Interesting double standard??

[candydawn75]

Ok so I was reading another thread and someone said something like - "How would you like it if your SO didn't shave there legs or underarms to look more masculine??" This was in response to someone wanting to shave their eyebrows.

Now don't get me wrong my wife knows and has no problem with my dressing, even buys me stuff. I shave top to bottom about every other day. So after thinking about it I did find it kinda funny and interesting about the double standard on shaving. Most if not all women let their legs grow during the winter using the "no one will see them anyway" line. However you reverse that and BAM people get all freaky cause a guy shaves. I get asked all the time about it, and just say I do it for triathlons and no one says a word after that. Now my wife on the other hand lets hers grow from time to time because she hates shaving and no I don't mind (no she doesn't let it get all monkey like but if it did and she was comfortable I wouldn't say anything heck she helps me dress so who am I to judge!! lol). However I have never heard anyone stop her and say "Dude are letting your the hair on your legs grow??"

Anyway I just thought I would throw that out there and see what ya'll thought!!

[MysticLady]

Ok so I was reading another thread and someone said something like - "How would you like it if your SO didn't shave there legs or underarms to look more masculine??" This was in response to someone wanting to shave their eyebrows.


Well Candy, since I'm a Hypocrite, I would not like it one bit. I want my wife too be all woman when I'm intimate w/ her(whenever that may happen , again:heehee:) so there. I said it. :P

[Ressie]

People rarely say what they're thinking because they want to be thought of as being nice. But... they're still thinking and sometimes gossiping about your fem attributes. "What's the deal with Bob's eyebrows?" or "Nancy's letting herself go".

[Kate Simmons]

The leg and underarm shaving is kind of a "right of passage" for teen aged girls as they want to fit in with peers and are just beginning to experience their femininity. Later , upon maturity and becoming their own person, they may choose not to do that so much. It's all fine with me as I appreciate who people are for the most part and their own unique individuality.:)

[Beverley Sims]

I have been guilty of practicing double standards from time to time.

[DeeArel]

If there were not double standards there would only be one standard.

[kimdl93]

At least from where I stand there is no double standard...no standard at all. My wife and daughters shave for the same reasons i do and none of us take shaving holidays because no one will see.

Honestly, I started shaving completely long before I came out, and no one noticed. Not at the gym, not at the beach, not when i wore shorts in the summer.

[Cheryl Ann Owens]

I have no problem at all with my wife letting her leg and armpit hair grow. Matter of fact I kind of like it. She doesn't mind me shaving head to toe so who am I to say she has to? It's a tradeoff. She enjoys that she doesn't have to shave to be feminine for me and besides no one would see it.

Cheryl

[jenni_xx]

Maybe the "double standard" doesn't lie in the action itself (for example, shaving), but in the reason for the action itself (for example shaving). Is your wife NOT shaving because she wants to look like, and present herself, as a man? If the answer is no (which I suspect it is), then the reasons for her not shaving and you shaving are completely and utterly separate. And for that reason alone, there is NO double standard. Just as there is no double standard when a woman gets a short haircut. Or when a woman puts on a pair of trousers. She isn't crossdressing, nor is she trying to crossdress, nor is it about trying to present herself as anything other than her birth gender. But for us, crossdressers, that is simply not the case. We ARE attempting/trying/succeeding to cross the gender divide. We don't let our hair (on our heads) grow out because it's acceptable for a man to do so, but because it can result in a more feminine haircut. We don't shave our legs because it's acceptable for a man to do so, but because we want to feel more feminine. We don't wear a skirt, or put on make-up, for exactly the same reason.

So as far as the "interesting double standard" is concerned, well, the moment when we adorn skirts, dresses, make-up, not in the hope of feeling more feminine, or expressing our femininity, but in the ideal that we can claim such items/adornments as masculine in and of themselves, and THEN be judged for that, well then, that is the moment that such a double standard could kick in. Until then however...

...We'll just continue to refer to every single man here, on a site such as this, as "she", "her", that is, how we want to be addressed - that is, as a woman.

[Chickhe]

I really get annoyed when someone else comments on my appearance... Any how, its really not a valid question because the person asking has already decided what the answer is. If you want someone to look at you like it is normal, then you need to take up cycling, read GQ or body building before you shave your body. Then its just a grooming exercise. If you appear to want to do it to appear more feminine, then it's gross... the really funny part about it, most woman really dislike thick hair on a man's body. It's the mental image of a bear or a CDer they can't handle...so just do it, a little at a time until you can say if you are noticed... 'I've been doing it for years...don't you like it?'.

[Lorileah]

*moderator note* Don't let this get out of control. Complaining about how someones does things and another can't isn't allowed OK?

As far as shaving, it is a social thing. Women only started shaving legs and underarms in the 1920's because of fashion. They could just as easily quit if the fashion dictates. If you will only be intimate with your SO if she shaves, you are married to the wrong person IMO (and vice versa). You love the person, not the shell right?