[dolarabee]

[Tripsoverhercats]

Well, for hobbits and dwarves body hair is no big thing, as they are all covered with it. Hobbits are likely to find heavy leg hair as attractive as a dwarf admires a full, silky beard (ick). Elves are probably naturally smooth with only eyebrows and those luxurious locks, which leaves human women.

If shaving razors exist (for our human leads are all stubbly or bearded) it is unlikely that a woman would shave her legs unless she had ready access to baths and the time to indulge in the act. Passing a strait razor over your legs is far trickier than using a Bic. She'd have to be rich/noble to have that kind of luxury time. Then, back then, a fellow was probably happy if she was clean and smelled good, rather than how smooth her legs were.

[Robbie]

[Gaslight]

Sheraiah said:
I seriously doubt that hobbits would be bothered the least little bit by body hair and elves probably don't have much, if any. That leaves humans and it is most likely that it wasn't a cause for concern for them either.

No, my point is that even if the actual ME humans wouldn't care, the authors of the fics apparently do, which is why we have an abundance of smooth thighs and newly-shaved legs. It's much more realistic to just have a hand running up a thigh without putting in that "smooth/silky" bit. Because once I see those words, I start pondering, "Hmmm, does she use foam or gel?" LOL Kills the moment.

[Halfwest]

I was just thinking.... wouldn't it make a lot more sense if someone had the idea of requiring men to shave their legs and whatnot? It certainly would save us a lot of trouble. And, miraculously, men of Middle Earth seem to have very little trouble shaving or trimming their beards straight, except for Aragorn with his "manly stubble." He obviously uses his broadsword to shave.

[Gaslight]

[sheraiah]

[Coreinha1980]

wow, this particular dicussion has gotten out of hand!

You guys make me laugh.

I too, was born into a society that demands it's women make the horrible sacrifice of shaving their legs for male acceptance

if life were fair, MEN would have to shave their legs, too, since all that rough hair always chafes my skin, especially if they have facial hair.

As for elven body hair, I've often wondered if Elrond and his kids have a bit of hair 'down there' since they're part human...

Imagine what a shock that must have been

and if not, imagine what a shock it must have been to Arwen to see Aragorn naked on their wedding night!

Arwen: Aragorn...you're so....so...HAIRY

yeah, anyways, enough chatter from Cor

XOXO

Cor

[Scribe]

MAKE IT STOP!!!!!

[NancyBrooke]

If you insist on having a svelte herione in your ME story can she at least use wax? It's a more historically acurate and lo-tech method. Have you ever tried to shave your legs with anything but a safety razor?! (need owie emoticon here ...)

Soap box warning --- attibutes like brawniness, body/facial hair, strong chins and brows, and aggressiveness (all sadly out of fashion these days) are physiologically due to the presence of testosterone and are instinctive/emotional signs of strength, health and virility; personally I'd rather have a man with it than with out it. Today's prevalence for pretty boys like Justin Timberlake I think is juvenile, literally. I want a man who looks like a grown-up, not an adolescent (hence my attraction to Boromir - grrrrr - Sean Bean, and Russell Crowe, e.g.).

I think men shaving anything but their faces is silly, and only that if they feel they have to, unless there's some non-fashion reason like for professional swimmers or horsemen as noted above. It's silly on women, too, but that convention has just gone way too far to be extracted from the culture (I do conform but it's a bummer).

At least in PJ's ME it seems the fellowship (and Tolkien) were sensible - all those capable of growing facial hair seemed to have had it before setting out. I'm sure after a few weeks in the Wild the men were looking pretty scruffy - but I say, bring 'em on! beards! tangles! smells and all ... Yummy. Guys will be Guys (I hope)!

[Hathor]

While we're on the topic, here's my irritation...

Plucked eyebrows. We can claim Mystical Doodad for Elves over that matter, but it really irritates me to see Eowyn, etc, with pluched eyebrows. I mean, how? They don't grow that way, that's for damned sure. It's a little, tiny niggle, but it's irritating. I'm sure it's not in-keeping with Middle Earthian customs.

Yeah. I'll get off my soapbox now.

[sheraiah]

[Viv]

There is some evidence for plucked (or in some way shaped) eyebrows in antiquity. Some mummified remains of a Roman chick were unearthed in the UK a little while ago. While I don't remember all the specifics, I sort of latched onto the factoid that her eyebrows were shaped, indicating that she was a higher-class gal. The fact that she was Roman should indicate how long ago we're talking here.

[Tripsoverhercats]

Not only Romans, the Egyptians were big on hair removal. They frequently (including women) shaved ALL their hair off, wore wigs and painted their eyebrows in.

And some women are naturally lucky enough to not have to endlessly tweeze stray bits of hair.

[Hathor]

Fair point. It was a just the tiny little niggle that got me...

... of all the things I pick up upon first looking at people, I pick the weirdest things, methinks.

Now I actually feel rather inclined to go and research Scandinavean (spl?) culture to see if the women did pluck thier eyebrows or not. Ah, my life.