I love mini skirts and shorts and dresses. I always have. Even as a kid, getting me to wear anything that went past my knees always posed a problem to whoever was unfortunate enough to try and get me into whatever it was. When I turned 13, my breasts shot from an A cup to a C cup, I went through a growth spurt and my arms, legs and armpits suddenly filled with hair. I had three brothers, in about the same age range as I was and the matter of who had more body hair soon became a sort of competition between us. This went on until I got into University.
All of a sudden my body hair became something that was supposedly disgusting and unsightly. I got odd looks whenever I wore mini skirts, both girls and boys would look pointedly at my legs and then at themselves and snicker. My roommates brought it up every time I put on something that would show off my legs, they would go “Ahn ahn! Amaka shave this thing now, you look like a man” or “Amaka, that dress would look so much nicer on you if you shaved your legs.”
For a very long time I struggled to understand where they were coming from, why was the hair which grew naturally out of my legs regarded as something which was disgusting? How would shaving my legs make whatever I am wearing look better than it already did?
I finally gave in one day, after one of my roommates threatened too lock me in if I went out in another mini skirt with my legs looking like “that”.
This is the part where I’m supposed to say, I finally got it, I finally understood why all those people kept telling me to shave my legs, but I didn’t. I looked different that was certain, but I didn’t see how it made me look any better or any more feminine. I felt naked whenever I put on anything short, and went the next couple of weeks, wearing maxis.
I never shaved my legs after that, and now whenever I get a snide comment about my hairy legs and how I should do something about it, I quite simply tell whoever it is, to fuck off.