Sandra Bartky Focoult Femininity

For an entire week I went without shaving my legs, one of my beauty rituals, something that I do almost every other day if not on a daily basis. I was not really sure what to expect during this time, I most certainly did not believe that it would make a difference for me. But right away I was able to sense changes when I realized how strange it felt to stop doing something that I did on a daily basis.

While doing this assignment I was also reminded of another instance in my life when I had not shaved. At the end of high school I was invited to a pool party with my friends and had not shaved for a few days and a friend of mine asked me if I could shave before swimming. I felt utterly hurt and embarrassed that she would point this out to me as if it was some flaw that needed to be covered up rather than a part of my biology as a human being. When I told her that I would not do anything to please anyone she said that she completely understood and felt horrible about the situation. But this interaction caused me to wonder, why did she feel the need to

The practice of shaving my body would fall under the category “directed toward the display of [the] body as an ornamented surface,” (Bartky, 65). Shaving represents one of the many tasks that women must perform to be considered feminine such as choosing the correct clothes to wear and putting on makeup to make sure that all flaws are concealed (Bartky, 69). Femininity is a collection of ideas about what it means to be a woman, dictating how they should aspire to look so that others can identify them as female. Personally, I shave almost every other day, if not every day, and I do feel weird or out of place if I don’t shave. If I am getting ready for class and I feel my hair is too thick I will choose an outfit that not only covers my body because of how thick my hair