Perhaps it's the freedom to have a choice in the matter. Obviously this is a way to increase their customer base with people who will, in theory, come back again and again for years.

"natural" means no shaving and no waxing. Very few women, and a decreasing number of men, are 100% "natural". But we cut the hair on our head so what is the issue with cutting the hair elsewhere?

When I was 14 my dad gave me an old electric razor for my peach fuzz mustache. I took it and shaved off my pubic hair. I wouldnt have a girlfriend for 2 more years, and at the time there was zero chance of me being sexual, but I personally didn't like having the hair there and until I had the means to get rid of it, I had no choice in the matter.

Sexualization is a problem, yes. But I don't think a bikini wax is sexualizing anyone without some external context.

Blah blah, self-esteem in a world where it's tied to how you look even at 15 and under, puberty, hair growth, something something. 

I think it's worth noting that "girls this young" is a social construction. The idea that a 15 year-old is a "girl" (not a woman) and is "young" are judgments particular to our historical time period and society. My guess would be that historically and cross-culturally, it would be unusual for females of that age *not* to be thinking about being sexually attractive ... whatever that looks like in their particular time and place.

The ad is troublesome by framing body hair removel as an expression of freedom, and is also terribly, terribly misleading.  Waxing is very painful.  I suppose it is safe though, and by "natural", I guess you could argue that they are referring to the materials being used, not the process.  But it is not a "pleasant" experience by any stretch of the imagination.

However, the ad aside, I don't think it's wrong for girls at that age to make a choice about what to do with their newly grown body hair, namely underarm and pubic hair.  At that point, they are on the threshold between childhood and adolescence.  I don't think it's wrong for moms to broach the subject with their daughters, or for salons to offer waxing services to them.  Ideally, parents, mentors, and the media would make it seem like a a valid, acceptable choice for a girl not to remove any of her body hair.  But also a valid, acceptable choice should they want to start hair removal.  As a teenager, I knew quite a few girls (often riotgrrl-influenced) who didn't shave or wax.  It wasn't the norm, but it wasn't shocking either. 

But I felt sorry for those teenage girls who, for some reason or other, were never taught or never picked up on grooming/hygeine norms for girls, involving body hair, menstruation etiquette, etc.  They never actively rejected those norms, but rather ran afoul of them, and being "embarrassed" is an understatement.  They were made fun of, rejected in many social settings, and often bullied.  So I believe it's important to let girls know about social norms concerning femininity, but ideally, to present conforming to them as choices, not mandates

Finally, I don't think we should belittle the potential embarassment that the onslaught of puberty has on physical appearance, such as the development of prominent body and facial hair (which is particularly thick and visible among certain coloring, and common in some ethnicities). 

As a very hairy woman who waxes lots of bits, with an equally hairy daughter...I found this interesting.  I was bullied and teased growing up because my parents thought i was "too young" for waxing and shaving but all the kids (who either did not have body hair, or had blonde body hair which is somehow acceptable - racism anyone?) really made life difficult for me.  I think if my daughter wanted to wax I would say yes.  But I would be sure to frame it this way, "You are waxing because people around us have decided that dark hair on girls is ugly.  You are not ugly.  Dark hair is not ugly.  It is ugly to make people feel like they need to pay money and not accept themselves for how they look.  Society can be ugly."

This ad would be better if it said, " Because society is patriarchal and racist, if you are female identified with dark body hair you are more likely to be made to feel inadequate.  We cannot change society, but we can help you fit into that awful crappy place...and now we have discounts."  

How did people in the olden days survive, having to possibly suffer a glimpse of a girl or woman's pubic hair at the pool? Horror! Undignified! Maybe even unChristian!

Why only girls? They're obviously only trying to establish the next generation of customers, why not include boys? Maybe the special does include boys, but they're not listed because of the advertising venue...

Growing pubic hair is sexualizing and it's Mother Nature who is doing the sexualizing.  Giving young women hair removal options so that they have one less thing to be insecure about is freeing.  I wish that, when I was a teen and was growing hair beyond the confines of my demure one-piece bathing suits (note: it's not just bikini wearers who remove excess pubic hair), I had known two things: 1. that growing pubic hair onto one's inner thigh is normal and 2. that there were acceptable hair removal options for me that worked better than dragging a disposal razor repeatedly over sensitve areas.  Had options like "teen friendly" waxing been introduced, I would have at least been able to approach my mother about this so called "adult" procedure - because shaving did not work for me.

It does suck that we live in a society that dictates body hair removal as the only acceptable option for women but we do.  Vilifying a company that might help teen girls through some of the rough patches (no pun intended) of puberty is not the answer. 

"safe" is probably fine, but "enjoy", "natural", and "pleasant" are some pretty strong words to be applying to a waxing experience.
I went and got my legs waxed with a friend once.  It was kind of fun, but only in the way that I screamed and shrieked a lot and she made fun of me. lol.

