Hi babes! A little update from the front lines of the FYP movement……
We have continued our efforts towards normalizing body hair and body positivity with the Free Your Pits Movement in the last few months.
Highlights from the movement include…..
We found our official movement design, drawn by talented illustrator Madison McClain who can be found here on Instagram and here on Tumblr.
– I, Roxie Jane Hunt, Finally free’d my pits for the making of the featured DIY video. And I LOVED it:)
– A Florida Feminist Pit-In (story and photos to come!)
-A fun interview with Marcie Sillman on the FYP movement,
-An invite from a Danish Feminist group Dansk Kvindesamfund to come and speak on a panel and teach the art of Armpit Hair Dying at Copenhagen’s Roskilde Music Festival (Unfortunately funding didn’t come together, but were on for next year!)
– Miley Cyrus and her pink armpit hair, which she used as a publicity stunt to launch her awesome foundation the Happy Hippie Foundation which aims to end youth homelessness and bring to light the prejudice and judgment that youth of today face. The only problem was, she didn’t use the hashtag. Do me a favor and find Miley Cyrus on Instagram and hashtag bomb all of her armpit photos with #freeyourpits. We would love to have her support and endorsement!
And most recently, this FYP interview featured in German Left Newspaper TAZ…….Read on…..
When did the idea of coining a “free your pits”- movement come to your mind?
A friend and I experimented with dying her armpit hair blue, and we photographed the process and turned it into a blog post……..The post got 30,000 shares before two influential female American talk show hosts got ahold of it and publically tore the article apart for being disgusting and offensive.
We took it as an opportunity to start a worldwide conversation on body hair and women’s sense of beauty and their bodies. The Free Your Pits movement came to be, with the intention of normalizing the concept of natural body hair on a woman and celebrating our freedom of choice to do what we want with our bodies.
Why do you think is it that important to campaign for armpit hair?
Because it is dire that women understand that their bodies and choices are theirs to make. We live in a society which is driven by profit and the interest of those who seek to profit. The beauty industry targets women and their deepest insecurities about themselves. We need to separate ourselves from the unattainable beauty standards which keep us feeling like we are not okay, or beautiful for that matter, as we are. We get to choose what to do with our bodies, armpit hair or not, and we don’t need to be told.
Is it all about women?
It is mostly about women but it is also for any man who finds empowerment through it!
What do you want to achieve?
I want women to stand up and talk back! I want women to do what they want with their bodies, and find empowerment through the process of making informed and conscious choices.
What gave you the idea of colouring armpit hair?
I’m a hair stylist, and I am obsessed with color. It was natural, harmless, inspired curiousity to see how it would work to color pubic hair.
How did people react to your campaign so far?
Mostly with tons of support! It has been so incredible to see the photos and hear the stories of women and men who are Freeing their Pits! It is empowering so many people to stop trying to conform their sense of self and beauty to unattainable standards!
Are there other campaigns that you initiated – in general or also concerning the “free your pits”-movement?
I also campaign for the Shampoo-Free movement and the Natural Hair Movement, for people of all colors to embrace their natural hair and work with what they have.
I think the shampoo system is a great metaphor for what is wrong in our culture on so many levels. Strip out everything that is sacred and true to us as individuals, and then try to conform us all into the same being. So that we can be more easily controlled and manipulated. And then we don’t feel good enough, and we turn our hate onto ourselves because we will never be good enough, because we aren’t honoring ourselves as we are. And so we keep consuming and searching for things to make us better. And the truth is, we are all born whole and perfect. And we need to be who we are and be okay with that.
Thanks for being here, friends, and please don’t hesitate to grow your pit hair out and color it any color of the rainbow in support of this movement. It just might change your life:)
#freeyourpits
xoxo, HTHG
