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Unibrows for a cause: Feminist website encourages women to make December ‘Decembrow’ for cause of their choice

Laura Donovan Contributor
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This holiday season, Feministing.com, an “online community for feminists,” is encouraging women to opt out of eyebrow waxing appointments in favor of looking like “Frida,” the girlfriend of Marxist Diego Rivera.

In response to “Movember,” a charity effort to raise awareness and money for prostate and testicular cancer during the month of November by having men grow moustaches, Feministing.com is calling for women to grow unibrows during December, which they are trying to dub “Decembrow.”

“While women in the U.S. generally rock two groomed brows, I say let’s be inspired by Movember and take this opportunity to let our facial hair grow…for a cause,” the Feministing.com website says.

While Movember is specifically targeted toward raising awareness and funds for prostate and testicular cancer, Feministing.org is simply telling women to participate in Decembrow for the cause “cause of your choice.”

For those who don’t already have unibrows, Feministing.com suggests acquiring a real one using herbal remedies or merely faking one with an eyebrow pencil.

While supportive of the charity aspect of the project, Penny Nance, the CEO of Concerned Women for America, was unsure of how and why “Decembrow” will help further the feminist movement.

“While I applaud the effort to raise awareness and funds to stop prostate cancer, I find it curious that feminists would choose to embrace facial hair and mostly wonder how that is different than any other month of the year,” Nance wrote in an e-mail to The Daily Caller.

Erica Jong, an American columnist and author, expressed a mix of support and confusion with regards to the “Decembrow” movement.

“As a blonde whose eyebrows disappear into her face I can’t do the unibrow thing, but I applaud anything that galvanizes women to show the power we have and often fail to use,” Jong wrote in an e-mail to TheDC.

But Jong wasn’t sure that emphasizing a woman’s appearance is all that empowering.

“I wish we could use our power to support womens’ and childrens’ welfare rather than focusing on appearance – -but whatthehey. Let’s do it to garner attention and show that we’re still here and still want true equality rather than scraps…Whatever challenges the antifeminist divide-and-conquer strategy of the wingnuts delights and inspires me,” Jong wrote to TheDC.

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