OPINION: Body hair and bare ass: I want to see it all

Every morning you get up and face the day. You prepare your bag, or your car, or your bike or whatever it is you need to get through the day. Usually, it’s a rushed morning. You are running around the house looking for your keys — which are hiding in the same place they always are — but your eyes are groggy and it takes you a couple tries to find them. With a cup of hot coffee in hand and whatever you can find for a quick breakfast — most likely the cold pizza you left out last night — you dash to your car. 

Hearing the familiar click of your car unlocking, you take a sip of your coffee, breathe for the first time all morning and slide your bare ass into the hot seat. 

Yes, your bare ass. 

You live in a world in which clothing is not required, meaning comfort and safety are prioritized for each individual and for society as a whole. No one looks in the mirror, nor do they spend precious mornings finding little critiques of themselves and the clothes they’re wearing. No one else wears clothes, so why would you? Stay with me here. 

At first, this sounds terrifying. Your open, bare body on display for the whole world to see. I understand that. The possibility of walking to Trader Joe’s with nothing blocking your body from the glaring eyes of an old man driving past is enough to make me want to lock my door and hide inside. Forever. But, you have to remember that riding past you on their way to work is a biker putting their whole selves on display with you. Additionally, the old man in the car is also sitting in his naked sweat. 

Suddenly, the fear of nudity becomes demystified; suddenly, you can walk into the store, get your cheese, wine and Joe’s O’s without a second thought to your nudity.

 

Clothing is a problem. It is rooted in societal pressures that prevent (primarily) women from accepting their beautiful selves. Consider the Garden of Eden after Eve ate the “forbidden fruit” which led to a shameful side eye from Adam while hiding their natural, naked bodies. A world that normalizes nudity would promote body neutrality — the act of accepting the state of your body and respecting its features — and help us accept every aspect of our body. 

Of all scrutinized features, female body hair is at the forefront. Nudity can reframe the pressures that women face and allow for a neutral acceptance of one’s body hair. A study conducted by Lígia Azevedo at Brandeis University found that around 80 percent of women remove their leg and/or underarm hair on a regular basis. The primary reason for hair removal, Azevedo found, is feminine appeal societal pressure.

“Women start feeling abnormal for having body hair and decide to remove it in order to be seen as attractive,” Acevedo reported.

Existing within a nude society that accepts — rather than rejects — the features of women’s bodies, women will see fundamental changes in their daily lives. 

Clothing prevents society — specifically female identifying persons in society — from existing comfortably in the world. As a way to sexualize bodies, clothing creates a sense of mystification that prevents body neutrality from actively participating.

The big question: Why do we need nudity to fulfill these aspirations of wanting to feel safe, comfortable and secure in our daily lives? Why do we need to imagine a complete upheaval of societal life to accept one’s own body?

The answer: because Eve is still blamed for original sin; because women are viewed as unprofessional for having leg hair; and because we still put on makeup to hide each wrinkle and dark spot. It seems impossible to imagine a world where women are not judged daily, so the possibility of nudity placing every person, regardless of gender, on an equal playing field is the best — and only — viable option.

Tomorrow, you will wake up to the same alarm, with the same exhausted eyes and the same cold pizza. You will dash around your room looking for your keys which are, as per usual, hidden under your mail. Only this time, between boxes of Joe’s O’s and empty bottles of wine, you will get lost in the stolen minutes of the morning and ignore your closet. You will stand in front of your mirror and respect each feature of your naked body; accept every hair and curve and wrinkle.

Then, you will grab the front door handle, walk to your car with coffee in hand and slide your bare ass into the hot seat.

And maybe everyone else will too.

Jada Shavers SC ’26 is from Portland, Oregon and loves Trader Joe’s Takis, Malott coffee and puzzles. The next time you see her she will most definitely be wearing clothes.