Breanne Fahs, an associate professor of women and gender studies at ASU, is offering her students extra credit for challenging societal norms regarding body hair. Girls let the hair grow on their legs and underarms, while guys have to shave those areas (and their chests, too, if applicable). ASU News reports:
“There’s no better way to learn about societal norms than to violate them and see how people react,” said Fahs. “There’s really no reason why the choice to shave, or not, should be a big deal. But it is, as the students tend to find out quickly.”
That act of rebellion isn’t quite the same for males as females, according to Fahs. It’s not uncommon in our society for some men to engage in “manscaping,” removing hair from some parts of their bodies. For the extra-credit assignment, she asks male students to shave everything below the neck and maintain it for ten weeks. This makes the process labor-intensive and gives men some insight into what women who shave go through, she said.
Some male students have come up with strategies to add a “macho” element to the project. “One guy did his shaving with a buck knife,” Fahs said. “Male students tend to adopt the attitude of, ‘I’m a man; I can do what I want.’”
One student, Jaqueline Gonzalez, “credits the body hair project with helping to shape her into the activist she is today.” It gave her a better grasp on how prevalent “gendered socialization” is in our contemporary society.
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