Rachel McAdams Brings the Quote of the Day
December 19, 2009 in General by Versus
Another reason she might not have cared much for school?
She was teased for not shaving her legs.
“My mother never put an emphasis on looks,” she says. “She let us grow up on our own timeline. She never forced any beauty regimen into my world.” (Of her unshaven legs, she says her mom had told her, “Once you start, there’s no turning back!”).
Source: Us Weekly
I think this is an amazing outlook for parents to have on their daughters when it comes to looks. I feel that many women have such a preoccupation with their bodies because of comments their parents made to them in their adolescence. I think it is much more important to raise your daughters to be intelligent, interesting, funny, independent, kind, original, and to have opinions on things other than how other girls look in bikinis! I feel that our sons are already raised this way, but little girls are, everyday, told that being pretty is the most important thing. This comment makes me like Rachel McAdams even more than I already did.
I completely agree. My mother never put a big emphasis on beauty, makeup or fashion and now I don’t either – I think that’s very liberating.
Unfortunately she had a major preoccupation with weight – this means I have a really unhealthy body image.
Sometimes I think it would just be better if girls were raised by their dads, and guys by their moms (the same sex parent always seems to pass on their insecurities/bad habits to their kids).
All mothers are saying these things. Well ok, shaving is a bad idea but you can take your daughter to wax her legs, instead of leave her walk around the school like a wolf-man!
Yes I m talking based on personal experiences…:)
Mothers just want their kids to enjoy being kids for a while. It takes a lot of time, stress and energy for many women to keep up an appearance.
Most girls start shaving at 12 or even younger. I know that I want my daughter to be more concerned more important things than an irrational belief that fine blonde hair on your legs makes you look like a wolfman.
Well Greek girls do not have fine blonde hair. That ’s the problem
Also i m sure waxing never prevented anyone from being educated or better personality
Hi fellow Greek! I hear ya on the hair lol.
As for Rachel- what was she thinking with this shirt/dress! Such a pretty girl- such a horrendous outfit!
I’m not Greek but I has similar experience. And I still don’t understand why my Mum was so against getting rid of the embarrassment on my legs
There is nothing embarrassing about one’s hair. For thousands of years we didn’t shave it. Nature did not make us broken.
haha, I know that, now
But back then, when I was about 13 and other girls were laughing at my legs I wasn’t so convinced 
I never said it did.
dark hair is a different matter – but your comment made it said like you thought mothers should encourage an early beauty routine.
I’m not going to stand in the way of my kids shaving their legs, I just don’t want them to feel they have to.
My mom said the same thing. Then again i have such fair hair that i didn’t get mocked before i started. I wasn’t raised to value my looks over persona at all, but there were still those “don’t eat so much candy or you’re gonna be fat” -comments, niiiice. How is that of any relation to what Rachel said? IDK, but i think school time was a bit of a struggle to most girls, and maybe boys too, i wouldn’t know..
Rachel’s comment that “her mother never put any emphasis on looks” is what led me to write my comment. I don’t know, I think it has a lot of relevance to what she said. She wasn’t simply talking about shaving her legs, she was talking about all looks-related things in general. And school-time is hard on all children, sure… but it cannot be denied that girls are definitely more scrutinized based on outer appearances than boys.
she’s right
I remember when I was even younger, some years ago (im 15 now) my mom wouldnt let me shave my armpits more often than…a month or so…. loooool talking about weird parents…:D I was so embarrased in the summers at school ughhh I had to stay like a statue cuz if I moved my arms ppl would have seen. I won’t even mention the legs problem 
looked so cute in short skirts but hairy. lol
thank god @ 12-13 i started doing it:D and then all started…tons of make-up and stuff
lol my mum used to say that to me too!i was totally unaware of make up and stuff…while all the other girls used to wear foundation/eye pencil/eye shadow/fard ecc. every day at 12 y.o.! i always thought i was lucky to have parents who didn’t put enphasis on looks, and helping me to develop intelligence and originality, but now that i’m grown up i think my mum could have done a little more for my looks XD
My mom didn’t prevent me from shaving, but she never told me to either. So for a while there, I had extremely hairy legs, and I either didn’t notice them or didn’t think I needed to do anything about it.
Yes, I was teased, and then I shaved them without telling her. Looking back, I kind of wish she’d raised me to be more feminine. I used to inhale fashion magazines to learn tricks to looking prettier, because my mom never told me anything. I don’t know if her attitude was completely right, or if there could have been some happy medium where the world of “I want to be beautiful” wouldn’t have to be my lonely little secret.
Same as my mom, haha!
I had to learn all the tricks like how to apply makeup, how to take care of my hair, and other beauty regimens by myself, and I always learned it a little later than everyone else. I wish my mom had told me I shouldn’t walk out in shorts with hairy legs.
Same here…my mother was exactly the same !
me 2
Why is looking hairless so desirable? Here in China where I live, very few women shave their armpits/legs/bikini. And we all see each other naked at public pools, so it’s normal. It’s a fact that human beings of both genders have hair on a large percentage of their body. I understand shaving and makeup is usually used to keep up appearances, but they should not rule our life. My mom had the skin from her armpits removed, which left heavy scarring. Caustic chemicals are used to remove hair in many places. Is the quest to force your body to be something it’s not THAT important? I think that’s what the message of this site is.
Hm, I think it’s a cultural thing. Both genders are expected to be mostly hairless nowadays, especially women. I think it started with finding athletic bodies sexy, because athletes typically shave since having hair leads to itching and other hygienic problems.
Personally, I think the feeling of hairless skin is worth 5 extra minutes in the shower. To me, shaving is not a problem.
I’m sorry to hear about your mom though, I hope she’s alright.
It was 20+ years ago, before I was born. Back then, I guess hair removal in China meant that you got skin cut off because hair rarely grows on scar tissue.
I’m half East Asian, half White and East Asians generally have less hair that is hardly noticeable, so of course it would not make sense to them that it is so desirable. Being half White, I unfortunately inherited thick black body hair and the pressure to be hairless is even greater when most people see me as East Asian and expect me to be perfectly hair free. When the other kids stared at me every day as if I were some sort of deformed freak, I wanted to do whatever I could to change that. First I hid myself, covered myself up even when the heat meant I was soaking with sweat underneath. Then I ended up spending hours every day ripping hair out with epilators, wax, tweezers and bleaching or shaving what was too painful to tear out. I wouldn’t set a foot outside without being holed up in the bathroom for hours completing my hair removal routine. I was bullied so much it got to the point I actually considered burning my own skin to get rid of the hair because (as you’ve pointed out in your other post) hair doesn’t grow on scar tissue and I felt I would rather be horribly scarred than hairy.
My mom was never against shaving.
She even encouraged me to get rid of these annoying hair on my legs when she saw I don’t feel comfortable anymore. 
But she was never obssesed about the looks and always emphasised the importance of other things. However, it’s a pirtty that beauty is still valued so much, even more than a nice personality or intelligence.