Bekah Martinez Defends Not Shaving Her Legs For 7 Years
You might remember her as Bekah M. from Season 22 of The Bachelor with Ari Luyendyk, but today she's dragging haters on the internet for criticizing her for not shaving her legs for seven years.
With her Bachelor days behind her, Bekah has been engaged to Grayston Leonard since 2022. On July 9, she shared a comment she received on Instagram that read, "Your face doesn't jive with your hairy legs. Grey must be grossed out." Responding to the comment, that couldn't even get her fiancé's name-spelling right, Bekah defended her choice to remain unshaven.
"I started sneaking my mom's razors in 3rd grade. I remember praying to God that he'd remove all my hair from the neck down. Family, friends, and even teachers and coaches would gently tease when any of my jet black leg stubble was growing out," Bekah wrote. "It was seemingly harmless but continued to reinforce that my body's hair was wrong."
Bekah shared how she doesn't want her children to be shamed by unrealistic beauty standards. She shares three children with Grayston: Ruth, 6, Franklin, 5, and Ernest, 21 months.
"I stopped shaving when I was pregnant with our first child. I wanted my daughter (and my future sons) to see that hair on a woman's body is normal. Not shameful. Not gross," she wrote on a photo of her pregnant. "I wanted to demonstrate that body hair is not 'masculine,' because I am a woman. And so, my body hair is feminine."
Alongside a photo of her walking on the beach with her kids, Bekah said that when her daughter Ruth pointed to her legs and said, "Mom, my legs look like yours' without an ounce of shame, her decision to not shave her legs was worth it.
But, before you assume that it was all about her children's future, think again. Bekah's decision not to shave was rooted in changing how she feels about her own body. She wrote on a photo of her playing on the beach with her kids, "It wasn't just for my kids. It was for me. I wanted to consciously work through the disgust I had in my natural body. I still don't love my body hair. In certain settings I feel people's stares and feel embarassed. But the feeling has so much less power over me than it used to."
People are praising Bekah for her remarks and for not shaving her legs. Here's what some of them are saying:
Good for you, Bekah! Now, I want to hear what you think. Share your thoughts in the comments.
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