I'm angry that as trans women we feel we have to endure this misogynistic ritual just to feel safe on the streets. Trans women with hair are not marked out as 'hairy' – we become real targets, often for abuse and violence, because people read us as 'men pretending to be women'. This isn't creating an 'us versus them' dichotomy, as the sexism that demands smooth, hairless women pervades all of our internal voices and I know from conversations with my sister that she has been made to feel that she is 'disgusting' for having hair on her legs. It's bloody cruel to demand that one gender spends their entire lives removing hair while the other gets to celebrate their hair growth. Look at the freedom men have to grow full and luxuriant beards. They call it 'fashionable facial furniture', as we're running into corners to pluck errant hairs which, we are told, are not feminine.