BillieA women’s razor brand is being praised for a body positivity campaign in which women model their pubic hair proudly on a beach.
Billie unveiled a new video as part of its Red, White, And You Do You campaign on Monday (June 24), in which several women can be seen relaxing by the poolside or on the beach.
Rather than show off their perfectly shaved bikini area though, the campaign instead decides to focus on the tufts of pubic hair poking out of their high-cut bikini bottoms or swimming costumes.
Check out the campaign video below:
It’s no secret that adverts aimed towards women often offer unrealistic expectations: spot cream being applied by a model with zero spots, frizz control products being used by someone with gloriously non-frizzy hair, and razors shaving perfectly smooth legs being just a few examples.
Enter: Billie, an American women’s razor brand that’s decided to put an end to this narrative once and for all with their latest body positivity campaign, encouraging women to just ‘do you’.
Ashley Armitage, the director and photographer of this campaign, told Refinery29:
Every summer, the media pressures female-identifying individuals to achieve that ‘beach body’. Everywhere we look, we see ads telling us that the only way to look good in a swimsuit is to be thin, fit, and hairless.
In this film, we wanted to normalise body hair and show that we have options.
The video features a diverse range of models proudly flaunting their pubic hair and going against the ‘norm’ that women can be summer ready in more ways than one.
It comes one year after the company’s Project Body Hair campaign, which called out other razor brands for ‘pretending body hair doesn’t exist’. A bold move, the ad was the first of its kind to show women shaving actual body hair.
Georgina Gooley, the co-founder of Billie, told Refinery29:
I think when we brush topics to the side and don’t address it, it’s a form of body shaming. You’re saying it’s so unacceptable that we’re not even going to talk about it, and that’s how we treat pubic hair.
That’s why it’s important to have a strong message that says, ‘No, no, we are talking about it and it is OK.
The campaign has been widely praised across social media, with one person writing: ‘the removal of body hair is a personal choice, NOT a social obligation! i love this campaign & love this company’.
Others described it as ‘fearless’ and ’empowering’, while one said: ‘Thank you for normalizing body hair for women. You’re changing the world!’.
Incredible. You do you, girls.
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).