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September 30, 1999
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Pubic hair is in the midst of an egregious public relations disaster. It was bad enough when a stray strand turned up on Clarence Thomas' Coke can. Now, the ladies on ABC's morning gabfest, "The View," refer to their crotches as their "George Ws." And the bush itself is rapidly becoming a thing of the past, as more and more women are going almost completely hairless.
About a decade ago, those odd rectangular carpet samples, "Charlie Chaplins" or "landing strips" (just above the clit) came into vogue, first among female porn stars. Though the few existing lesbian skin magazines show a
tiny bit more variation, minimal hair tends to prevail there as well. And exotic dancers say shaving is de rigeur in their profession, where hairstyles tend to mirror those in the porn industry.
But these days, this shorn aesthetic afflicts not only the airbrushed and silicon-injected realm of commercialized fantasy, but the real world as well. Cindy Barshop, the owner of Completely Bare, a hair removal spa on Madison Avenue in New York, says of pubic thatches, "They're getting smaller and smaller." While bikini waxes (just the inner leg) have been common for some time, the Brazilian wax — in which all the pubic hair is removed except for a rectangular or triangular bit, which is pruned sharply like French garden shrubbery — is now trendy among Barshop's clients. Increasingly in demand is the salon's eponymous "Completely Bare" style (a bit of a misnomer as they do leave a little round patch right on top of the mons). Some of the shaving enthusiasts that I interviewed go even further, shaving off everything; two women once trimmed so closely that they actually snipped their clits: "I thought that I would never be able to have an orgasm again," said one, "or even go to the bathroom."
Never have orgasms again? What forces are at work here that would lead otherwise sane people to take such risks with their family jewel?
Human civilization has always held a deep ambivalence toward pubic hair. While hair removal is a relatively new phenomenon in most of the Western world, Turkish, Iranian and Italian women have depilated for centuries, as have women in parts of India and Africa. According to Femina Libido Sexualis, a 1965 medical text with a heavy dose of (not necessarily reliable) anthropology on female sexual characteristics, copious pubic hair has, in parts of Siberia, been considered a "monstrous growth," attributable to evil spirits and legitimate grounds for a husband to divorce his wife. On the other hand, the Aru Islanders of Eastern
Indonesia have worn female pubic hair in amulets around their necks to ward off evil spirits. And in Japan, female hairlessness used to justify annulments.
In Western culture, pubic hair generally fares better in eras and places where people are more at ease with sex and sensuality. One finds homage after homage to the female bush in French painting, photography and pornography. The painter and Tahitian enthusiast Paul Gaugin saved pubic hairs from all his lovers, and the Romantics seem to have been similarly inclined; Caroline Lamb, the wife of British Prime Minister Lord Melbourne, is said to have sent her lover, the poet Lord Byron, strands from her tangle.
Not surprisingly, the Victorians were consumed with an anxiety about pubic hair that rivaled our current hysteria. Most of their nude paintings hide the crotch, and those that show women in explicit poses tend to leave the hair off. Painting mostly nymphs and goddesses is a convenient way to get around the matter; after all, who knows what they have down there. Such portrayals
must have taken their toll: art critic John Ruskin supposedly never consummated his marriage because he was so appalled by the fur between his wife's legs.
Sigmund Freud believed that women were excessively — albeit unconsciously — preoccupied with their pubic hair, suggesting that their achievements in the weaving arts could perhaps be attributed to unrealized fantasies about plaiting their hairs together to conceal their shameful lack. (When I told my girlfriend about this theory she, in a fit of whimsy, braided mine. Naturally
this cheered me up immensely, and my penis envy quickly subsided.) Freud also posited that there was "no doubt" that women wore fur because it reminded them of pubic hair.
A few decades later, in the 1950s, Playboy playfully evoked what they dared not show with feather boas that disappeared between models' legs. Marilyn Monroe, cover girl for the December 1953 debut issue, is gleefully billed as "blonde all over." Playboy didn't show crotches regularly until the 70s, and by then the full thatch, in all its chaotic delights, was very much in style. A thoroughly untrimmed Miss October 1972 reclines on a bed of leaves, while Miss May, equally hairy, relaxes on a bearskin rug and talks
about moving to Colorado to get "back to nature." In the '80s Playboys, hair is trimmed, but its natural shape is generally left intact. It's the early '90s when the down there hair mysteriously starts to disappear.
Given the complex but often erotic history of pubes, what accounts for America's pre-millennial obsession with pubic hairlessness?
Kelly Anderson, a zealous hair removal advocate and former exotic dancer, says it makes it easier for lovers to navigate what can otherwise be mystifying terrain. "Some people," she observes, "don't really know what's going on down there. I think the hair only added to the problem. Without hair, everything is visible."
