Rachel McAdams Flaunting Armpit Hair Doesn't Need Applause, Can We Normalise It?

Rachel McAdams recently attracted the spotlight for flaunting armpit hair for her latest photoshoot with Bustle. She is seen clad in a black corset lazing on a red sofa. People are lauding her for going bold. Does this need appreciation? What exactly is bold about retaining body hair? Men aren't lauded on the daily for a grooming choice as personal as that. Then why should a woman be lauded for retaining body hair?

In her current photoshoot with Bustle, she put in a request for her pictures to be the least edited. She conveyed that she is a mother and currently, the body that she has in the picture is the body that she is comfortable reflecting to society. She added that looking the best is different for everyone and it is important to be acceptable to other people's standards. She is applauded for her stand. An act is lauded when it is out of the ordinary. And why are other women adoring it? Now she is been appreciated it seems she did something extraordinary.

This begs the question, if McAdams is comfortable with body hair as a celebrity figure then why do we have so many young women feeling uncomfortable with their body hair?

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Rachel McAdams Flaunts Armpit Hair

The obsession with a hairless female body has society and men in particular dictating grooming standards to women. Photo editing software and the internet will have you believe that there is only one way to have an attractive body as a female and body hair is not the way to go. This isn't true. The only way to be beautiful is by the standard that you set for yourself.

There is this unspoken standard that retaining body hair will make females appear male-like or ungroomed. However, grooming standards are subjective. One may choose to have longer filed nails, and another shorter nails. One may decide to keep a unibrow and another may not. One may decide to retain facility hair and another may not.

Similarly, a female can make a choice of retaining body hair and another may not. When simple acts such as the former are lauded, the latter undisputedly gains precedence. But this is not a question of which grooming choice is popular, but a question of acceptability.

If persons retaining body hair can be tolerant of those not retaining any, then vice versa should also be applicable. If women do not go around commenting on men's body hair then vice versa should also be applicable.

Regardless of gender, it is never a good idea to point out development on someone else's body as it goes against all norms of modesty.

If comments aren't made on someone's appearance with the motto of edifying them, then they shouldn't be made in the first place. Someone retaining body hair is already aware that they retain it. Someone pointing it out doesn't serve enlightenment but displays ignorance in terms of respecting their choice.

The views expressed are the author's own.