Ben Hopper is a London-based photographer, artist, and filmmaker who’s recently stirred the public with his newest photography project named Natural Beauty.
The goal of this project is to show that unshaven women can be equally beautiful as the shaven ones and to challenge the female beauty standards through series of photos.
The Constant Pressure on Women to Look a Certain Way
Hopper wanted to challenge the notion that the women with body hair are attractive.
Indeed, for hundreds of years, women have been made to believe that they need to reach certain beauty standards, often unrealistic.
Through his photo shoot of unshaven women, Hopper wanted to challenge one of these standards, i.e. that women should remove all hair from their body and face in order to be considered beautiful.
He wanted to show that a woman who doesn’t shave is also beautiful and attractive.
Indeed, there’s nothing more natural than hair growth and it’s completely natural to have hairs no matter if you’re a woman or a man.
Indeed, the women look stunning, regardless of the fact that they’re not hair-free. Here are some of the reasons why these women decided to ditch shaving and leave everything natural:
“I stopped shaving after reading Judith Butler and realizing that I had no idea what my natural body looked like, I was convinced to perform my gender and shave by 15. I then continued not to because I felt the need to overcome the embarrassment I felt for not conforming. Not shaving shouldn’t be a statement, but it is. Eventually, it became a really liberating experience and showers are so quick and easy now-I will never go back!”
Another one said:
“I began to delve deeper into female history and feminism, discovering a much deeper layer of slogans and billboards selling advertisers and giant companies rolling in large sums every year under the ‘beauty ideal’. I discovered that there are other women who choose to grow their hair naturally and it does not detract from being beautiful and sensual.”
You can check out the impressive photo shoot here:
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