20/8/19

I'll be talking about 2 things in this chapter: scars and body hair

Scars

I won't lie, I do have quite a few scars, and they prevent(ed) me from wearing certain clothes. I had self harm scars on my arms (they are barely visible now), stretch marks around my hips (stretch marks are scars, I searched it up), I had self harm scars on the sides of my hips (not anymore), and I have self harm scars on the upper thighs (I'm sure they aren't leaving).

I've always hidden my scars.

I wore cardigans and jumpers for a while when I had scars on my arms. I got really uncomfortable when I had to wear short sleeves, even if all that was there is a really faint line. I literally almost had a panic attack once because we were going to a restaurant with my grandmother and she doesn't know about my scars. My arms are on the table a lot (bad manners, but I don't really care), and I was terrified to do so because I was scared she'd see my scars, even if they were barely visible.

The area where I have stretch marks, clothes always cover that area, so I never needed to worry much about that.

My thighs, I've always covered them. I never wore shorts because I have really big legs and I hate showing them. I also hate wearing dresses, again, because I have big legs. The lowest clothes I'll wear outside is just above my knees, nothing shorter. If it is shorter, I'd usually wear legging underneath. But with scars, I have an even bigger reason not to wear shorts. My scars, they are from the top of my thighs, to the halfway point of my thighs. A lot of shorts generally end in that area above the halfway point, which means they show my scars.

I was just randomly thinking about not being able to wear certain clothes, and just thinking "why are scars even seen as such a bad thing?" This isn't to urge you to show your scars, just a thought and a question. Even if they aren't self harm scars, all scars are hidden, burn scars, scars from accidents. Why? Is it because they make a person ugly? Is it because they show that they don't take good care of themselves? Scars are also generally seen on villainous characters to show that they are evil. Are scars seen as evil? What is it?! I searched it up, and I found nothing.

Those are the results I found. Was I not looking in the right place? Is there some other way to put the question that I can get my answers?

I'm still not going to go outside wearing shorts and being like "look at my scars!" No. I don't do that. That's not good. I don't encourage it at all. But what made it bad to have scars? Where did this idea come from?

Body hair

Another reason I don't wear shorts is because of hair on my legs. I know I can shave or wax it, I'm honesty just not bothered to. I'm too lazy, and never really found the point of it when it's just going to grow back. I get that people like the smooth feeling, but I never really felt it because of dry skin.

I found this video today. It's a Ladylike video, I'm not going to hide the fact that I enjoy their videos and I find all of them awesome people. They seem like really fun people to be around

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

This got me thinking, why is shaving seen as something so important in a women's routine? I'm saying women because shaving your legs is something I have never heard men and boys talk about, and it's always girls who seem to have smooth legs. Additional question, why is it women that are expected to shave their legs, arms and underarms? Do men do it too?

There are some celebrities that don't shave. The only one I know is Aurora (I was playing some music on discord when I took those screenshots)

I know there are more, Aurora is just an artist I listen to a lot. How have they chosen to deny expectations and not shave? What responses did they get for it, any hate comments? Have they gotten anything from this?

I'm sorry for asking this. It's a lot to read, I just needed some places to get people's opinions