In this episode, Effy and Jacqueline are hanging out with the author of Plucked: A History of Hair Removal Prof. Rebecca Herzig to talk about hair removal and sexual self-esteem. They are curious about: 

What is the history of hair removal and what role have race, gender and age played in it?

What caused the medicalization and then industrialization of hair removal and why?

How does what we know about hair removal bust the myth of personal choice and individualism in America and expose how the unrecognized impact of conditioning play out in US society? 

To find out more about Prof. Rebecca Herzig:
Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies Rebecca Herzig is the author or editor of several books, including Suffering for Science: Reason and Sacrifice in Modern America, The Nature of Difference: Sciences of Race in the United States from Jefferson to Genomics (with Evelynn Hammonds) and the series, Feminist Technosciences (with Banu Subramaniam). Herzig’s work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Macarthur Foundation.

Herzig is currently writing a book about the past(s) and future(s) of higher education. Herzig’s most recent work on that project, on labor in the pandemic university, was published in 2022.

She grew up in California, earned her PhD at MIT in Massachusetts, and now teaches at Bates College in Maine.

To find out more about Prof. Herzig’s work, buy her books from independent bookstores. 

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