Three people putting the protection of the planet before themselves. Three powerful stories from Latin America, the deadliest region for environmental activists.
Activism
A photo of baby Leonardo DiCaprio got people talking about women’s armpit hair
Who would have thought that we would be talking about female armpit hair in relation to Leonardo DiCaprio. Sadly, this conversation is really happening. The Facebook page History in Pictures posted a photograph taken in 1976 to pay tribute to the great actor and climate advocate, who recently won the Oscar for Best Actor, which
Who would have thought that we would be talking about female armpit hair in relation to Leonardo DiCaprio. Sadly, this conversation is really happening. The Facebook page History in Pictures posted a photograph taken in 1976 to pay tribute to the great actor and climate advocate, who recently won the Oscar for Best Actor, which shows him as a baby with his mother Irmelin Indenbirken and father George DiCaprio. The couple later divorced, but the photograph shows happy parents proudly holding their very blonde, very cute son Leonardo. The image generated a storm of comments about a theoretically peripheral aspect of it: Indenbirken’s unshaven armpits.
Baby Leonardo DiCaprio with his mom and dad, 1976.Follow us for more awesome history >> History In Pictures
Posted by History In Pictures on Tuesday, 1 March 2016
Many expressed their disgust with comments such as “beast of a pit” and “that’s gross, end of discussion”. Some pointed out that the shot was taken in the 1970s and that the DiCaprios were hippies, therefore it was only normal that women didn’t shave at the time. Others were outraged at the fact that, a whole forty years afterwards, people still think women should be subjected to non-natural aesthetic standards based on their gender. Some joked: “I guess some of these guys didn’t know women grew hair on their armpits,” and, “his dad didn’t even shave his beard for the photo”. Others stuck to a serious tone: “When i saw this, I thought ‘Wow, that little toddler just got an Oscar. His parents must be extremely proud!’ Not ‘His mom didn’t shave her pits during a time where women didn’t shave their pits'”.
Women have hair. All over their body, exactly like men do. It is a simple fact of nature and life, a fact that should be of little interest or importance. Except that women are subjected to intense scrutiny and derision in accordance to superficial and antiquated aesthetic norms that require them to alter their natural selves. Of course these affects men too, they affects all genders, but women in particular are too often judged not for who they are or what they do, but what they look like and what they wear. Because the point isn’t how Leonardo DiCaprio’s mother looks, but that she raised him, and he credits her with having given him the support that made his brilliant career possible – for example, driving him three hours a day so that he could attend the prestigious Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies when he was a boy. Not surprisingly, it was Indenbirken that the actor proudly had on his arm as his date for one of the most important nights in his career.
Siamo anche su WhatsApp. Segui il canale ufficiale LifeGate per restare aggiornata, aggiornato sulle ultime notizie e sulle nostre attività.
Quest'opera è distribuita con Licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 4.0 Internazionale.
Influential scientist, activist and author Vandana Shiva fights to protect biological and cultural diversity, and against GMOs.
Kimiko Hirata has blocked 13 new coal plants in Japan, but she hasn’t done it alone. The 2021 Goldman Prize winner tells us about her movement.
The Goldman Environmental Prize, the “green Nobel Prize”, is awarded annually to extraordinary activists fighting for the well-being of the planet.
One in three women have suffered physical or sexual violence. With contributions from Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America, we look at how this shadow pandemic affects every corner of the world.
The Istanbul Convention against gender-based and domestic violence marks its tenth anniversary. We look at what it is, who its signatories are, and what the future might hold.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reminded us of the gravity of violence against women around the world, and of the Istanbul Convention’s utmost importance.
We talk to Shaama Sandooyea, activist and marine biologist from Mauritius onboard Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise ship in the heart of the Indian Ocean.
President Erdoğan has pulled Turkey out of the Istanbul Convention, key in the fight against gender violence, claiming that it favours the LGBT community rather than family values.