Gabriela de la Vega on Female Armpit Hair - Babylon is Burning

Video
The Editors
17/11/2019

Visible Female armpit hair stirs emotions and feeds online hypes and debates. When growing up as a women in Brazil, not shaving was never an option, says Gabriela de la Vega in the lastest episode of Babylon is Burning. Gabriela de la Vega started her research into female armpit hair by questioning the normality of 'shaving body hair' as a woman. Why is it considered normal for women to shave their hair? Where did this practice come from and which societal and political effects does this have.

Studying and researching the (digital) controversies surrounding female body hair, is more than focussing on hair or trends, the idea that female armpit hair should be shaven, tells us something about power, inequality and body politics and the digital affordances enabling those controversies. 

Gabriela de la Vega is a master Online Culture (Tilburg University, The Netherlands) and is urrently doing a second MA in Sociology and Social Anthropology. Don't forget to check out some of her other work on Diggit Magazine.

Babylon's Burning is a YouTube Talkshow on Digital Culture. It is a co-production between Babylon, Center for the study of Superdiversity (Tilburg University) and Diggit Magazine.

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Female Armpit Hair with Gabriela de la Vega - Babylon is Burning