Pubic Hair

[poliphilo]

I understand that no-one under thirty likes pubic hair.

See here

I grew up in the 60s when pubic hair was the holy grail. Why do you think anyone ever watched anything by Jean-Luc Godard?

No, that's unfair; Godard in his pomp rocked my soul. Weekend was a life-changing experience. But it didn't hurt that he had chicks walking around in the background with their panties off.

And back then chicks with their panties off meant huge, cushiony swatches of pubic hair.

The temple was veiled....

O.K., OK... Now I'm embarrassing myself.

Apparently the fashion for bare pubes is down to porn. Porn stars wax. And we all aspire to be porn stars (Ach, we are such sheep) just as we all once aspired to be the Venus de Milo or the Apollo Belvedere.

Though that was a little before my time.

The first artist to paint pubic hair was- I rather think- Gustave Courbet. Thereafter the bush had a golden age that lasted approximately a hundred years.

I think the human body benefits from that patch of shading. To me it looks unfinished without it.

The pornstar look is an android look- No hair out of place, boneless bits that don't wobble. Immaculate.

I reject it. I like flesh that behaves like flesh. Follicles that work.

The call of the wild.

Comments

[craftyailz.livejournal.com]

Don't they look like they belong on a child. The draw to look younger - anti wrinkle etc., - includes the prepubescent female body - skinny, flat chested and no pubic or other body hair. It seems a bit creepy to me. Thankfully we don't worship the flaccid penis (yet)!

Back in the day...

[jubal51394.livejournal.com]

I used to bikini wax... one must be a bit masochistic.

What does that do to your theory?

[armoire-man.livejournal.com]

Abso-freakin'-lootely.

Sigh. I miss women, as opposed to girls, girls, girls.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I read a bit of that article and about 2/3 down I found, couched in swinging 00's language, something that sounded like "if she puts out on the first date she's not a nice girl and you don't want to have a relationship with her."

The more things change....

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

I shave for a couple of reasons:

1. I like the way it feels when it's smooth down there
2. Men seem to prefer it because there's no getting hair in the mouth when they go down on you.

[fidget]

It's tough being an American girl in her early twenties. You're expected to be a sexual being, but to still maintain a good-girl, innocent image beneath the Playboy shirts and mini-skirts. I guess that's why the pre-teen boy look is so desirable -- no breasts, no hips, no body hair, and weighing ninety pounds.

It's scary to think that just about every young male out there is a pedophile, but that would explain everything nicely. It's sick, but when I tell myself that, I don't feel so guilty for having womanly curves.

[sovay]

I think the human body benefits from that patch of shading. To me it looks unfinished without it.

I think it's like anything else: if you shave or do not shave for your own sake, that's one thing; if it's because of other people's expectations or preferences, that's very much another. And then they can get tangled up in one another, so that you might think you're bikini-waxing because it makes you feel more beautiful, when your criteria of beauty have been imposed from outside. It's not a preference that makes sense to me. (If for no other reason than: ouch.) But I didn't grow up worrying about my sexual attractiveness versus pornstars . . .

And back then chicks with their panties off meant huge, cushiony swatches of pubic hair.

Your language reminded me of time_shark's "The Golden Helmet (Casque d'Or)," about Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec:

He has become Montemartre’s carnal spirit,
joyfully deformed,
generously corrupt,
gleefully debauched,
celebrating the body in all its pouched, plump, pocked
imperfections,
its ringmaster and its historian,
recording the human whirlwind:
gaudy hats and billowing blouses,
the green haze of absinthe,
sagging rumps and shocks of red pubic hair,
monsieurs emerging from beneath sheets
to kiss their rented lovers,
the stark black of slumming aristocrats,
slipping away from the life he left behind for good . . .

[paroxysma.livejournal.com]

Yeah...I don't really care to scare the shit out of my lover and have him think that I am pre-pubescent. I do not aspire to be a porn star. I don't even like porn. Smut books are fine, but porn gets me all embarrassed.

[ex-roomette173.livejournal.com]

I remember when waxing was very new, and you had to go to the places in the Valley (Los Angeles area) where the porn stars went to get it done. Then it started coming up all over the place. I think it hurt the most when I'd talk to men my own age and they equated not waxing with uncleanliness and lack of grooming. Then again, the men also waxed-chest and back, gentils unaware that they were copying an aesthetic from gay pornography.

I would just like some range to beauty - that's all I ask. Right now we're hardening into a caste system based around bodies. I don't know if that has always been the case or I am just more aware of it but if I have to hear one more fellow-new-mom lament the changes in her body as if something catastrophic and awful has happened, I will get a little wooden box and carry it around just so I have something to stand on when I yell. :)

[amritarosa.livejournal.com]

I like my hair because it reminds me that I'm a beastie.

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

What's interesting is how it's becoming less of a gender issue, and more of a human one. There are increasing numbers of men who shave their legs and bodyhair as well. I started shaving when I trained for triathlons and swimming, and the habit stuck. It just feels cleaner and looks better, IMO. Ever see someone wear a Speedo without without trimming? Looks like they're trying to smuggle a muskrat into the pool. When it comes to pubic hair (male or female), I prefer trimmed to unchecked growth. Count me a victim of media propaganda, I suppose. But completely shaved? Nah.

It's interesting to posit the connections between the hairless aesthetic and the growth of technology. As our technology advances, we seem to prefer looking less and less human.

[senordildo.livejournal.com]

What's funny is that gay porn helped introduce the concept of men shaving their pubes, so that nowadays even homophobic frat-boys from the mid-west are apparently engaging in the habit.

Porn has grown steadily more dehumanizing, in direct proposrtion to how socially acceptable and valorized it's become. I fiercely oppose any attempt to censor porn, but I think it's a shortcut to sexual neurosis for entire societies.

[pickwick.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I keep having arguments with feminists about this :) I shave or trim my pubic hair, cos I think it looks and feels nicer - I don't tend to shave fully, though - and because I think it's cleaner and less smelly, especially when I have my period. And is less likely to get snagged by my knicker elastic.

I also prefer men to be at least trimmed. It's just a preference, I don't mind either way, but I do think it makes it nicer to go down on them. Wiry pubes stuck between your teeth is icky!

I like porn, too, but I prefer amateur to the shiny, scary people. And otherwise I don't try to look or act like a porn star - my *flatmate* has never seen my cleavage, I don't think!