Yes, this. It's entirely possible he has a terrible reason for disliking this - the most obvious being that he's upset that he doesn't have complete control over his partner's body.
But it's also possible he is just viscerally turned off by it. That's certainly something that would have been trained into him by society, but that doesn't make it a bigoted choice he's making. In that sort of situation, something like talking it over with a partner and asking her to shave sometimes in exchange for him working on his feelings when she doesn't seems like a reasonable compromise. It's the same sort of discussion they might end up having if he grew a mountain man beard.
It's also possible he's been trained that not performing gender correctly leads to punishment - either his own performance of gender, or what he's seen of other women. That's real fear, and it might even be somewhat justified. That's another one where talking over his real feelings with his partner might be productive - if they can both come to it in good faith. His desire to not face friction over gender performance doesn't outweigh his partner's right to make her own choices, but it's valid to feel things about her choices making his (or her!) life harder, and to want to share those feelings with her.
Maybe LW is trans and working through complicated feelings about femininity and performance that they're projecting onto GF because they haven't figured themself out yet! That too is valid. And they don't have to be trans for them to have complicated gender feelings that are valid and are being brought forward by their GF's changing relationship to gendered grooming.
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But it's also possible he is just viscerally turned off by it. That's certainly something that would have been trained into him by society, but that doesn't make it a bigoted choice he's making. In that sort of situation, something like talking it over with a partner and asking her to shave sometimes in exchange for him working on his feelings when she doesn't seems like a reasonable compromise. It's the same sort of discussion they might end up having if he grew a mountain man beard.
It's also possible he's been trained that not performing gender correctly leads to punishment - either his own performance of gender, or what he's seen of other women. That's real fear, and it might even be somewhat justified. That's another one where talking over his real feelings with his partner might be productive - if they can both come to it in good faith. His desire to not face friction over gender performance doesn't outweigh his partner's right to make her own choices, but it's valid to feel things about her choices making his (or her!) life harder, and to want to share those feelings with her.
Maybe LW is trans and working through complicated feelings about femininity and performance that they're projecting onto GF because they haven't figured themself out yet! That too is valid. And they don't have to be trans for them to have complicated gender feelings that are valid and are being brought forward by their GF's changing relationship to gendered grooming.