As a female-owned business in a world where that’s usually not the case, Brazilia has always had a philosophy of equality and respect. That same philosophy equality extends to the topics of gender and sex.

“Gender” vs. “Sex”

We recognize that gender is not a binary (male/female) choice, but a spectrum. Gender is about where people identify themselves on this spectrum. Gender is different from sex. Sex refers to one’s biological anatomy.

In the past, we labeled our services as being for “men” and “women”.  After review, we determined that those words generally refer to gender, and as such, we have changed them to “male” and “female”, which refer to sex.

It’s worthwhile to take a moment, step back, and have a dialog about what all that means.

“Male” & “female” services refer to sex

We’re following the standard set by the Yale School of Medicine: The terms male and female refer to one’s sex. Accordingly, male and female services at Brazilia refer to one’s sex. That much is clear (at least to our estheticians) when performing a Brazilian wax procedure!

We considered the idea of classifying services by the anatomical organs themselves: P and V. Many waxing salons do it this way. But the current thinking is that we want to clarify here that these terms indeed refer to sex. (Of course, we’re open to change and improvement! See more, below.)

We realize that some people are intersex, meaning they have a combination of male and female genitalia.  In these cases, Brazilia wishes to be respectful to the individual, and we will proceed with a custom service and pricing that best satisfies the individual’s requirements.

One might ask, If sex equality is important, why are prices different prices for some male and female services?  The answer is that biologically different anatomy requires differences in how services are performed – including the amount of materials necessary and the amount of time required to prepare for and perform each service.  As an example, waxing a male’s back, can be a very different service than waxing a female’s back.

All Brazilia services should be gender-neutral

With regard to gender, Brazilia’s goal is to be respectful and accommodating with equality for all.  All services at Brazilia should be gender-neutral in this regard.

If you have specific pronouns you prefer us to use, and we don’t ask, please let us know! We want to be respectful and support you.

We’re open to improvement

We’re always open to suggestions for improvement from those who are transgender, gender-nonconforming, gender non-binary, or gender fluid. Similarly, we’re open to ideas for improvement from those that are intersex.

If you have any specific ideas or suggestions for improvement with regard to topics of sex and gender, please let us know by calling management at the UTC location at (858) 909-0250, or better yet, use the contact form so your ideas are in writing!