WOMEN AND BODY HAIR zy Social Perceptions and Attitudes zyx Susan A. Basow and Amie C. Braman zyxw Lafayette College zyxwvu This study examines college students' attitudes toward and perceptions of a woman with body hair as a function of respondent gender and feminist attitudes. Participants reacted zyxwv to a video of a White woman either with or without visible leg and underarm hair. Results supported the hypothesis that a woman with body hair will be seen as less sexually and interpersonally attractive than the same woman without body hair. Specifically, the woman with body hair was viewed as less sociable, intelligent, happy, and positive, and as more aggressive, active, and strong. Attitudes toward feminism predicted attitudes about body hair in general, which in turn predicted reactions to the model with body hair. Despite the fact that women students had more positive attitudes about body hair and more feminist attitudes than their male counterparts, there were no gender differences in reactions to the model with body hair. Implications regarding this pervasive cultural norm are discussed. The absence of leg and underarm hair is an important component of White female physical attractiveness in the United States and many other Western cultures. Unlike other social pressures on women to alter their bodies to conform to a cultural ideal (such as the pressure to be very thin; Rodin, Silberstein, & Striegel- Moore, 1985), the pressure to remove body hair has been relatively unexamined. In particular, we do not know how women with visible body hair are perceived. This is the purpose of the present study. Based on the fact that most women remove their leg and underarm hair because it makes them feel more attractive (Basow, 1991), it is predicted that a woman with body hair will be perceived negatively, especially with respect to sexual and interpersonal attractiveness. Two variables that might affect such perceptions are This study was conducted zyxwvut as part of an honors project by the second author under the drrection of the first. Amie Braman zyxwvuts is now at Washington State University, St. Louis. Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Susan Basow, Departmrnt of Psychology, Lafayette College, Eastoii, PA 18042-1781. E-mail: BasowS@lafayette.edu. Published by Cambridge University Press 0361-6843/98 $9.50 63 7