One Irish woman has defied many by revealing to the world on national TV that she hasn’t shaved her body hair for 18 months. And when we say ‘revealed’, we mean it.
Meet Emer O’Toole, a 28-year-old research assistant from Dublin. Why she felt it necessary to show the world her hairy armpits and legs (which are hairier than most blokes’) on the UK breakfast show This Morning, we just don’t know.
According to Emer, she stopped shaving for good 18 months ago when she came to the conclusion that too much pressure is put upon women to conform to what she calls ‘artificial gender norms’. Whatever floats your boat…
“I was living in Dublin and it just hit me that there was so much pressure on women to conform to gender norms. All around me my friends were getting laser hair removal, Brazilians, some of them were getting Botox … I just thought where does this end?
“I started examining my own relationship with beauty and with my body… why did I have to shave? It’s taken me a long time to get comfortable with it, when I first stopped shaving I was in cardigans all the time and really embarrassed about myself.”
It’s strange that someone who has decided to stop shaving for 18 months has such immaculate nails and eyebrows, though. Bit of counter culture protest? Who knows…
Check out the video of Emer’s TV appearance over on The Daily Mail.
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