Hairy Sikh lady on Reddit

[Antipodes]

She may experience social pressure from men to shave herself. She may experience social pressure from women to shave herself. She may like or not like her facial hair.

All I'm saying is I don't think it's particularly intelligent or praiseworthy to decide to keep said hair due to the command of a Guru in 1699.

[MonkeyMomma]

As opposed to tailoring her appearance according to the dictates of popular culture?

Yes. Thank you.

[Antipodes]

No as opposed to making up her own mind regarding her appearance.

[Anise]

She may experience social pressure from men to shave herself. She may experience social pressure from women to shave herself. She may like or not like her facial hair.

All I'm saying is I don't think it's particularly intelligent or praiseworthy to decide to keep said hair due to the command of a Guru in 1699.

No. You're missing the point. Does it really matter what sex the individual is who is pressuring her if it is an unequal social standard directed at controlling women's bodies and promoting women's bodies as sexual objects to be evaluated for attractiveness*? Furthermore, she is not praiseworthy in her belief, but rather for her graciousness while facing insults for it.

*I'm not saying shaving is necessarily bad, but rather that the social pressure for women to shave is.

[Guest Anonymous]

No as opposed to making up her own mind regarding her appearance.

What would constitute 'making up her own mind', in your opinion? Many of us make our own choices with regards to how we dress and how we groom ourselves, but I cannot help but feel that every choice is guided by something. Some of us follow fashion, some of us conform to the expectations of our subculture, some of us conform to religion, and some of us intentionally buck those categories, but are no less framed by them, when we choose the exact polar opposite of them.

What are your thoughts?

[Antipodes]

What would constitute 'making up her own mind', in your opinion? Many of us make our own choices with regards to how we dress and how we groom ourselves, but I cannot help but feel that every choice is guided by something. Some of us follow fashion, some of us conform to the expectations of our subculture, some of us conform to religion, and some of us intentionally buck those categories, but are no less framed by them, when we choose the exact polar opposite of them.

What are your thoughts?

True. I need to give this some thought.

In the meantime if anyone is interested in looking further into the issue it's very interesting browsing Sikh forums and reading the dilemmas women and men face.

[2xx1xy1JD]

There is an article on Balpreet in today's Lantern (OSU's student newspaper):

http://www.thelantern.com/campus/faith- ... -1.2915514

Thanks for the link.

Reading page 2, it's pretty clear that she was NOT pressured by her family. On the contrary, her mother had previously expressed concerns, and it took this incident for the mother to finally be proud of her daughter's stand and involvement in her faith.

I found another interesting article:

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/09 ... n-20111010

To me, it shows that the dynamics of this issue are really about women dealing with religious and societal pressures pulling them in 2 different directions.

[Mice]

I just noticed that Balpreet Kaur was named Huffington Post Religion's Person of the Year.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/2 ... ref=topbar