 "When a girl removes hair for the first time, it's
a life-changing moment," said Stacey Feldman, vice president for
marketing at the women's health and personal care division of the Church
& Dwight Company, which purchased Nair in 2001.
-
- They grow up so fast! At least that seems to be the thinking
over at Nair, which has introduced "Nair Pretty, a line aimed at
10- to 15- year-olds or, in industry parlance, 'first-time hair removers.'"
-
- The company is facing the difficult challenge of selling
a product to middle schoolers who might not purchase their own depilatory
products (they're aiming the ads at moms), but we salute and wish them
well: If we can somehow convince young women to go hairless their entire
lives, the mainstreaming of pornography will finally reach critical mass.
- Anybody objects, just tell 'em it's about "empowerment."
Who can argue with empowerment? We're probably months away from Baby
Brazilians. God, what a great time to be alive!
-
- http://gawker.com/news/little-children/bring-on-the-smooth-young-
girls-299867.php
-
-
- Why 10 Is Too Young For Your First 'Brazilian'
- Small Children Are Being Encouraged To Rip
The Hair From Their Bodies
- By Larissa Dubecki
- TheAge.au
-
- Every woman is painfully familiar with the phrase "bad-hair
day"; that handy cover-all for the times that, despite the amount
of expensive hair products used and incantations to the god of hairdressing
made, you are forced to go about in public looking like a family of badgers
has taken up residence on your head.
-
- But in this peculiarly tonsorial context, the definition
of concern relates to the word "woman". Last year Nair, makers
of hair-removal products, released their Pretty range, aimed at 10 to
15-year-olds, or, as they call them, "first-time hair removers".
Yes, you heard right. Ten-year-olds. Girls - children - in grades 5 and
6, encouraged to wax and chemically remove hair from their barely pubescent
bodies. As online site Gawker put it, what's next: Baby Brazilians?
-
- Well, it seems that someone heard that throwaway phrase
and spied a business opportunity, because Australian website girl.com.au
is now promoting a feature about Brazilian waxes, otherwise known as a
torture device in which all the hair in a woman's nether regions is ripped
off with a combination of hot wax and a high pain threshold. The website,
which appears to be mostly read by girls in the nine to 14 age bracket,
says of the Brazilian: "Nobody really likes hair in their private
regions and it has a childlike appeal."
-
- As a cosmetic pharmaceutical company, Nair is obliged
to reinvent normal bodily functions as problems with handy product solutions.
And the Australian arm of the company has claimed its target audience
is slightly older, in an attempt to distance itself from the US campaign,
which involves phrases such as "Pretty isn't a look. It's a feeling,"
"Nair will leave your skin smooth and totally touchable!" and
this pearler from Stacey Feldman, vice-president for marketing at Nair's
parent company, Church & Dwight: "When a girl removes hair for
the first time, it's a life-changing moment."
-
- There are countless reasons to be angry about this piece
of misogyny dressed up as big-sisterly advice. Let's start with the semiotics
of the campaign. It's hard to be angry about "Pretty". It's
like being incensed by High School Musical's tween hottie Zac Efron, Labrador
puppies or the colour pink.
-
- But "Pretty" here is a (hairless) wolf in disguise.
It might come in a range of fruity fragrances, but it's also a non-threatening
induction into a society that sets ridiculous standards for female appearance
(among them, the notion that being hairy is ugly). "Pretty"
ignores the fact that young people are progressing into adulthood at lightning
speed, making the "tween" stage a mere formality as they rush
from skipping ropes and jelly sandals to midriff tops and glitter make-up.
-
- http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/why-10-is-too-young-for-your-
first-brazilian/2008/01/07/1199554567704.html
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