Lands. We do live in "interesting times" these days, don't we? Plagues, wars, political divisiveness . . . But all that aside, what I really want to talk about is Sophia Loren's armpits.

I belong to several vintage groups on the FacePunch. People post photos & articles about vintage style, cars, food, whatever. Usually it's really cool to see what everyone shares, but there's one thing that's absolutely guaranteed to get people upset 100% of the time, and that is . . . Sophia Loren with armpit hair.

Back in the mid-20th century, European women shaving armpits regularly wasn't a thing yet. And really, in the grand scheme of time, women shaving is a relatively new concept, brought about by razor companies wanting to sell more razors in the early 1900s. Yep. What we accept now as a normal and expected grooming practice was a marketing ploy. (Yay, capitalism.)

Anyhow . . . there are mid-century photos of Sophia Loren, a marvelously beautiful woman, with armpit hair, and anytime one of these photos gets posted on the Interwebs, people inexplicably lose their shit, as if *hair* on a *mammal* is some awful, terrible thing. It's "gross," "nasty," "unattractive" --- you name it --- but nobody can seem to explain why they think it's gross, nasty, or unattractive beyond "women are supposed to shave."

Can y'all just take a moment and ruminate on the ridiculousness of that statement? 

Listen. I prefer to shave, but that's *my* choice and I have no expectation that all other women are going to do as I do. I also don't care. But why do we keep doing this to ourselves? It's the Twenty-First Century, for Pete's sake. Why are we still pressuring women to conform to arbitrary beauty standards? Now, y'all may think that's ironic coming from me, a person who LOVES her makeup, but while I do enjoy cosmetics, I also fully support women who don't want to wear makeup. 

And I support women who don't want to shave. What someone else does with their armpits ain't my bidness.

Until next time --- keep calm and carry on.