When one writer wrote about her teen daughter’s bikini wax in British Vogue, it caused an uproar. Are your family’s intimate grooming habits an oversharing bridge too far?
To be fair, the piece isn’t controversial only because Rachel Johnson involves her daughter’s pubes: rather, the excrutiating, painful level of waxing detail has many cringing — and it doesn’t help that the author is sister of the Mayor of London. Quickly, some critics have described it as inappropriate and disrespectful. From the daughter’s perspective, writes the Telegraph’s Bryony Gordon, the piece is enough “to raise whatever hairs haven’t been removed in a swish Mayfair salon.” The Daily Mail even made the issue a point/counterpoint, asking, “Is it wrong for a mother to write about her teenage daughter’s intimate waxing?” The never-restrained Liz Jones took the “Yes” position (although it should be said her condemnation quickly turns into a bizarre personal rant that reveals Johnson gave her a bad review then tried to make a lunch date or something.) Writes Jones, “A Brazilian wax involves a level of intimacy that only a gynaecologist should have. And Rachel Johnson has chosen to spew about it in the pages of Vogue.”