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I read the article... This sounds pretty stupid, really... If she said that her daughter was beautiful with or without the monobrow, then why did she wax the damn thing? She should wait until the daughter is old enough to decide whether she wants to, or not - rather than wait till night-time to do it... That just seems pretty uncalled for, really.

It doesn't matter to me, it's just pulling hair out. My mom would wax my legs when I was 6

It seems very unnecessary to me. Saying your daughter is beautiful with or without having somewhat of a uni brow, and then going ahead and changing it? What is the point of that at all? If you tell your child that he/she is perfect the way they are and then go trying to change something about them, I would think it would make them feel very insecure and even betrayed in a way.

@Cassie. My mom would wax my legs when I was 6

But, you obviously didn't mind it being done, did you... The whole issue here is that she told her daughter that she was beautiful with or without the monobrow, yet, even though she knew her daughter didn't really want it, she waited until she was asleep, then plucked her eyebrows out. It's not an issue of whether it's right to pluck her eyebrows, but an issue of human rights. Also, she contradicted herself and probably damaged her daughter's self-esteem. If the daughter had wanted it done, then it wouldn't have mattered and I wouldn't care at all.

No... Did you read the blog post and not just a media summary of it?
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Nothing says Sophie didn't want the waxing or minded having it done. The reason she started freaking out was because it was making a mess. From what it sounds like , Farrah probably overreacted to the mess, scaring Sophie.

Are you serious? Sure, the media like to blow things out of proportion sometimes, but I can't help but wonder why you would have believe an article written by someone who can't even spell 'daughter' right... Plus, how do we know she wasn't just saying that so people wouldn't think she was a horrible mum? She's quite obviously the self-conscious type, whose insecurities are being thrown off onto her offspring. I think the media article is more conclusive here, than an article that clearly has more reason to be biased.

What are you even talking about? It's not a biased article, it's the original blog post she were herself. I don't even care if she spelled daughter wrong. That doesn't mean anything.
If she was just writing something so that people won't think she's a bad mom, it would be better to not write anything at all.
This was not a reaponse to the public reaction, it's what caused the reaction.

I think the original blog post is more conclusive, considering that it's the original blog post.

Also, she didnt tell her daughter she was beautiful with or without a unibrow, then go ahead and pluck it. She posted that on Twitter, after people started criticizing her. Her daughter probably won't even remember this incident by the time it actually matters.

What concerns me is the bigger issue of what messages we send to kids, particularly young girls, about their bodies and their appearance.

Take this statement from the blog for example:
"So here I am faced with a standout historical moment in motherhood when I can confirm to myself that my little, adorable,most cuddle-able cutie, baby girl has a Unibrow :( , I felt bad for her..."
She then goes on to refer to her child's eyebrows as "her Uni," as if it is some unnatural foreign object stuck on her child's face. Then talks about the child looking forward to the "upkeep" of her eyebrows.

There is a lot of stuff going on here. We have eyebrows being constructed as important signals of female beauty; 'unibrows' beings contructed as ugly and unnatural; mothers effectively stealing body parts while their daughters sleep, etc etc... I think this just says a lot about the disdain we have for female bodies, no matter how young they are.

Parents have always done this kind of thing, and they will continue to. I personally would not do that to my child. I'd like to think parents are aiming to instill self-confidence and pride in their children, and I don't believe that sending the message that your eyebrows can make or break you is much help in the quest for self-esteem. If your own mother is horrified by one arbitrary aspect of your appearance, the exponentially growing impact of internalised patriarchy as you grow up may well be unbearable. Something as arbitrary and irrelevant as the shape of your eyebrows cannot be allowed to define your beauty.