The crotch is quickly becoming the new cleavage. As fitness becomes a moral imperative (especially for women), people who work at it want to show it off more. Bikinis are getting skimpier, and token T & A is a given when it comes to contemporary advertising, art and film. Because female nudity (and now frontal female nudity) is a guaranteed selling point, it's consistently positively reinforced. In her recent book Survival of the Prettiest, Nancy Etcoff points out that throughout history, every time a new female body part has been publicly exposed, that exposure has necessitated hair removal. It's a practice, she explains via evolutionary psychology, that accentuates the differences between male and female bodies and therefore heightens women's appeal to men.
Pam Winter, publisher of Hair to Stay, a magazine for hirsute women and people who love them, blames sexism for the changes. "A man who likes a woman who shaves everything off is a pedophile," she says. "They like that little girl look. Real women have body hair." (Winter describes herself as "one of the world's hairiest women, having hair on every inch of my body from my nose to my toes.") There is no doubt that our culture is sexually obsessed with young girls, and deeply ambivalent about mature women; just look at the precursors to the hairless craze: skinny, breast-free models who look 12
years old. One straight male friend I spoke to admitted that getting a lover to shave was a harmless way to play out his younger girl fantasies.
But pubic hair removal is not an exclusively female obsession these days. Men's pubic hair, historically an elusive mystery like the rest of the male package, has recently become, like women's, a site of anxiety and disgust. Barshop opened her Manhattan salon a year and a half ago, assuming that all her clients would be women — instead, 40 percent are men. Of those, about 15 percent want pubic hair removed. Most of her male clients get a bikini wax; some go closer in, but Barshop draws the line at testicles. "Too risky," she says.
Hairlessness, like going to the gym, began as a gay male preoccupation, but it has been increasingly embraced by straight men. (One salon owner said hairless straight men "get mad if you suggest it's a gay thing — they're very sensitive about that.") Barshop says the gym has had a strong influence on hair removal; men see more of other men's bodies, and, like women in ever-shrinking bikinis, they feel exposed. More than one man interviewed for this article pointed out that shaving makes their penises look bigger.
Yet some of the reasons for the removal frenzy are unisex. Hair trimmers explain that it's a way to show off genital piercings, to gain heightened physical sensitivity or simply to have some sexual fun. My friend Michael says, years ago, he and a girlfriend used to shave each other. "I had one of those old camel hair shaving brushes," he recalls. "She was more into that than anything — like, 'You can just leave that when you go!'" In Nancy Friday's 1975 classic, Forbidden Flowers, a married woman imagines shaving her best girlfriend's bikini line. There's even a sixteenth century book of Indian pornography, entitled Chrystios, that, in a creative eroticization of
imperialism, pictures an Indian woman shaving a white woman with a knife. In the next plate, our barberess is checking the closeness of her client's shave with her tongue!
But most of the contemporary hairless I spoke with seemed underwhelmed by the idea of shaving as play. "No, no, no!" Kelly Anderson protests. "Yikes! I don't think I would enjoy that very much. I don't think the process of shaving is an experience that I need to share with my lover." As shaving becomes more of a grooming obligation, like toenail clipping, it runs the risk of losing its erotic charge.
Perhaps hair removal is part of a larger hygiene craze. Men's magazines today are obsessed with cleanliness — their advice columns are full of questions about how to get rid of noxious body smells and stave off the germy outside world, and their content is littered with plugs for products like nose hair clippers. Anti-bacterial soap has become practically trendy in both household bathrooms and public restrooms. Like the Victorian hygiene obsession, ours is embedded in a collective paranoia about disease; and since AIDS, the disease we seem to fear most, is a sexual one, many of our hygiene worries focus on the genitals. Anderson says, "I have always equated hair to dirt and oil. There are fewer places for germs and odor to hide when the hair is gone." It's not logical though, as many of the hairless freely admit when pressed, since pubes aren't usually the culprits when it comes to the spread of STDs; clearly one of the pubic bush's few discernible biological purposes is to keep the genitals clean. The hygiene of which people speak is usually more symbolic than real.
And, like the Victorians, many late-twentieth-century Americans are terrified of anything that looks like nature, or rather, nature that's out of control or untamed. What could look more untamed than hair, something wild animals are covered in? Miss October 1972, lying invitingly on her bed of leaves, is so anachronistic she might as well be wearing a corset.
But the fear of natural bodies also owes much to consumer culture. Silicon breasts, ever more elaborate feminine hygiene products, make-up, perfume and cellulite creams are constantly changing our notions of what looks, smells and feels sexy. Naomi Wolf pointed out in her 1990 book, The Beauty Myth, that the obsession with women's physical perfection was getting ever more pervasive because powerful industries (diet, cosmetic, et cetera) were profiting from — and therefore encouraging — learned anxieties. Since she wrote that book, grooming, hygiene and cosmetic products aimed at men have also become a booming industry — one whose advertising supports numerous new Cosmo-style men's magazines, nearly all of which are obsessed with the body and its flaws.
Then there's the possibility that with so much of the body regularly on public display, hair removal is one of the only forms of exhibitionism left, the last way to reveal something surprising. Some early anatomists, assuming that the natural world was organized according to a value system coincidentally mirroring their own, thought that women grew pubic hair for reasons of modesty. Taken literally, of course, that's absurd. But applied to the decision of whether or not to shave, it's quite relevant. Shavers are modern exhibitionists, proud of the beauty of the bodies underneath their hair.
