Body hair has always been a taboo subject. Especially for women. As a half Egyptian girl ( Lithuanian/Egyptian), I have experienced my own discrimination against my appearance, especially since I moved to the UK. I was greeted with odd smiles and eyes that scanned me up and down. Being in year 6, 12 years old, I was insecure and kind of scared because no one looked like me. I was born with pale skin from my mother, yet dark features from my father. Therefore, my hair was pitch black and it contrasts my skin well enough for others to notice. I used to get questions like "Why are you so hairy? Why don't you just shave your arms?" and that was not the worst of it... you should've heard what the immature boys would say. Since then, my outfits consisted with baggy clothes and most importantly, long sleeves. I was tired of being judged for the way I was born. Those comments haunted me forever.
I used to wish to look like my mother who has pale skin, blue eyes and blonde hair...I wanted to runaway from anything that made me stand out. Before coming to a predominantly white country, I was extremely confident, lively, outgoing and never once did I think I was ugly or not good enough. In the UAE, I was surrounded by children of all ethnicities and skin colours, there was no such thing body shaming or specific conformity.
This made me wonder, how did the world turn so cruel? Why is it only that the western world sees people from different backgrounds as ugly unless they fit the basic standards of a proportional face, hairless body, and a certain body type. I want to show people the beauty in those individuals who choose to embrace and fight back the stereotypes of ethnic people.
A good example of this, is a social media influencer named Deba Hekmat.
Photographer: @lauraallardfeleischl Photographer: unknown
Deba is a Middle Eastern, 20 year old model and activist. She is a daughter of Kurdish immigrants living in the UK. She talks about important topics such as privilege, diversity, body positivity and FGM (female genital mutilation).
Growing up, she always felt out of place due to her appearance especially her eyebrows since her mother emphasised the beauty of a unibrow, however that didn't stop bullies and online trolls to tear her down. " I felt unrepresented as a child. I really didn't see anyone in Western media that looked like me" - Deba H. This proves my point as to how far the fashion/beauty industry influences our ideas of beauty. She joined the modelling industry to be the role model ethnic kids never had or would have seen. This is another reason why she finally embraced her body hair. " I used to get bullied heavily...my eyebrows, my armpits, my arms, my belly - it's me saying that you do not need to be clean-shaven and have traditional standards of what it means to be beautiful." - Deba H.
As for modelling, she is signed with diversity champions Anti-Agency as she represents Middle Eastern beauty in high fashion. She walked runways for Vivienne Westwood and Vetements. However, her popularity lies in her association for streetwear brands like Nike, GCDS, Hoodlab, and Crowd. This makes her a versatile model that isn't afraid to show her interests and styles. Now Deba may not be an artist in terms of paint and creating, however she is very influential to me and my ideas by the way she protests about the problems in this world and brings awareness to my generation that we wouldn't have thought of due to growing up with privileges.
Since I'm exploring the negative and positive effects of the fashion/beauty industry, I found one controversial topic about white people making body hair fashionable and on trend, yet people of colour have been doing it for years and got discriminated against.
The famous DAZED magazine created an Instagram post promoting their future trend predictions for 2021 - Untamed brows.
This caused outraged in the ethnic community as the cover of this trend is a white person. The model here is one of my other favourite influencers named Sophia Hadjipanteli. She is a Greek Cypriot woman who gained her beautiful brows from her parents and created the #UNIBROWMOVEMENT in order for others to embrace their natural beauty and increase confidence in others. Even though this was done all in good spirits, DAZED (beauty) magazine handled it all wrong. POC have been ridiculed and shamed for years due to their body hair, making Sophia a bad representative for the community. This shows how there is still much prejudice towards people from other foreign backgrounds that inherit dark body hair. Another reason people were angered was by finding out that Sophia tints her eyebrows black just because she wants to, which is not a bad thing at all, however she still doesn't represent the people who have been living in shame because they were simply born with it.
Deba Hekmat was quick to respond to the post, "I wish we gave space to WOC that have gone through trauma for being 'too hairy' instead of showcasing white women because they are 'brave' for being different...". Personally, I agree and disagree with this comment as Sophia has gotten a lot of hate and online torment for her looks, some have even surpassed death threats. However, I do agree that WOC (women of colour) and men, need to be represented more in the fashion industry. We need to normalise different people in this world.
GUAP magazine also responded to Dazed by making a post showing the 'real faces of the unibrow movement' those included: Shaz, Deba, Zorawar Waraich, Dulcie, and Shari Siadat.
This is why it's my goal to showcase the beauty of anti-conformity in my project through experimentation and alternative artwork. I want to show that we shouldn't judge others just because society tells you to. We make our own standards of beauty and respect others. I will continue to gather visual imagery and produce work that fits in my timescale.
Tapponi, R. and Tapponi, R., 2021. 5 Arab Models Dominating The Fashion Industry. [online] Mille World. Available at: <https://www.milleworld.com/5-arab-models-taking-over-the-fashion-industry-in-2019/> [Accessed 20 January 2021].
Dazed. 2021. Vote For Deba On The #Dazed100. [online] Available at: <https://www.dazeddigital.com/projects/article/48813/1/deba-model-biography-dazed-100-2020-profile> [Accessed 20 January 2021].
Instagram.com. 2021. Login • Instagram. [online] Available at: <https://www.instagram.com/p/CJ55kPugACd/> [Accessed 20 January 2021].
Instagram.com. 2021. Login • Instagram. [online] Available at: <https://www.instagram.com/p/CJ_VeI2j28y/> [Accessed 20 January 2021].
Why I Love My Body Hair. 2019. [video] Directed by C. Houston. Los Angeles.
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