Legs

OK, now I feel about 16 again. Anyway, the purpose for this bit of 80's nostalgia was to introduce the "Do you shave your legs" poll. It looked like this;

So that's 70% (9/13) yes and 30% (4/13) no and that's where the facts are going to stop! We know many of you want to know the gender breakdown. Now we didn't ask that specifically but we think we can ball-park it.

Let's assume (and yes, we know that assume makes an "ass out of you and me") that the poll was answered equally by males and females. The split in TNS is about 60:40 men:women. Furthermore we will assume every woman shaves her legs. Yes, this likely does further patricarchial stereotypes but this is a for-fun poll/blog so hopefully you'll let us have this one.

So of the 13 votes, we'll say seven from men and six from women. If all those women shave their legs then that's six of the nine "yes" votes, meaning three men shave their legs, and (from the "no" votes) four men don't.

In other words, with our unwarrented penchant for speculation, just under half the men in TNS shave their legs. We think even the most cursory glance around TZ will show this to be true.

It gets more interesting when we tell you that 70% of TNSers self-identify as runners (or ex-runners) and most of the rest identify as cyclists or swimmers first. So, some 20% to 30% of TNSers are/were swimmers or cyclists; and both are sports with strong depilatory traditions. But of the seven male votes in the poll, we would only expect two or three cyclists/swimmers and maybe five runners. So if the two/three cyclists/swimmers are still shaving down then we have also induced at least one runner to do the same (perhaps two, depending on where you stand on rounding up oer down). Peer-pressure perhaps.

Anyway, just thought you'd like to know. We're off to shave our legs now, so we can wear shorts tomorrow if it's sunny again!

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