Ms. Belton, who is 32, argues that Mo’Nique — who hasn’t shaved in all the years she has been a comedian, talk show host and host of “Charm School” on VH1 — has garnered more criticism lately, now that her fan base is bigger, than she did when she was mostly loved by black audiences. “Things that are an issue in the mainstream aren’t necessarily if you keep it in-house,” Ms. Belton said.

Image ... OR THE ARMPITS Julia Roberts. Credit... Fred Duval/FilmMagic

This movie awards season, Ms. Belton said she had heard from other African-American women who wished Mo’Nique’s appearance had not entered the picture. She joked of this dirty-laundry airing: “I thought we had a vote: ‘We are all going to shave our legs. How dare she bring this old, nasty, crusty issue to forefront?’ ”

How we depilate is a function of time and place. Lee Friedlander’s 1979 photograph of Madonna spread-eagle, which appeared in Playboy in 1985 — with no sign that she had recently used a razor anywhere — drew cheers and not jeers from readers. Lest we think that hairiness doesn’t sell these days, a print of that nude went for $37,500 last year.

Sometimes a woman will just temporarily give up on shaving. At the premiere of the 1999 movie “Notting Hill,” Julia Roberts turned heads — or, more precisely, her underarms with months of growth did so. Sometimes a lover finds it attractive; Mo’Nique has said that her husband likes her legs.

That raises the question: Is the fear that no man will want you and your hairy legs valid?

Bojana Anglin, 33, who grew up in the Bronx and Yonkers, said that her hairy legs had never stood in the way of a fling or relationship. She is now a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, which one might assume has a permissive attitude toward grooming. But a student of hers — a member of the manicured, plucked generation, as she sees it — once made a veiled reference in a performance review to how she found Ms. Anglin’s unshaved armpits “distracting.”