The idea that I get from this blog, over and over again, is that women as  a sex, gender (whatever) are so stupid that they can make no decisions for themselves but are the helpless manipulees of advertisers, etc. Of course, this may be true; but if it is then I'm right in thinking homo sapiens sapiens is an evolutionary dead end.

With all the comments along the lines of, 'so people wax, what's the big deal', I think we have something missing here. To explain, I'm going to go on a bit of a tangent, so please bear with me.

My 4-year-old daughter badly wants to wear makeup, which I'm very uncomfortable with. I've had a few people ask me why this makes me uncomfortable. At first I couldn't answer because I had not thought about it enough to articulate why I find this to be problematic. After thinking for awhile, I started to understand my problem: there are too many girls and women who spend all their waking moments under a mask of make-up that they don't really even know what their natural face looks like. I don't want my daughter to be one of those girls (even if it's a short phase that she'll grow out of). At 4, she doesn't really know what her body and face looks like (especially since it's constantly changing), and I don't think she appreciates her body/face as beautiful without alterations. She doesn't even come close to understanding that adhering to conventional beauty standards come at a cost and that she should weigh these costs with the benefits before making any modifications to adhere to social beauty norms. I don't feel that makeup is bad and that she should never wear it; but I do want her to know and accept herself as she is and understand all the implications of using makeup before she starts using it.
I think the same applies for 15-year-old girls and waxing. Chances are, they have not had their body hair long enough to be comfortable with it. Chances are, they don't know how to deal with the hair in any other way than getting rid of it (boy short or skirt bathing suits anyone?) Chances are, they have not given much thought to the physical pain, time, and monetary costs of waxing, much-less how this sexualizes them and if they are comfortable with that. 
Now I do understand that as a parent, it is my job to say no if my daughter is not ready for waxing, makeup, etc. But when she passes by a beauty salon that has a poster in the window clearly implying that she is ready, it makes my job that much harder. Not to mention, I'm sure if a 15-year-old girl walked into that salon, money in hand, they wouldn't ID her or tell her to come back with a parent (nor would I expect them to). 

To sexualise a pubescent girl by making her body more like it was when she was pre-pubescent is bizarre.  Surely this is stopping the apparent growth of her body into that of a woman's?  I know society sexualises children and youth is attractive in women, but how can pretending that puberty isn't happening be the same as sexualising (although the image of that girl is ludicrous).  I would say that when I see 5 year old girls in bikini tops (in spite of the bikini top not really doing anything practical) I think the idea of a child as a grown woman is being alluded to more than a 15 year old waxing does...

I know men who trim or shave their pubic hair.  And I know women who do the same.  And I know couples who do it for each other for intimate reasons.  I don't think this is necessarily a symbol of female oppression.  Sorry.

http://www.pri.org/stories/politics-society/tt-what-women-wear-in-olympic-competition-generating-considerable-attention-10830.html
I'm sure these women are "choosing" to wax.  

'Why do girls this young need to be concerned about how they look in bikinis?"
At 15, my friends and i were extremely concerned about how we looked in bikinis...Why? Our bodies were changing, we were seeing stuff we had never seen before, hair sprouted -  Some of us had a out periods in our bikini, some of us were getting 'cellulite' and Billabong and Roxy surfers told us we should wear bikinis and look like professional surfers/models. Because in Australia, in summer, bikinis can be street wear.  Boys would look at your budding breasts, your lopsided breasts, or your very developed breasts and how you looked in a bikini comapred to your flat-chested friend. Celebrity 'bikini body' issues in TEEN magazines.. Wearing one piece togs was for kids - wearing adult bikinis was for teenagers. 

i started waxing at 15 - and there was no way at all i needed to. I wish i didnt. I wish i wasnt told that i had to. 

I kind of get what people are saying when they say  the hair and or mother nature sexualizes the girl.. at least this is what I felt when I started growing hair at 10 and my mom already told me I'm not wearing tampons or shaving until I reach high school (I started my period at age 8) I feel like the hair creeping from under my panties was reminding people that hey, there's a pussy down there. Whereas my girlfriends and most children are hairless. Growing coarser pubic hair is and feels like a sign that the body is maturing and undergoing puberty.. I mean your body is literally maturing in preparation to be a sexual adult human being. And if you were raised in a christian background you've already heard the argument that hair grows down there because the lord wanted you to cover it and feel shame that it is out (i am no longer a christian). So in my head.. god was already shaming me when I started getting pubic hair. so shaving it had nothing to do with wanting to be sexy . I didn't want to draw attention to my friggin cooch is all.

nice article and good blog

This conversation thread would be more fun if it were in person and we could all see each other.  And have a drink.

Replying to this.
I think you're missing the point here.  Or maybe I have.  Someone is clearly missing the point.

When andrew_s wrote:

getting rid of body hair is as ancient as the egyptian culture if not older.

I thought it was pretty clear that he wasn't talking about etiology.  He was referring to the fact that body modification in general, and often pubic hair modification in particular, is quite common in human cultures.    It would be unusual to find a culture that didn't engage in body modification.  That was pretty clearly the point.

