Is men's clothing more expensive than women's?
Zara, Kate Moss, Emmanuelle Alt and the Parisian style: this is the brand's new capsule collection
Marta Ortega, a powerful Zara dress and an Inditex Board: the message of her look
We think we are very modern, but the truth is that we are not.
Not much less.
And it is not because we are going to pull the trite "everything is invented", not even the fact that
Sophia Loren herself
already carried it naturally.
It is not necessary: it is enough for
Zara
to publish some images of
a model with armpit hair
for the most basic instincts of public opinion to emerge in the most varied ways possible.
Because although
the progress in aesthetic and narrative diversity
is a fact, the truth is that, as also happens in political elections, sometimes we fall into the fallacy that
our bubbles are broader than they really are.
On Twitter, municipal and Community elections are always won by the left despite what the polls say.
On Instagram, the 'body positive' and the speech of acceptance is the majority and the complexes about one's own body are being overcome.
Already.
The avid users of the well-known Zara website have not been slow to detect the
images of a model photographed to show cotton tank tops
.
The point is that among all the poses in three of the top models, there are several in which the protagonist raises one of her arms,
revealing the hair in her armpits
.
And we say that they have detected, because
the brand has never advertised or placed those photographs in the foreground
.
He has simply left them as he would any other snapshot, which fosters the feeling that they have included these photos within a
context of normality
, breaking stereotypes in a visible but natural way.
Which theoretically should always be.
Zara
Although the good intention is there, it
would be very innocent to ignore the 'marketing' component
of the snapshots.
There are those who feel fed up with this strategy, while some users on social networks interpret it as a simple "want to attract attention": after all,
these photographs are still extraordinary enough to be newsworthy.
Perhaps there is clearly seen all that we have left to advance.
You can imagine the type of comments that have been made about it, but one that the users themselves have been responsible for unraveling, giving rise to
a curiously enriching public debate (if you know how to read well)
is that of the well-known
double standards between feminine and masculine aesthetics: why does hair on women bother more than on men?
Yes, they shave too, but they do it because of a much freer choice than ours.
They have grown up with references of men with hair and also without hair
, crystallized first in the figures of
successful athletes .
, who shaved for functionality, and later for the already mythical 'metrosexual', that is, the masculine archetype that embraced aesthetic care beyond shaving.
The jokes in bad taste about that first new masculinity you will surely remember.
Although, surprise, they have been overcome relatively quickly.
Julia Roberts, Madonna, Sophia Loren... Celebrities who have claimed not to shave
Julia Roberts, Madonna, Sophia Loren... Celebrities who have claimed not to shaveGetty Images
We, however,
grew up in the recent world with the idea that being shaved was synonymous with taking care of oneself on a visual level,
something mandatory within the canon that society has marked as traditionally feminine.
There is a very clear equivalent in women's gray hair, as María Ruiz points out:
"When I left my gray hair, my brother, a couple of years older and with gray hair, told me that the next thing was to shave my armpits. It was synonymous with neglect and carelessness. What about them, then?"
This comparison is one of the most repeated, also when the hygiene argument comes to light.
If it's unhygienic in us, it should be in them too.
And if so, why do so many more men grow armpit hair than women?
Why don't they receive the kind of comments that we do have to put up with and that come from anyone, regardless of their gender?
There it is again
the public scrutiny to which our bodies are subjected
.
That is why, in that sense, the personal can also (and is) political.
Ruiz shares it:
"Not waxing in the West is a political act."
Zara
The point is that we have enough previous references so that this was already normalized;
in fact, there are those who already sound like an old battle (and yet, when there is so much commotion, it is clear that it has not expired).
Julia Roberts
also stood on a red carpet, back in 1999, with armpit hair;
Amaia
raised several complaints in the Operación Triunfo program regarding female hair removal and has starred in several photo sessions with hair, as does
Martina Cariddi,
who from the first scenes in the series 'Elite' naturally showed her hair.
The production, in addition, treated it as this issue should be treated, as Zara's images have been raised, in a certain way:
naturally
.
Luckily, although it depends on the forum you go to, a good part of the opinions are directed towards
tolerance
:
whoever wants to leave their hair, and whoever doesn't, well, no
.
It sounds easy right?
It should also be in practice.
As easy as keeping in mind that
the fact that Zara has a model with armpit hair does not mean that everyone in the world is forced to grow hair on that part of the body
.
That Natalie Portman shaved off did not mean that all the women in the world shaved off, to give another hair example closely associated with femininity.
How curious that by excess or by default, hair defines us as much as women.
Or so they would have us believe.
Conforms to The Trust Project criteria
Know more
beauty