Includes bibliographical references (pages 199-274) and index.

"From using clamshell razors and homemade lye depilatories in the colonial era to using diode lasers and prescription pharmaceuricals in the twenty-first century, Americans have gone to great lengths to remove body hair demmed unsightly, unattractive, or unhealthy. In Plucked, Rebecca M. Herzig examines both the causes and consequences of routine hair removal in the U.S. Plucked illuminates some of the broad social and environmental effects of seemingly 'personal' choices: widespread experimentation on animals, exploitation of workers, exacerbation of racial divisions, and more. An engrossing, multidimensional history of fulctural attitudes toward body hair and the increasingly sophisticated tools used to remove it, Plucked reveals the complex political significance of even the most mundane activities of modern life."--Back cover.

Necessary suffering -- The hairless Indian : savagery and civility before the Civil War -- "Chemicals of the toilette" : from homemade remedies to a new industrial order -- Bearded women and dog-faced men : Darwin's great denudation -- "Smooth, white, velvety skin" : x-ray salons and social mobility -- Glandular trouble : sex hormones and deviant hair growth -- Unshaven : "arm-pit feminists" and women's liberation -- "Cleaning the basement" : labor, pornography, and Brazilian waxing -- Magic bullets : Laser regulation and elective medicine -- "The next frontier" : genetic enhancement and the end of hair -- We are all plucked.

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