There have been numerous claims that people are pressured into modifying their body to fit the ideal image of their gender. Regardless of age or race, he or she feels forced to change in various ways to become more sexually appealing in today’s society. Some examples of popular body modifications include body hair removal, genital surgery, and breast augmentation. It is believed by many that these ideals come from everyday media image; however, researchers have yet to develop a correlation between the two. They have found though that women are more likely to remove their hair than men. In the paper “Body Hair Removal: The ‘Mundane’ Production of Normative Femininity”, the researchers questioned several women about their shaving routine and
…show more content…
Their main aim in the research, was to see whether older participants (51 years and older) were more likely to report never removing their hair on various parts of the body than younger participants (20 and younger). To gain a diverse sample, the researchers distributed self-administered, five-part questionnaires through mail, women’s centers and advertisement, gaining a sample of 678 women ranging from ages 16 to 70. In these questionnaires, the researchers asked the participants to check or write their responses to questions about whether or not they have ever removed any of their body hair, their hair removal process (whether they shave, wax and etc.), which parts of their body they remove hair from (such as legs, arms, pubic area, and etc.), the age when they first removed their body hair, and if they have ever dyed or bleach their body hair. From the data gathered, it was discovered that 99.71% of participants reported having remove some body hair in their life, of which 85.25% reported shaving at the age of 16 and 49.26% started even younger. It was most common for the participants to depilate their underarms (98.67%), the legs, followed by the pubic area (85.69%) and …show more content…
My first reason is because in the paper, the researchers did not share the participants’ responses to the open-ended questions. This prevented the readers from gaining an insight on why the participants removed certain body hair and why they didn’t remove others. Instead, the researchers connected their data to other studies to make their claim, not allowing me to understand why women chooses to follow this “norm”. Another reason why I found this research unconvincing is because I believe the questions could be elaborated further, rather than asking the participants to check the appropriate boxes. One question I thought could be elaborated further or changed was the question “Have you ever removed any of your body hair?” This question is not asking if the participants are removing their body hair now, instead with the use of the word “ever” in the question, it is asking the participants if they have removed any body hair in their lifetime. This question could be reworded so the researchers can gather data to answer their main question on how body hair removal practices and ideals are affected by age. With a new question, they can also ask the older participants why they are shaving their legs less at their age and how the ideals of femininity have
Their main aim in the research, was to see whether older participants (51 years and older) were more likely to report never removing their hair on various parts of the body than younger participants (20 and younger). To gain a diverse sample, the researchers distributed self-administered, five-part questionnaires through mail, women’s centers and advertisement, gaining a sample of 678 women ranging from ages 16 to 70. In these questionnaires, the researchers asked the participants to check or write their responses to questions about whether or not they have ever removed any of their body hair, their hair removal process (whether they shave, wax and etc.), which parts of their body they remove hair from (such as legs, arms, pubic area, and etc.), the age when they first removed their body hair, and if they have ever dyed or bleach their body hair. From the data gathered, it was discovered that 99.71% of participants reported having remove some body hair in their life, of which 85.25% reported shaving at the age of 16 and 49.26% started even younger. It was most common for the participants to depilate their underarms (98.67%), the legs, followed by the pubic area (85.69%) and …show more content…
My first reason is because in the paper, the researchers did not share the participants’ responses to the open-ended questions. This prevented the readers from gaining an insight on why the participants removed certain body hair and why they didn’t remove others. Instead, the researchers connected their data to other studies to make their claim, not allowing me to understand why women chooses to follow this “norm”. Another reason why I found this research unconvincing is because I believe the questions could be elaborated further, rather than asking the participants to check the appropriate boxes. One question I thought could be elaborated further or changed was the question “Have you ever removed any of your body hair?” This question is not asking if the participants are removing their body hair now, instead with the use of the word “ever” in the question, it is asking the participants if they have removed any body hair in their lifetime. This question could be reworded so the researchers can gather data to answer their main question on how body hair removal practices and ideals are affected by age. With a new question, they can also ask the older participants why they are shaving their legs less at their age and how the ideals of femininity have