When you wrote:

Women and girls who wax now are not inspired by ancient Egyptians

You were burning a strawman.

Your assertion that pubic shaving always, at all times, reinforces the patriarchy is pretty bewildering in light of the fact that you're supposed to be the most informed commenter in this thread.  Could you clarify the following cases?

Islamic cultures: (Before anyone tries to "gotcha" me, I am referring to cultures with substantial participation in Islam, not necessarily only Arabic or "Middle Eastern" cultures.)  Anyway, pubic hair is recommended for both genders, AFAICT for reasons of hygiene and  ritualized cleanliness.

Luguru:
Luguru girls have their pubic hair shaved as an adulthood initiation rite, (and possibly at points afterward, e.g. pregnancy?)  Salah Hamdani observes:

. Elderly women started to shave the girl’s pubic hair. This was a
somewhat painful experience because on this day only ashes from burnt up charcoal were
protecting her body...ashes are
supposed to have the power of suppressing the growth of unwanted pubic hair. ...The Luguru as most other matrilineal peoples do not scarify.
Removal of hair is a symbol of purity and cleanliness. In almost all African societies, women
shave their pubic hair because the presence of pubic hair is associated with un-hygienic conditions
and distaste.

Zambia: (Is "Zambia" a culture, or like nine different ones?  I don't know, but I'm citing a Zambian scholar here, who I assume knows better than I do.)

 
Kenneth Mwemba describes a "Zambian fable, which begins:

A man is embroiled in an argument with his wife who accuses him of having
an extra-marital affair. His wife points out to him that she has noticed lately
that he comes home late in the night and looking very tired. She makes further
accusations that even though his pubic hair looks nicely shaven, she is suspicious
as to who could have been the barber because she herself did not shave his pubic
hair! According to one African legend and custom, it is the wife who should
shave her husband’s pubic hair.

So, three different examples in which pubic shaving is either: recommended for both men and women; a ritual in a matrilineal society, done by women to women to encourage health and hygiene, and performed (at least) by men.

Why can I, a non-sociologist with some basic background knowledge and google, summon these counter-examples with minimal effort, when you apparently study this for a living.  Are these examples not relevant?  If you would like to dispute the charge of willful ignorance, I don't think you're helping your case.

When I shave, it is pretty much for reasons of social acceptability. Otherwise I don't generally care about my body hair (I don't really shave in winter). I find it sad that folks on here who are pretty much on point when it comes to gender and social norms seem to be coming to the defense of body hair removal especially for reasons of placating the masses. Yes, it is good you got to shave so that the future nobodies at school didn't make fun of you, but that is fucked up to begin with and shouldn't be celebrated.

On another note, please stop mentioning Ancient Egypt and Ancient Rome as justification that body hair removal has been a common part of human existence. Those are only two cultures of thousands  that existed and I'm pretty sure are not even representative of 95% of the commenters' own ancestries. People are talking as if these cultures are somehow representative of world culture when they are not. Something tells me that for most of anatomically-modern human existence (dating back 200,000 years ago), nobody was shaving jack-didly.

I have pale skin and dark body hair, I've NEVER waxed, and only once or twice shaved, I found the whole experience very uncomfortable and unpleasant and honestly if anyone thinks less of me for not going through these pointlessly painful rituals I don't want anything to do with them.

and let's not forget how cigarettes were promoted as tools of liberations. remember virginia slims?
 

And what's so wrong with waxing, shaving, or any other grooming or hygine practice that it's unsuitable for teenagers? I have shave my bikini area since I was 13. I did this for the same reason I trimmed my fingernails, brushed my hair, and used acne treatment. I didn't do this to satifsy some patriarchy or be visually appealing to men. I did it because I have a sense of self-respect and an interest in caring for proper grooming and hygine.
Other commenters have stated that they weren't allowed to shave as early as they would have liked the ability to do so. I'm not sure if the ad had an eye to such a trend when they wrote "freedom," but that's something that sticks out to me.  

i aint removing shit. we CAN change society. I dont agree with the other poster who said we cant. WE CAN. the problem is too many conform. too many say well all the other kids/parents are doing it.... Thats what we need to do. Bond together, and collectively say NO HUNNY YOU CAN NOT WAX YOUR LEGS/WEAR MAKE UP/WEAR A PUSHUP BRA/WEAR BOOTY SHORTS. NO NO NO. ALL of us have to do it. I dont care im not letting my kids wax/wear makeup. My group of friends have decided we will collectively say NO to this stupidity. In a male dominated society, everything is for men. Waxing your legs is not something any women enjoys I think, its a long and shitty tradition to satisfy mens sexual desires, and has become a standard of appearance. Everything is to make men feel better. Its sick. I was happy when the metrosexual wave came in for men. I thought FINALLY, men have to do something. They have to work at their appearance. Albeit it didnt last long, it did come. So, how about we women of the world collectively say fuck you society. How about you start with your friends and family, and work to larger circles. Thats how change comes. But we can not be disjointed in our efforts. Then one day, that girl that looks like a shiny waxy candle will be the odd one out.