Oddity Central

Oddity Central

Woman Hasn’t Shaved Armpits in 18 Months to Challenge Social Taboos

Posted: 07 May 2012 06:30 AM PDT


Emer O’Toole, a 28-year-old English journalist has created an Internet buzz after she appeared on a morning show and revealed her hairy armpits and legs. The confident young woman said she hasn’t shaved in 18 months, since she decided to challenge the notion that women must shave their body hair in order to be happy and feel attractive.

It’s true Emer isn’t the only woman in the world who doesn’t shave her armpits and legs, but in modern society, woman bodily hair is one very big social taboo. But the graduate student from Dublin started examining her relationship with her body and her body hair and realized she had first started shaving when she was 14 just because it was expected of her, not because she had to. So she decided to make herself the main protagonist of an experiment that would challenge society’s notions of female beauty. She simply stopped shaving her body hair for the last 18 months.

As you can surely guess, Emer O’Toole had a tough time getting used to her new look, and the way people stared at her every time she lifted her arms. Whether on the subway, hanging to the handlebars to keep her balance, or in a cafe waving to the waiter, the young woman had to deal with disgusted and surprised looks all the time. She admits to feeling awkward on several occasions, because certain outfits showed her hairy armpits a little too much, but then she started examining where her confidence and self-esteem were coming from. ’If it’s my looks, and my self-esteem is linked to that, then I’ve realised I need to find other sources for that confidence. Your looks aren’t with you when you wake up in the morning if you have to put your make-up on first. And they don’t stay with you as you age’, the confident woman said on ITV’s “This Morning” show.

Emer says she is now almost entirely comfortable with her hairy armpits and legs, and didn’t think twice before showing them off on live television, when asked by the show’s hosts. She added that most men aren’t bothered by her hairy appearance, because they too have hairy armpits, but it’s usually women that are offended by her natural look. She isn’t letting her detractors affect her confidence in any way, though, and claims that even if her experiment was only meant to last for a year, she found she liked her body hair and couldn’t believe she had to reach 26 before even seeing what it looked like on her body. She may shave it at some point but she wants it to be a choice, not something she has to do.

In modern society, girls are conditioned to shave off their body hair and pluck their eyebrows, because if they don’t, they end up getting bullied by their pears, although nature has given them body hair. I like to think a woman has the right to do what she wants to do, but with society’s views on this matter being what they are, do women actually have a choice? In a poll created by ITV’s morning show, 80% of voters didn’t agree with Emer and thought she should shave her armpits and legs.

Woman Hasn’t Shaved Armpits in 18 Months to Challenge Social Taboos was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Jeepney Buses – Art on Wheels in the Philippines

Posted: 07 May 2012 05:19 AM PDT


Adorned with colorful accessories and shiny fixtures, the Jeepney buses of the Philippines are probably the most flamboyant means of public transportation in the world, rivaling even the art trucks of Pakistan.

Jeepneys are the most popular means of transportation in the Philippines, and are considered a symbol of the archipelago, despite recent controversy regarding their heavily-polluting emissions. The history of Jeepney buses dates back to the final days of World War II. When American forces withdrew from the Philippines, they either left behind or sold hundreds of surplus jeeps. The country’s public transportation had been destroyed by the war, so people started modifying the jeeps to accommodate more passengers and classified them as passenger-style jeeps. Recognizing the wide-spread use of these new vehicles, the Filipino government soon regulated their use.

Photo: brdavid

But apart from simply stripping down the jeeps, increasing the number of seats and adding roofs for cover, Filipinos also started adding colorful and shiny ornaments, and using the car’s metal body as canvas for painted or airbrushed images of personal significance, or adverts. The Jeepney became a part of Filipino culture, and an inexpensive means of transportation for the country’s proletariat. Although the original buses were refurbished American surplus jeeps, nowadays, Jeepneys are produced by independent companies and workshops in the Philippines, with surplus engines and parts imported from Japan.

Photo: nishir_rana

Despite their popularity both with the local population and with tourists, Jeepney buses have been under fire for some time, and their existence in their current form is under threat. Because they increase traffic volume and consume considerable fuel, Jeepneys are faced with increasing restrictions and regulations for pollution control. A recent study showed a 16-seat Jeepney consumed as much fuel as a 54-seat air-conditioned bus, and that only amplified pressure to remove them from the streets of Manila and other major cities.

Photo: whl travel

But the future of these brightly decorated vehicles may not be as grim as it first appears, as E-jeepneys, short for “electrical jeepneys”, could carry on this half-a-century-old tradition. A few of them have already been produced in the Philippines and are currently being used by schools, resorts and theme parks.

Photo: zanzo

Photo: dachlan

Photo: monojussi

Jeepney Buses – Art on Wheels in the Philippines was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Photos of Chinese Students Cramming for Exams Hooked to IVs Spark Controversy

Posted: 07 May 2012 03:54 AM PDT


It appears in China the saying “study till you drop” is taken quite literally by some, as photos show students receiving amino acid IV drips as they hit the books during late evening studying session for college exam.

You thought you were studying too hard? Well unless you’ve ever needed intravenous medication to keep you from passing out or collapsing due to excessive studying, you have it pretty good compared to these young students at a high school in Xiaogan, central China's Hubei province. Photos taken late one evening, and posted on popular Chinese site Sina Weibo, show a brightly lit classroom full of students studying National College Entrance Exam, commonly known as “gao kao”. Students appear buried among piles of books, with dozens of IV bags hanging from lines traversing the classroom.

Uploaded only two days ago, the photos were shared by thousands of students and went viral on the Chinese interwebs. Asked about the situation,Mr. Xia, director of Office of Academic Affairs, said the IVs only delivered amino acids to restore students’ health. "The state grants a 10-yuan subsidy for amino acids to each graduating senior that will participate in the gao kao(National College Entrance Exam). Any student that feels not well can go to the infirmary and take amino acids on the IV drip," Xia said. And because the school infirmary was already full of students in need of medical attention, the school thought they’d arrange IV drip sessions right in the classrooms , to help students save time, instead of having them run back and forth between infirmary and classrooms.

The National College Entrance Examination, or gao kao, is viewed as a life-and-death turning point in the lives of senior high-school students,  as it determines if they can be accepted by into their dream schools and if they can go to college at all, regardless of their previous academic performances in high-school. The test includes three compulsory subjects (Mathematics, Chinese and English), plus a few optional, and takes place on the 7th, 8th and 9th of June. It’s basically the Chinese version of the SAT, only students apparently take it way more seriously there.

I definitely agree studying hard is important as a student, but doing it to the point where your body actually needs amino acids to cope with exhaustion seems a bit extreme.

via Ministry of Tofu

Photos of Chinese Students Cramming for Exams Hooked to IVs Spark Controversy was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

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