What needs to be kept in mind here is that removing or shaping female body hair comes from an oppressive place. Female leg and underarm hair became more visible as the clothing they were permitted to wear changed (ie shorter skirts, shorter sleeves). So visible female body hair became "unfeminine" (think about how men were permitted to expose leg and arm hair. Hair in those places were visibley male and masculine). There are also some theories about the infantilization of the female body in order to control it (ie we don't have underarm or public hair as children, and tend to have lighter leg hair, but once it starts growing, women are expected to rip it straight out in order to participate in 'femininity').
Eyebrow shaping as a similar oppressive history. Victoria Sherrow, in her book 'For Appearances' Sake: The Historical Encyclopedia of Good Looks, Beauty, and Grooming,' talks about eyebrows in the Elizabethan era: "... English women plucked their eyebrows into thin lines, or sometimes completely removed them. Breasts were a focal point of the female body at this time, so women also shaved off the hair at the top of their forehead. All this was done to give the face a plain, empty appearance so that people would direct their gaze lower, to the bosom." The ways in which women shape or remove hair from their bodies is intricately tied up in patriarchal femininity and sexuality (ie restriction). This issue is just about whether this specific mother was right or wrong here: it's about the construction and position of the female body.

@Cassie. I disagree. Obviously, she wasn't to expect all of those people to have such negative reactions to her actions. I don't care if it's the original blog post, that actually means nothing to me. I said it was going to be biased, because she believes her actions were right... Why should she bother writing the post if she didn't believe they were? She could quite easily write the post and make up the part about her daughter wanting to do it.

If she was just writing something so that people won't think she's a bad mom, it would be better to not write anything at all.

You know, even if you believe that is the case, I doubt the thought would have occurred to her. She obviously wants attention. Otherwise she have plucked it and said nothing about it. Even if she was making it up, she wants attention so she lies about it, so that, in her mind, people might actually not believe that it was a terrible thing to do, or whatever all those people were saying.

This was not a reaponse to the public reaction, it's what caused the reaction.

Funnily enough, I worked that out for myself. I don't really require you to point that out.

Also, she didnt tell her daughter she was beautiful with or without a unibrow, then go ahead and pluck it. She posted that on Twitter, after people started criticizing her.

Really? Because that's what they made out on the media article. I'm not saying that the media article is necessarily right... I'm simply saying that I find it hard to believe a blog post by someone as insecure as Farrah. Clearly, she cares more about the fact that people might say something about her daughter's monobrow, rather than her daughter. She's only three, so I don't see why it was such a big deal over a stupid monobrow - She should have just left the damn thing alone.

Her daughter probably won't even remember this incident by the time it actually matters.

How do you know? I find that statement pretty pointless, really.

@Misanthrope. I'm starting to understand why people are taking this stance. You raise some pretty darn good points. I was planning to write something in response, but i have to go. So, maybe later.

Actually, that's not how it was made out in the article. The article specifically says she posted that on Twitter, after the fact.

I think she's under contract to blog about raising her child, I don't see it as attention seeking or insecurity. I have reasons for disliking Farrah and believing she lacks self confidence, but blogging is not one of them.

I don't know, that's why I said "probably". It was just a semi-random prediction. It may be Pointless to you, but I don't care. To me, if she won't remember it, it doesn't even matter.

The idea that it doesn't matter because she won't remember is quite specifically negated by the daughter's willingness to participate in the "upkeep" of her eyebrows. This shows she has learnt that there is something problematic with her appearance and that it should be continually rectified. It doesn't matter if she can't remember the specifics of this event: she now knows that arbitrary aspects of her appearance need to be managed in order to achieve femininity.

@Cassie. It is pointless to me, because it achieves nothing. Plus, it doesn't support your argument whatsoever.

Abraham shared in her blog post the her daughter "freaked out" when she put a dab of wax on her eyebrows. So instead, the mom decided to use her tweezers to pluck her brows while she was asleep.

To me, this very statement supports exactly what I was saying. The daughter freaked out, because she had a dab of wax placed on her eyebrows, that sounds something similar to her not wanting to do it - Then followed by 'So instead, the mom decided to pluck her eyebrows while she was asleep...' - That doesn't support your earlier statement, which read: 'Nothing says Sophie didn't want the waxing or minded having it done. The reason she started freaking out was because it was making a mess. From what it sounds like, Farrah probably overreacted to the mess, scaring Sophie.' - The article doesn't suggest anything of the sort. And, the blog post doesn't say anything conclusive about it, plus, even if it did, I'd have more reason to doubt it, rather than the media article. However, I think I'm going to do some looking around to find more information.

