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Woman Rips Female Colleagues After Overhearing Them Judge Her For Having ‘Disgusting’ Armpit Hair

Natalia Mantini / Refinery29 for Getty Images

A woman was ridiculed by her female co-workers with comments about a physical trait that people have been socialized to associate with men.

But Redditor philliamm96 refused to let things slide after one colleague criticized her for being “unhygienic” and “disgusting.”

She took to the “Am I the A**hole” (AITA) subReddit after confronting the judgmental work colleague and asked:

“AITA For calling my colleagues jealous after they continuously mocked me for having hairy armpits.”

The Original Poster (OP) began her post by explaining why she was becoming hirsute.

“I (24 F[emale]) have been lazy with shaving recently, I’m quite fair skinned and blonde hair, my body hair is quite fine. It’s got a bit more noticeable as it’s got longer (maybe like 2cms now under my armpits and and 1cm on my legs).”

“I don’t really care about it, I probably will shave it soon as it’s getting a bit too long for my liking but my boyfriend doesn’t care about it. He’s ridiculously hairy, the worst he does is tease me when I get a little snail trail because he never actually knew women get them.”

“In my job we have to get changed out of our uniform into our civies before leaving work. I was in the changing room and one of the other girls spotted my arm pit hair.”

“Since then she and other girls have been making comments about how nice it must be to not worry about gender pressure, being girly or how they just couldn’t do it because they’d feel too self conscious.”

“Each to their own and that. It didn’t bother me at first until I walked in on the main girl chatting about how unhygienic and disgusting it is and she’s surprised my boyfriend doesn’t say anything to me about it.”

“So I said ‘You’re just jealous that my boyfriend doesn’t care and the guys you date are that shallow that something as natural as body hair would put them off you.’”

“She’s now spreading that I’m a massive b*tch.”

Anonymous strangers on the internet were asked if and where guilt belongs by declaring:

  • NTA – Not The A**hole
  • YTA – You’re The A**hole
  • ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
  • NAH – No A**holes Here

“NTA. Does she only think it’s unhygienic on women? Just ignore her and do what you want.” – dont_mindm_e

“It infuriates me when I hear people say this. Humans used to be covered in hair. It served a purpose.”

“We lost most of it because now we wear clothes and live in houses. It didn’t suddenly become unhygienic. Culture changed for the worse and its high time it changed for the better.”

“I have female friends who don’t remove body hair and that’s their decision and literally has nothing to do with me. I wax every two months which means in between I often have leg and underarm hair and I give no sh*ts about it.”

“NTA OP you get to do as much or as little hair removal as you want.” – rukouine

“NTA. She was being rude and just blatantly false (its not unhygienic in the slightest) and honestly she is either willfully ignorant about her own body functions or is jealous that people she date think its unhygienic.” – xjaffadragon

“As a fellow lady who doesn’t shave and has a boyfriend absolutely fine with it: She’s definitely projecting. I’ve come across a few people like this.”

“She’s invested emotional energy/ time/ probably quite a bit of money into a purely superficial choice that’s been deeply internalized as a necessary part of feeling worthy as a woman, and she’s suddenly confronted with a woman who doesn’t adhere to the social protocol nor CARES because she is accepted as ‘worthy’ regardless.”

“It’s uncomfortable and intimidating to suddenly have your values challenged, especially from someone ‘safe’ like a peer. This is her grappling with her emotions and perhaps only now thinking a little deeper about her conditioning.”

“It might be a cool chat to have with her later on when emotions aren’t running so high and you can try and get on the same page about it. We need to lift each other up and accept/support each other no matter where we are on the road to understanding this complex stuff. Power to you my dude!” – verisi_militude

“NTA. Shaving the arm pits is some social society pressure thing that someone made up to make us think we need to not sweat as much as men, in my opinion. It doesn’t matter if you decide not to shave. People should mind their own bodies.”

“I personally hate being too hot so I shave my pits and legs because my hair isn’t that fine and it’s insulating. I could care less if the hair exists on YOUR body.” – percipientbias

“NTA…you had an appropriate response to people commenting on your own body with out being asked too.”

“You were getting changed and decided to have a conversation about you. I wouldn’t worry about it, if you feel bad for how you said (not for what you said) you can always pull her aside and explain and discussing and making comments about your body isn’t work appropriate.”

“EDIT also she’s not your partner so it would literally never effect her in any way, and it’s legit none of her business.” – JizzingJunipers

“NTA, your body, your choice. I keep my legs shaved for the most part, but armpit hair? Eh. No one ever sees my armpits.”

“So does your coworker think all men are unhygienic because they dont shave their pits? Do what you want and don’t worry.” – BabyBlueDixie

The OP’s clapback received applause.

“NTA and that was an amazing comeback! They were being mean to you and got the return.” – AgarwaenCran

“NTA! This was an excellent (and likely true) diss. Body shaming you behind your back with bullsh*t about ‘hygiene’ absolutely merited this response.”

“When other women stoop to it, it’s almost always because of internalized misogyny and resentment that you’re holding yourself to less restrictive bs than they are, and they don’t know how to reconcile your comfort with their discomfort, so they need to make you feel bad.” – mmkay_then

Overall, Redditors declared the  OP was NTA and that what she decided to do with her body was not anyone’s business.

Written by Koh Mochizuki

Koh Mochizuki is a Los Angeles based actor whose work has been spotted anywhere from Broadway stages to Saturday Night Live.
He received his B.A. in English literature and is fluent in Japanese.
In addition to being a neophyte photographer, he is a huge Disney aficionado and is determined to conquer all Disney parks in the world to publish a photographic chronicle one day. Mickey goals.
Instagram: kohster Twitter: @kohster1 Flickr: nyckmo