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Aight, listen up, I'm going to tell you about my complicated relationship with my Lebanese arm hair. https://twitter.com/robxxnn/status/1337560004308705282
My sit (grandmother) was harassed so much by kids about her hairy arms — calling her a "hairy monster" — that she got electrolysis to be rid of it permanently.
My mom didn't get her mother's hair — her arm hair is barely noticeable against her dark skin. I am a pale baby who inherited my grandmother's hair: both the curls on top and the thick dark hair everywhere else (looking at you, toe knuckles).
I genuinely never noticed that I was different from all the other kids until some girls in dance class asked me why my arms were so hairy. I had no idea why.
I had the misfortune of hitting puberty young, which maximized the hair distribution. I avoided shaving at all ever because of what were, retrospectively, gender troubles: I didn't want to be like Other Girls.
My mom, on the other hand, pressured me into shaving armpits ("it's healthier and you'll smell better!") and leg hair ("the other girls at dance will start to notice, and your stockings will look better!).
Culturally, hair is complicated: yes, whiteness favors dimorphic hairlessness, but the Middle East also has its own precolonial history of hairlessness for "both" genders.
I don't have "hormone imbalances" beyond a) aging now and b) wishing I could be more physically androgynous, but that's neither here nor there.
It actually would be super validating to have a fucked up reproductive system, but nope: totally normal, much to my frustration.
It actually would be super validating to have a fucked up reproductive system, but nope: totally normal, much to my frustration.
What has been validating is how @alokvmenon is proud of their body hair, especially the photoshoot where their body hair was styled and aestheticized.
I wish I were read as androgynous, because I want to be a *pretty* androgyne.
I wish I were read as androgynous, because I want to be a *pretty* androgyne.
Possibly more validating is the #GoodOmens fanart that draw femme!Crowley — noted genderfluid demon who can look however they damn well please with a snap of their fingers — with body hair.
I've never removed my arm hair. I draw the line there. Partly because I don't want my arms to be dry and ashy and prickly like my legs are when I shave (I don't always anymore, a story for another time). Partly because my mom already yelled at me for my showers being too long 
But I lit-er-al-ly never see anyone who looks like me. Chubby, curvy, femme-ish, hairy, and that dark hairiness amplified by light skin.
I don't have any inspiring conclusions. Gender is weird. Race is weird. Norms are annoying. Leave me alone.
I don't have any inspiring conclusions. Gender is weird. Race is weird. Norms are annoying. Leave me alone.
