Historical Armpits

I was watching Sommersby the other day.  You know, the love story set in the south post- Civil War era starring Richard Gere and Jodie Foster?  I'm not a fan Civil War era films, so you know it has to be worth seeing if I own it.  It's a big overacted in places, especially for Ms. Foster, but story is good and it's "M" rated.

(Now, "M" rated was for my mother.  It was something that my dad came up with WAYYYY before the video games adopted it and changed it to "M for Mature".    "M Rated" for us means that it was not violent, not gory, not a lot of swearing...a perfect example is The Others....great thriller, but it's all in your head.  And the movies are rare...few writers or directors make movies of that eloquence.)

Anyway....


Something that really bothered me as I watched it and looked at the week's growth of leg hair on my legs (Hey, I'm blonde- we don't need to shave often)  But it occurred to me that as I was watching a scene with Jodie Foster in a corset..that there was no armpit hair.

That got me thinking about other historical period films where the actresses are shaved, but it's not historically accurate.  Shakespeare in Love, Elizabeth, Count of Monte Cristo...the list is quite long.

In fact, all historical films that are not independents have shaved actresses.

You'd think that it would be so easy to be historically accurate here, unlike the tooth hygiene problem, which I can forgive (though I appreciate it more when that black slime is put on their teeth- let's be accurate!).  I mean, underarm hair grows full in after a week or two- and it's easy to remove.  It's not even as hard to get into that part of the character as it is to change the head hair length or color.

I did have to look it up, though.  When did shaving become popular?  Evidently, it was popular in ancient Babylonia, but the practice dropped off in the Middle Ages where hair was seen as erotic.  (I just can't get that- getting turned on by a pile of smelly armpit hair- but I don't think Chaucer would have lied).  But, just as you'd suspect, the practice gained in popularity again when sleeveless, short dresses became the fashion in the 1920s....then, of course, fell out of popularity in the 70s with the hippies...but I think it's full-on popular again.

But, the moral of this story is that if you become a costumer, or a director, or a movie star, remember that women didn't shave in modern history until the 1920s...nothing like getting into character BLECH!