French women are sharing photos of their body hair for a very good reason
LONDON -- Women in France are sharing photos of their hairy legs and armpits to fight body hair stigma.
Women are sharing photos using the hashtag #LesPrincessesOntDesPoils, meaning #PrincessesHaveHair.
The hashtag was started by 16-year-old Adèle Labo, who encouraged others to share photos of their body hair to prove that there's nothing abnormal about it.
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The pressure for women to remove their body hair is nothing new. A 2005 study showed that 99% of women reported removing their body hair; most commonly from the underarms, legs, pubic area, and eyebrows.
And, a recent survey of 3,316 women found that 84% of respondents groom their pubic hair; something they believe makes their genitals look more attractive or because their partner prefers it.
With over 25,000 mentions, the hashtag has provoked a great deal of conversation, suggesting that there's still a lot of work to be done to convince some people that female body hair is beautiful.
But, that didn't stop women from defiantly sharing photos of their hairy legs.
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And, their hairy armpits.
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Not to mention their hairy arms, too.
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Unfortunately, this empowering hashtag wasn't to everyone's liking, prompting many to take to Twitter to express their disgust for female body hair.
"What is this? Fuck, I'm going to be sick," wrote one user.
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"This hashtag is disgusting," wrote another.
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That didn't deter people from sharing their photos, however.
Because -- as one Twitter user questioned -- "why do men have the right to have hair and not women?"
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Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
