A professor at Arizona State University offered extra credit to female students to stop shaving. Professor Breanne Fah teaches Women’s Studies and also extended the credit to male students, to start shaving from the neck down. The students were required to record reactions to the experiment.
The purpose of the assignment was for each gender group to experience the struggle to keep up with the expectation for gender roles. Shaving is a great equalizer in gender roles, men are expected to shave their face and neck daily, while women are expected to shave their legs and arm pits.
Clearly, studying gender norms in an academic environment offers students lessons that extend beyond the classroom. The American Psychological Association recognized the experiment conducted by Professor Fah and she received an award of merit for her program.
Fah’s experiment referenced the turning point for a woman shaving her legs after the First World War, before this it was perfectly acceptable by society for American women not to shave. The final results, had findings that were adaptive beyond the gender and societal roles.
It was revealed that society has mixed standards about shaving, as it relates to personal grooming and hygiene for males and females. The men in the Arizona State University classroom assignment were not judged for shaving, because according to the modern day term, “manscaping” their “hairless” appearance was deemed normal. While the women in the Professor Fah’s experiment, were treated as though they were “unclean” and “slightly masculine.”