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Why Tweens are Too Young for a Brazilian Wax

Posted by Madeline Holler

Jeez, I can think of a million reasons, the first of which: is there anything to wax?

The other 999,999 reasons … come on. I know we’re sexualizing girls at younger and younger ages, but 10? Waxing her pubes?

Apparently, you're never too young for this Australian website, read by girls aged 9 to 14. In an article about Brazilian waxing, they try hard to make the case:

So why does it appeal. Nobody really likes hair in their private regions and this removes it.

In another article (yes, more than one on the site), there's this description of what exactly happens. The good news is, I feel like this might deter all but the most goaded young kids.

Wax is smeared onto the mons, the cloth is pressed into place...then they turn the music up loud...rrripppp. It's quite normal for the waxer to throw your legs over their shoulder, or ask you to moon them so they can get the strays. The waxer then goes over your red bits with a pair of tweezers to pluck out recalcitrant strands.

Why does “pluck out recalcitrant strands” make me cross my legs?

One Australian writer, appalled by the notion that some celebrate getting rid of the just-grown hairs of adolescence, gives us a rundown of how things are going in the land of kiddie hair removal. (And you say marketers aren't savvy.)

As a cosmetic pharmaceutical company, Nair is obliged to reinvent normal bodily functions as problems with handy product solutions. And the Australian arm of the company has claimed its target audience is slightly older, in an attempt to distance itself from the US campaign, which involves phrases such as "Pretty isn't a look. It's a feeling," "Nair will leave your skin smooth and totally touchable!" and this pearler from Stacey Feldman, vice-president for marketing at Nair's parent company, Church & Dwight: "When a girl removes hair for the first time, it's a life-changing moment."

Life-changing, indeed! Now, about teaching girls the proper names for body parts, better add “mons” to the list so the little tykes know exactly what they're getting in to.


 

 


Comments

 

MissB said:

"So why does it appeal. Nobody really likes hair in their private regions and this removes it."

I'm sorry, is this a spoof website?  Is that comment really directed at tweenage girls?  If it's for real, I'm surprised they didn't also mention how "nobody" likes a girl who is a big fat ass.  Or the ones with flat tits.  

January 16, 2008 5:10 PM
 

kayare said:

This is deeply disturbing. I was perturbed to hear about adult women trying to make their lady bits more childlike, but to now encourage children to make their bits more "childlike"... Is this supposed to make them feel like children longer or make them feel like "sexy" grownups sooner?

January 16, 2008 5:26 PM
 

Cassie said:

This is a joke right?  I have never understood why grown women, mothers and grandmothers, shave off the hair from their body to try to look prepubescent.  Aren't we just promoting men to be attracted to children by doing that?  Why do women look "worse" when they don't shave or wax?  Worse than what?  Why do men shave off their beards?  To look like boys?  

January 16, 2008 9:39 PM
 

LogicalMama said:

You know pubes have a purpose... how else can we lather our soap?!

January 17, 2008 2:39 PM

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