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Each year, my male friends participate in an event critical to the confirmation of manhood: The underground tradition of “No Shave November.”

For the entire month of November, men are encouraged to not shave their beard, moustache or any other facial hair. They begin the ritual by excitedly shedding their beards on Halloween, heightening the fun and excitement in their near future. But why should this fun and excitement be limited to just men?

Most people will resoundingly decry women’s participation in this yearly ritual, thinking it’s gross for women not to shave. I beg people to think about this reasoning. Why is it fine for men to abstain from shaving but not for women? For years, women have been wasting their hard-earned money buying razors and shaving cream. They could be spending it on more important things than trying to uphold an ideal of femininity created by corporations like Gillette.

In the past, women were revered for being intellectuals. Queens and priestesses were turned to for their knowledge and guidance. All the hairy pop-stars of their day seemed to have no problems carrying on their bloodline. The average hairy Jane also had no problems getting a boyfriend. When did people lose this ability to look past the physical and love and know a person for who they are?

America has become more in love with commercial displays of affection than with our fellow human beings. We buy candies and presents for loved ones, and if we don’t, we are considered heartless by the majority of society. Many of us do not know how to express love for people in words or actions anymore, so we use things we buy and the way we look. We are obsessed with looking different because it is a notion that we have grown up with. Society expects everyone to buy it, and women have been subject to the idea that they are the only ones who need to look good in order to succeed in this country.

We spend millions of dollars on makeup, tweezers, weight loss products and hair removal kits every year. If women just left themselves in their completely natural state all the time, we would have far fewer preconceptions about who these women were. They would be constantly presenting themselves as who they actually are.

Some people still don’t realize women are beautiful without the aid of hacking tools. It’s taken a long time for people to get past the patriarchal idea that women are just arm candy for men. That they are intelligent, sophisticated beings capable of being individuals. By conforming every day to a certain ideal of the beautiful American woman: a hairless, painted prototype. Women are not reflecting the ideals our mothers and grandmothers of previous generations have fought so hard to obtain for their children.

It is sad to think that when the women on campus read this, many of them will laugh or make remarks about the idea of a “No Shave November” for women. Growing body hair is not a display of manliness, nor is it an abomination for women. The truth is, it’s a natural process for both men and women, but somewhere along the line, society made it unnatural for women. This is what “No Shave November” should be about for men and women alike. It shouldn’t be a display of how “manly” you can be, but a reminder that both men and women should not be conformists to this or any artificial standard of beauty.

Denise Bickford is a sophomore English student.

• Beard Police: No-shave November cuts beardies’ pride deep (November 5, 2009)
• Beard Police: Summer shave is a shameful mistake (April 16, 2009)
• Movie Review: “No Country for Old Men” (December 6, 2007)
• Is College Worth The Cost Anymore? (October 27, 2005)
• A ‘D’ won’t cut it anymore (November 24, 2003)

This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009, 1:34 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.