Hands up who's sick of talking about women having body hair? Despite the fact that we are indoctrinated into removing it from the moment it appears in our teenage years, and the seeming blind eye that men seem to turn to the issue, women do have body hair and it's not disgusting, unclean or sloppy to leave it be or forget to shave every once in a while.
Step in 17-year-old American student Lalonie, who this week was attacked on Twitter for posting a picture of her own body hair in her armpits and on her stomach captioned: 'Body hair positivity post [because] I’d never let misogynistic opinions dictate what I do with my bod.' The reason? She was celebrating her body and her decision not to adhere to society's norms after a video of her on YouTube where you could see her body hair attracted negative feedback.
Speaking to the Huffington Post, she said: 'I thought about how such negative backlash could affect a girl's self-esteem and personal choices to the point where they completely let the misogyny and double standards of our society dictate their choices…I posted that picture to let everyone know that I do what I want with my body and it’s okay for anyone else to do that, too.'
Inspirational stuff, no? And all this for a teenage girl. Which is why it's not surprising that her Tweet has been liked almost 20,000 and shared more than 7,500.
Yet all the feedback hasn't been positive. (We really hate the internet sometimes). Lalonie responded by saying: 'Y'all think body hair on girls is gross, I think misogyny is grosser.' Amen.
'Misogyny is so deeply rooted in our society that is sometimes very hard to recognise', she explained to the Huffington Post. 'There are so many microaggressions and double standards that are very prevalent in our society...men can post plenty of pictures of them shirtless with chest hair and armpit hair, but a girl posting a positive picture about her armpit hair and a happy trail? Absolutely unheard of!'
Her story is similar to that of other body positive models on Instagram, including Emily Bador (@darth_bador), who regularly shares snaps of herself with body hair, uneven skin tone and eczema. Grazia contributor Siam Goorwich, who is growing her own body hair, told us: 'I am finding it so satisfying that I’m hailing it the new hygge.'