A prominent women’s rights expert launched an “Armpit Hair Competition” on Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblogging site. Now thousands of people are discussing whether it’s OK for women to have hairy armpits.
Chinese women are taking to Weibo to post pictures of their hairy armpits. The pictures are a response to a "Women's Armpit Hair Competition" that was launched on May 26 and wraps up on Wednesday.
Women's right activist Wei Tingting / Via photo.weibo.com
The contest was organized by Xiao Meili, a Chinese women's rights activist. Her goal is to show the beauty of natural women's bodies so that women can be more comfortable with their armpit hair.
The organizer says the prizes will go to the most "confident," most "beautiful," and the most "different," not necessarily those who have the most hair.
Women's right activist Li Tingting / Via Weibo
Armpit hair has been so stigmatized for Chinese women that they "would rather fall down on buses than to hold something and expose their armpit hair," Xiao said.
Some doubted why, on the contrary, men can run all over the place with their armpit hair out.
Via Weibo
One woman who set her armpit hair free on Weibo said that she was scared by the TV ads for depilatory creams that she watched as a child. She thought being hairy was ugly.
Via item.taobao.com
