A Word from the Organizer

To create something equivalent to Movember or No Makeup Day that deals with the great and underrated topic of BODY HAIR. That’s what I’m most into at the moment. I’ve used all-caps here to say it loud and clear for once (but not for all), to free it from taboo, from public silence, and from that maddening tendency to downplay each other’s feelings of revolt, to suppress our own rebellious urges, often saying things like: “Well, go ahead, as long as it’s for yourself, not for others…” But if you ask me, to be free from the gaze of “others,” we would all need to join forces and say: “ Yes, it’s possible, and NO, you won’t be ostracized for that choice, that taste, that inclination, that sudden impulse or that way of life.” If we want to create new models of masculinity or femininity, and shed the obsolete ones, we need to stop believing that everyone can think for themselves, independent and carefree, or that nobody will be oppressed, judged, or frowned upon (that’s called utopia!) Sure, criticizing people’s reactions and judgments is all well and good, but it’s necessary to talk about these reactions, since they seem to come from the same place as our fear of difference. Since “woman” is not “hairy,” how can she inhabit her own body without having to regularly alter it, and yet still pull off being a woman? I really do believe that this is the question we’ve come to. For nearly 20 years, I myself have been living with that question, that fear, that need to talk about and enable a liberation which I believe is possible, if only with a LOT of effort…and fun!

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So I’ve been craving, needing, dreaming and even drooling over the idea of us all coming together to talk about our body hair, especially since they cause us so much grief and I’d like to think that they’re not here just to bother us. I’d like to learn or re-learn how our fur can be fun, comforting, soft, warm, silky, colourful, extravagant, boring, beautiful...I’d just like us to give body hair another shot and stop oppressing it for just a tiny moment. I’m convinced that hairiness can guide us into a great love story with ourselves and with each other. So let’s just start by talking about it and then looking at it and then...who knows?

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Paméla Dumont 

December 2016