The founder of Get Hairy February says she has “come to expect” negative reactions to women letting their body hair grow.
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Get Hairy February is a month-long campaign, started by Alex Andrews, encouraging women to stop shaving their legs and under their arms to raise funds for domestic violence organisations, while taking action against inequality.
The initiative was slammed on the Daily Liberal Facebook page.
The responses included GIFs of people spewing, vomit emojis and people declaring it disgusting.
“Oh for God sake this is disgusting wtf is wrong with people,” one person wrote.
Another said: “I wondered if by equality they mean equally as feral?”
“Hairy, shave, never happy!” another person said.
The campaign was also described as ‘cringe-worthy’ by one respondent.
“As far as gender equality goes there are some differences between men and women that are best left alone.... I’ll pass thanks,” she said.
Ms Andrews said unfortunately the negative responses were quite common.
“When women make a choice about their body that goes against what society expects of them people get angry. Female body hair is no exception. It is a clear double standard between how men and women are treated in our community and the degree to which women's bodies are policed and harassed,” she said.
“While it is disturbing these comments highlight the importance of running a campaign like Get Hairy February. We're raising money to eliminate the worst outcome of gender inequality - violence against women - and we're revealing other inequalities at the same time.”
As an organisation the comments did not impact its work, Ms Andrews said.
“However, we want to make it very clear that we do not agree, condone or promote this behaviour. We have merely come to expect it,” she said.
Last year 450 women took part in the inaugural Get Hairy February. More than $40,000 was raised for the Full Stop Foundation, the organisation behind Rape and Domestic Violence Services Australia.