Also, she didnt tell her daughter she was beautiful with or without a unibrow, then go ahead and pluck it. She posted that on Twitter, after people started criticizing her.

You're right about that, however, I said that BEFORE I read that part in the article. I only skimmed through the article originally, because I didn't much reason to care about anything said in it. However, it makes little difference...

@Misanthrope.

The idea that it doesn't matter because she won't remember is quite specifically negated by the daughter's willingness to participate in the "upkeep" of her eyebrows. This shows she has learnt that there is something problematic with her appearance and that it should be continually rectified. It doesn't matter if she can't remember the specifics of this event: she now knows that arbitrary aspects of her appearance need to be managed in order to achieve femininity.

I would agree with this statement. After reading more on it over the last few hours, I decided that the aspect of teaching young children that there is something wrong with their appearance is really not the way to do business. Young children should retain their innocence until they prove that they have lost it. I don't think it was at all necessary for Farrah to pluck her daughter's eyebrows. All she did was presume that the girl would want them taken away, even though the article said she didn't wax her eyebrows, because the girl 'freaked out'... So, she plucked the eyebrows when the daughter was asleep, instead. Could she not have simply waited until her daughter was awake?

That's fine, I say things all the time you don't have to be interested in.

Again... She didnt freak out because there was wax, she started freaking out after the wax started making a mess. I'm pulling this information from the actual blog post, not the US Weekly (a gossip magazine that has a very bad reputation of twisting words to change their meaning) article that didnt get the story right.

I'm not talking about the article, okay? I used the article to locate the actual content, noting more. I'd rather not rely on such an article that inserts it's own opinion and connotations when I can just go straight to the source and create my own opinion.

I suppose it's her life, she could've done a lot worse. But I would never do that to my child and I think it's a bit shallow.

@Cassie. No comment, there.

Anyway, regardless. I don't believe the blog post, or rather everything she said... I guess we've come to an impasse.

For the record, I know you aren't talking about it, but I was... That was the point. Also, I made my opinion when I read the article, then I read the blog post that you kindly provided and reformed my opinion. Like I said, we've come to an impasse.

How can you think whoever wrote the article knows more about what happened when they weren't even there?

@anydaynow. Er, because she might be making up half of what she was saying... That's why. The media might be unreliable, but they aren't THAT unreliable. Anyway, the point is, it is teaching children to be self-conscious at an early age... It's not very good parenting to do such a thing. Didn't you read anything of what Misanthrope said?

Right, that magazine obviously knows what goes on behind closed doors and knows every single time someone makes up fake blog posts. Logic would suggest that if she was the only one there, and she lied about what happened, then nobody would know what happened. Not even a gossip magazine

Don't get too ahead of yourself... I never said anything about the magazine/media article knowing more about the situation, I merely implied that some of the facts may be less misplaced... Anyway, what is this about logic...? Logic would suggest that Farrah Abraham is potentially embarrassed by the fact that she is only 20 and knows fairly little about parenting, which is suggested by the fact that she didn't wait until her child was awake to pluck her eyebrows... Logic might actually suggest that teaching a young child to be embarrassed by something as minor as a monobrow is really just a just a pointless body issue... If she was so confident about her decision, why did she feel the need to write a Twitter post on why she did it and tell extra facts about why she did it? That doesn't sound like something you would be bothered with, unless the person was insecure and worried about what is on the outside, as opposed to the inside... I mean, could she not have simply let her daughter eventually decide whether she wanted it gone, or not, in her own time? Would that not be difficult thing, or was she more worried about what other people would think about her daughter, because she was self-conscious about it and over-reacted? I just can't trust the damn blog post... As Cassie suggested, Farrah Abraham is getting paid for the blog posts, so would it not be a far-fetched point of view to suggest that she could have potentially made up a bunch of excuses so she could get paid more?