New Delhi:
Challenging the beauty norms that women be trim and clean, Emily Ratajkowski who has always been vocal about body positivity by posting nude, racy pictures on Thursday posted a picture flaunting a full, love-yourself hairy armpit. Featuring for Harper’s Bazaar’s September 2019 issue, the 28-year-old model in her black and white picture also wrote an elaborate post explaining her decision to not shave her armpits sometimes;
“If I decide to shave my armpits or grow them out, that’s up to me. For me, body hair is another opportunity for women to exercise their ability to choose—a choice based on how they want to feel and their associations with having or not having body hair.”
“On any given day, I tend to like to shave, but sometimes letting my body hair grow out is what makes me feel sexy. And there is no right answer, no choice that makes me more or less of a feminist, or even a ‘bad feminist,’ to borrow from Roxane Gay. As long as the decision is my choice, then it’s the right choice. Ultimately, the identity and sexuality of an individual is up to them and no one else.”
“As a culture we are scared of women generally, but also, more specifically, of the innate power that female sexuality possesses. A woman becomes too powerful and thus threatening when she takes strength from embracing her sex. Therefore we insist on shaming; we insist that a woman loses something when she flaunts or embraces her sexuality.”
She added, “Personally, I have found the opposite to be true. I feel powerful when I’m feeling myself, and sometimes feeling myself means wearing a miniskirt. Sometimes it means wearing a giant hoodie and sweats. Sometimes I feel particularly strong and free when I don’t wear a bra under a tank top. That’s just me, in that moment,” she wrote.
