The Paris Museum of Decorative Arts is devoting a major exhibition to the representation of hair. From Venus de Milo to TikTok, an analysis of the thorny topic.
Last February, Angel posted a selfie on Instagram, generously offering her 3.7 million followers a bushy armpit. Then the singer received criticism, some of which was very intense. However, his pro-hair position is really “in the hair of time”. On Instagram, militant accounts like Liberté Pilosité Sororité (@liberpilosite) call for a fight against “pilophobia.” And on TikTok, Gen Z also dominates the hair file. thus the hashtag #bodyhairpositivity has garnered over 16 billion views. In these viral videos, young women in their twenties claim their hair and call for the normalization of female hair. Lucille, also 20 years old, has no problem with her calves, she testifies. women’s bodies.
Gender stereotypes?
According to Ifop’s 2021 survey, hair hunting has worsened in recent years. the number of women epilating their legs lost 12 points, dropping to 80%. For armpits, it’s minus 10 points at eight years, with 81% of the female population. As for those who decided to retire their jersey, in 2021 they were 28% (compared to 15% in 2013). The survey highlights a real ‘blocking effect’, but also a clear breakthrough ‘back to nature’ driven by greater acceptance of body hair and less gender stereotyping, although there are still movements. For 73% of women, the absence of hair remains “a measure of female attractiveness”.
Photoshop generation
But finally, why does women’s hair unleash so many passions? Juliet Lenrouley has signed a contract with Leah Tayeb Let’s talk about hair. Women’s bodies are under surveillance (Massot Editions), a stimulating book that brings together testimonials and analysis around our practice. He summarizes. “In the popular imagination, hair is dirty, ugly and above all masculine.” Juliet Lenrouley deciphers. “After the 1970s, when hair was synonymous with protest, the 1980s saw a form of hairless dictation. Then the society remained more hygienic, more sanitary. He adds: “We can even talk about the Photoshop generation.” For those who grew up with razor commercials showing women shaving their oil-smooth legs, hair doesn’t exist; they are not pictured.
Ideal Beautiful is often smooth
An exciting exhibition at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris hair and hair through household objects, pictures and contemporary documents, rewrites the somewhat complicated relationship that people have with their wool since the 15th century.e century to the present day. For Denis Bruna, the curator of the exhibition, “hair and fur are the building blocks of appearance.” And gender stereotypes. It was in ancient times that the “humor theory” was established, which wants hair to be associated with masculinity. It would be due to the “natural heat” of men’s bodies. What is perceived as a feature of male biology therefore appears unnatural in women. Up to the hair. If in ancient times women resorted to various hair removal tricks (tweezers, razors, pumice stones, oil lamps, etc.), then the ideal Beauty in the imagination is often flat. Can you imagine a hairy Venus de Milo? Better still, the lack of hair is even sometimes associated with a form of social ascension; upper caste Egyptians shaved their entire bodies.
Frida Kahlo: Pioneer
In the catalog of the exhibition, we read that “beyond the beautiful is the good. If hair is seen as primitive, it is not surprising that removing it is a factor of difference between the savage and the monster.” The opposition of hairless (civilized) woman and hairy (barbarian) woman thus develops, being renewed during the great “discoveries”, then in evolutionist and Darwinist discourse, and finally throughout the history of Western colonialism.
The only way to normalize hair is to show it
Juliet Lenroy
If in XIXe century, “bearded women” were shown as beasts of the fair, in erotic images that spread under the coat with the advent of photography, hair is very present, and even fetishized. Hair remains associated with the intimate, the hidden. Yes, hair is the animal, it is the sex. So origin of the world by Gustave Courbet, who at the time was almost more shocked by the image of women’s hair than by the close-up of sex. Hair is aggressive, and not just since the advent of social media. Already in the 1930s, Frida Kahlo depicted herself in her “a natural” self-portraits, with bushy eyebrows and above all, hair above the upper lip. The feminist artist then played on her “Mexicanness” to shake Western stereotypes.
Over the centuries, the more the female body is revealed through fashion, the stronger the prescriptions for hair loss become. A paradox that therefore wants to activate a new alienation in the form of liberation, which is to follow the smallest hair follicle. For Juliet Lenroux, if hair is thus demonized and “invisible,” it is because it is a symbol of the liberation of the female body; “The only way to normalize hair is to show it,” she goes on. Leave your coat undone, simple fashion or a representational revolution? If you think about it, one wonders if hair, this “social disruptor” as the exhibition catalog states, is not after all women’s best ally in fighting against the directives to appear. To meditate while shaving in the morning or not?
Source: Le Figaro
