• Home
  • News
  • Longform
  • Life
    • Jeans
    • Madam Zeenat’s Feminist Tarot
  • Health
  • Work
  • Culture
    • Books
    • Art
    • Music
    • Fashion
    • Cinema
    • TV
  • Sports
  • Kranti
  • Vaanthi
  • The FAK
  • About
    • Submissions
  • Home
  • News
  • Longform
  • Life
    • Jeans
    • Madam Zeenat’s Feminist Tarot
  • Health
  • Work
  • Culture
    • Books
    • Art
    • Music
    • Fashion
    • Cinema
    • TV
  • Sports
  • Kranti
  • Vaanthi
  • The FAK
  • About
    • Submissions
HomeCultureWhy is Everyone Up in Arms about Wonder Woman̵ ...

Why is Everyone Up in Arms about Wonder Woman’s Underarms?

March 22, 2017

By Sharanya Gopinathan

wwunderarm1
Gal Gadot. Still from Wonder Woman Origin trailer

I guess by now I should stop being surprised by what people notice and talk about on social media, but every once in a while something new happens that makes me go omg whatnow?

As soon as the trailer for the upcoming Wonder Woman movie released, people on social media have been talking about only one thing, and it’s the last thing anyone would’ve imaged: Wonder Woman’s armpits.

To be more specific, they’re talking about Israeli actor Gal Gadot’s bare underarms, and wondering about the noticeable lack of armpit hair. The trailer features Gadot hurling cars about, diving off cliffs and fighting smashing lampposts with her whip. It was the scene where she flings a car across the street that had people all up in underarms.

Well, If I’d been picked to play Wonder Woman, I would have insisted on keeping my armpit hair.

— Kevin Murphy (@kwmurphy) March 22, 2017

Wonder Woman ‘should have ARMPIT HAIR’: Gal Gadot raises eyebrows after latest trailer – https://t.co/tzBdtyVgA8 pic.twitter.com/VfVWJhumgf

— Britain Today (@britaintodayuk) March 16, 2017

@Slate finds Wonder Woman’s armpits news worthy. Their reasoning, mankind not ready for a woman’s actual armpit. https://t.co/gcjJwmMxYq

— Chef Michael Perry (@lcbchefperry) March 15, 2017

Slate‘s argument is fair, in so far as that it is pretty weird that people believe that armpits not only need to be hairless, but also bleached a kind of pearly white in order to be palatable to viewers. Slate also mentions that Priyanka’s Chopra’s pits were treated to the same effects on her July 2016 Maxim cover. All the discussion on social media is also a pretty refreshing departure from what we’ve come to see as normalcy though, and it’s kind of nice that so many people care about something like this, and wish that mainstream movies would stop treating women’s bodies as something to be airbrushed into the currently prevailing impossible standard of beauty.

That being said, you can’t help but laugh at some of the tweets from people who are stunned that this is really what people are talking about right now.

People upset about #Wonderwoman not having armpit hair because it isn’t realistic. SHE THROWS CARS AND FLIES.

— Patrick Gunn (@SonOfUhGunn) March 21, 2017

By the way, the part I found most unbelievable about the Wonder Woman trailer wasn’t Wonder Woman’s lack of body hair, but the terribly misplaced accents people seem to have. Why is a dude from London speaking with a proper American accent?

Tags: armpits, body hair, body image, standards of beauty, superhero, trailer, Wonder Woman, wonder woman origin

Share!
Tweet

Sharanya Gopinathan

About the author

Related Posts

The Know-it-All New Girl. The Bespectacled Daughter. The Impostor Insider. Brainy or Pretty? And Other Tales from My New Life as a Teenage Girl inside a Co-ed School in 1980s Delhi

The Bengali Girl’s Running Diary

I Wish They Had Taught Us about Hair Rather than Dickens in School

Justice League is Proof That the Male Gaze Ruins Everything. Even Our Beloved Wonder Woman

2 Responses to “Why is Everyone Up in Arms about Wonder Woman’s Underarms?”

  1. Reply
    Nishtha
    June 3, 2017 at 9:56 am

    I was waiting for The Ladies Finger to pick up more important issues like Gal Gadot’s pro IDF, anti-Palestine stance, and the fact that someone like her who took part in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is playing a pro-peace Wonder Woman. But I guess her armpits are of more importance to you guys.
    Zionism is not feminism.

  2. Reply
    Vivek
    June 5, 2017 at 12:48 am

    Agreed!
    The worst part is, people actually have time to think of trivial issues such as this!!
    This was an amazing movie to say the least.. One of the best superhero flicks from DC after a long time!
    Armpit hair or shaved underarms; does that make this movie any less entertaining or the character of Wonder Woman any less awesome! THINK …

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Trending

Sorry. No data so far.

Subscribe to our email newsletter!

You May Also Like

  • After Payal Tadvi’s Death Can We Allow Medical Education to Continue to Pretend to be Casteless? May 28, 2019
  • Jokha Alharthi’s Man Booker Win Reminds Us of Oman’s Recent Slave-owning Past May 24, 2019
  • In Avengers: Endgame, Black Widow is Sexy, Sterile and So Burnt By Marvel May 12, 2019
  • Let Us Admit the Sins of Atishi Marlena May 10, 2019
  • 20 Questions for SC Panel that Cleared the CJI of Sexual Harassment Charges May 9, 2019


Online Bachchi, Dil Ki Sachchi

Come on over for feminist journalism.

Politics. Pop Culture. Health. Sex. Law. Books. Work.

We write what we want to read.

  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Refund Policy
  • About
  • Contact Us

Subscribe to our email newsletter!

Keep up with us!

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on YouTubeFollow Us on E-mail

Trending

Sorry. No data so far.

Copyright © 2018 The Ladies Finger
Subscribe to our RSS/Atom feed here