Wonder Woman’s Armpits Controversy

You have to be kidding me.

This is a thing?

In the newest Wonder Woman trailer, released on March 11, at minute 1:48 Wonder Woman lifts her arms, seemingly to flip a car, and oh snap her armpits are reveled. Alert the internet!

People are arguing that it’s a photoshop fail to make her armpits look flawless. Forgetting the fact that human women (like the one who portrays her) do in fact have discoloration in the pits regardless of shaving/not shaving. Sometimes it’s the deodorant you use causes discoloration, the thickness of follicles, tanning/not tanning. I can’t believe I have to explain this…Here, learn more about underarm skin discoloration here. 

People are also arguing that Diana, because she’s an Amazon, shouldn’t have shaven armpits.

okay the Wonder Woman movie looks rad but why does Diana have clean shaven armpits

— lil saguaro 🌵 (@hotmallgoth) March 12, 2017

How the hell does wonder woman have perfectly waxed armpits? Do they have like a salon for amazonians on themyscira or something???

— pating (@BoxFrmOutrSpace) December 10, 2016

Couple of things.

#1 Wonder Woman did not have armpit hair in the comics or the TV show.

#2 She’s a fictional character.

#3 Most human women have armpit hair.

#4 How many amazons do you know?

#5 The choice for women to shave or not shave is feminism. Not all feminists have armpit hair. Not all non-feminist shave.

#6 Strength is not found in armpit hair or their lack of.

Did we get to the point that the Wonder Woman trailer is so flawless that one thing the over-thinkers of the internet question is whether or not Diana should have shaved armpits or Photoshopped to have flawless ones?

Being a Wonder Woman fan (I have her image tattooed on my body) I have for some reason had to defend this movie through its series of starts and stops at Warner Brothers, through its casting, through the Batman V Superman disaster, why Michelle MacLaren left the project, and through the film budget debates. It’s my fault, I hang out with a lot of filmmakers.

We’ve had a handful of awesome trailers and the tides have turned and people seemingly having been giving this film a chance instead of just hating on it like they have been doing for decades. But this armpit controversy I didn’t see coming.

I think it’s a good opportunity to actually stop and have a serious conversation about armpit hair.

So when did it become a thing?

From the mental_floss book In the Beginning: The Origins of Everything we get this.

Underarms
American women had no need to shave their underarms before about 1915 ““ after all, who ever saw them? Even the word “underarm” was considered scandalous, what with it being so near certain other interesting body parts. Then came the sleeveless dress. An ad in the fashion mag Harper’s Bazaar decreed that to wear it (and certainly to wear it while participating in “Modern Dancing”), women would need to first see to “the removal of objectionable hair.” They didn’t need much convincing, and by the early ’20s, hairy underarms were so last decade, at least in America.

Perhaps like other women, I tend to shave my armpits when I know I’m going to be in a sleeveless top. I have gone back and forth with the idea of armpit hair being “objectionable hair.” Basically, I shave for other people because when I do shave I get ingrown hairs and discoloration due to deodorant. Shaving it when I’ll be seen in public as to not upset anyone or when I see my husband or daughters catching sight of it and seeing the souring of their face. I don’t generally care if it’s there or not but I respect other people thinking it’s objectionable and it’s just not my hill to die on.

However, I do have a weird reaction when seeing armpit hair on other women and I really don’t know why. I see it men’s armpit frequently enough and it doesn’t jar me, but it does in women and it shouldn’t, it’s just hair.

I’ve had to face this with my teenage daughter. She doesn’t wear sleeveless tops and so I don’t bother her at all about it. Yet when I see it, I do wonder, should I say something? Once I did and the look of humiliation on her face killed me so I don’t bring it up. It’s her body and it’s her hair.

The Wonder Woman controversy (and it’s really not, it’s a talking point) does bring up why women are damned if they participate in a cultural beauty standard (shaving armpits) and damned if they don’t.

What are your thoughts on armpit hair? Leave your comments below.