, hoping to gain some power for themselves, took to opening brothels, where women could be protected and also make a living. Meanwhile, some of the richer and more powerful sector Lords funded a secret campaign. An underground fighting culture became Eridus’ least kept secret, replenished by the unwanted children borne by brothel workers. The children were raised to do two things: be obedient to the death of their masters, and to fight like their lives depended on it when instructed to- which, it did. Meanwhile, the scientific community was occupied discovering all the capabilities of Techor, which essentially replaced any previous technology still remaining from the Fantasi explosion. It was first Radogen Tarot who had the game-changing idea that revolutionized an entire bloodsport. The eggs and sperm of Earth animals were practically useless on its own, but, seizing the best minds he could find, Radogen tasked them with attempting to combine the animal genes with the children that were used to fight in order to gain an advantage. In Year 7 NA, the first successful human-animal hybrid, dubbed an “Amano”, fought in the CFR (child fighting rings). It wasn’t long, just a few months into Year 8 NA when Radogen’s discovery became known, and then the ball was sent rolling. The Tarot clan profited immensely until soon, anyone with the money and influence could buy or create their own shapeshifters. It was the Procreation Panic of Year 9 NA when the sperm and eggs ran out. Quickly, owners had to switch from ordering by letter to breeding themselves or buying from breeding facilities at exorbitant prices. While CF (child fighting) was still wildly popular for the common man, AF (Amano fighting) was a new bloodsport after child owners realized how outclassed they were by the hybrids. While still fairly new, AF was quickly growing, and the amount of Amanos was increasing at an incredibly fast rate. Aging twice as fast as humans until age 13, where they reverted to normal aging before aging twice as slow at age 30, Amanos reproduced rapidly, with a gestation of only 99 days until birth. It’s estimated that only 350 surviving Amanos were created from the original genetic material by Year 9 NA, but by Year 14, over 4,000. Amanos existed amongst humans. Everything had seemed to be going perfectly for the now almost 6,000 humans, but in Year 15 NA, revolution broke out. The Amanos, outnumbered by the humans and helped by Amano sympathizers, rose up. Many managed to escape, while others were recaptured. Only a few were killed, as they were still quite expensive. The major losses happened in the breeding facilities, while the most minor occurred with the young, broken children who had lived in the rings their entire life. Being much better suited to the wild than humans due to their animal characteristics, the Amanos were able to find new habitats across Kerell-807a. With the help of outlawed sympathizers, they became literate, advanced, and the gene pool became more diluted as they mated with the pure humans, creating a melting pot of genetics. Per their differences, they split into groups and lived much like the humans did, with different species of Amano living in different habitats and clans. The years came and went, and soon there were very few pure humans living in the Amano clans. Occasionally, new purebloods would join after being outlawed, bountied, or getting in trouble in the human clans. Some joined out of fascination, while others came to bring news and support the freedom of a species that they felt responsible for creating. Eventually, the wild Amanos’ genetics became incredibly varied due to natural mutations from being in nature, while the captive Amanos occasionally suffered defects or failed to birth children with improved genes. Their masters getting ambitious, they let their arrogance lead them into a raid against the wild Amanos, which at this time were rumored to outnumber the humans greatly. In Year 22 NA, as expected, the lobby for new genes ended in many dead humans and only a few captured Amanos, not at all enough to make up for the human casualties. An uneasy stalemate remained for many years, still there today. Attempts have been made to establish peace, but all have ended on the verge of unwanted war. The number of humans present in Eridus equaled about 32,000 in Year 25 NA and Amanos were totaled (estimated based on previous birth rates) a close 30,000.
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AuthorAn 18 year old writer, drawer, tea enthusiast, beanie baby collector, INFJ, Pleiadian starseed and high schooler, Amanda enjoys mammals, drawing, and reading. She wants to be an editor, comic artist, alien, and own lots of pets when she grows up. Archives
January 2020
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