My hairy roommate, Helen, objects to it all: "Once you take away the pubic hair, there's really not much mystery there!" I'm inclined to agree. Sex depends a lot on mystery. Pubic hair, like underwear, teases by either covering up or playfully framing the things you really want to see, feel or taste; there is nothing quite like making your way through the brush in order to reach that ultimate goal, whether it's hidden beneath or resting upon your lover's curls. The poet e. e. cummings seems inclined to agree with me when he writes "i like, slowly stroking the, shocking fuzz / of your electric fur . . . " It feels unlike any other hair we grow. It is unkempt and wild, much like sex itself. Perhaps most profoundly, it evokes our childhood fascination with adult and teenage bodies; looking at our own hair now reminds us that we really are grown-ups, which means we (at least sometimes) get to have sex. No wonder it's so enticing — and so scary.
For more Liza Featherstone, read:
Going with the Flow
Shocking Fuzz
Paradise Lost: Living in Latex
Let's Talk About Saving $8.50
The Art of Noise
Seduced by Casanova: The Psychoanalyst on the Lover
Circling the Threesome
Commentarium (68 Comments)
Terrific article. I have always been interested in the customs of other cultures but thought only the Egyptians were into pubic hair removal. It's about time the people of this country are waking up to the pleasures of pubic shaving. I have been doing it since my teen years (I am 38, male) and it still gives me a rise every single day! Although I do feel it makes my penis look bigger, I do it for the heightened physical sensation and because I think it looks good. I prefer women who shave also because of the way it looks, and for what it exposes. The female sex organ is a thing of beauty which should not be covered in any way.
Pubic hair removal is rapidly becoming more popular. Here's a non-pornographic site which provides information about "Smoothism" (pubic hair removal to enhance the sexual experience) which is the newest 'beyond-smoothies' trend. http://www.smoothguide.demon.nl
Shaving is just one more current cutural trend. Although the 'natural' look may have been in vogue through out the 1970s, lets remember that men wearing full beards was also in style at that time. Personally, I like the shaved look. I feel that it goes along with the clean, sleek style that is popular today. For those who feel differntly, just give it another 10 or 15 years and it will probably shift back the other way.
A real turn-on from my point of view (straight male, 28): Woman w/pubic hair shaved, underarm hair intact. (What does this say about me? I think that's the sign of a gutsy chick.) Haven't found anyone who fits the bill ... yet.
Personally, I like a well trimmed or mostly shaved bush. I enjoy giving my wife a close shave (and so does she... until it itches when it grows back). I find shaved pubes much more inviting for oral sex because I know I won't end up with pubic hair stuck to the back of my throat. I was actually a little disappointed that Shocking Fuzz didn't make that connection.
good bush is quite tasty
Interesting article, but why make such a to-do? It's fun to shave completely once in a while, and much easier for me to reach orgasm (female, 27). I equate it to "spring cleaning." I don't care either way what my lover thinks, but I am really impressed if he is willing to let me shave him. So some of us have pedophilic tendencies? Does this mean that I am way out of line when turned on by a thin man clad in a pair of tighty whities (which I associate with prepubescence)? Oh well.
"Pubic hair anxiety",a "hygiene craze", a "fear of natural bodies" sure, but I'm willing to bet that the majority of people that shave do it for the simple reason that it enhances physical sensitivity.
Liza, don't wring your hands about pubic shaving. We who do it (including my wife and I, both in our 40s) enjoy it, and it doesn't make us weirdos. It makes sex much more intense and fun, and we're cleaner the rest of the time. . . As for "styles" in history, I think you miss the point. For generations, the genitals were somewhat shameful parts of the body. In the 1950s, one would never dream of displaying them, celebrating them, enjoying their appearance, or watching them during sex. Well, these are repressive attitudes, and we've spent the last 30 or 40 years evolving away from those repressive attitudes. A natural part of that evolution is the notion that when we present ourselves to our sexual partners, we groom ourselves for good looks. Just as I brush my teeth and clean my body all over for sex, my wife and I shave our genitals to make them attractive for sex. (When we use fingers and tongue to stimulate each other, the smooth skin feels heavenly!) The notion of grooming the genitals for sex was too radical a notion for 1970's Playboy magazine (and its readers of that era), which is why they didn't shave back then. But as people got used to the idea that sex wasn't shameful, and that the genitals were a gift from God to be enjoyed, it only made sense to do everything we could to maximize that enjoyment. -- Mxylptik@aol.com
Straight. Not at all bothered that shaving may be seen as a "gay thing". Electrified by the feel of finger or tounge gliding uninterupted across the skin of my shaved scrotum. The benefits (whether aesthetic or simply in terms of sensitivity) outweight any hand wringing attempt to put it in a sociological context. I'll take tactile over "natural" any time...
let it go and grow hair and natural body parts are all part of the game work with the hand thats delt love that and no one will care
I am a straight mail, 30 years old, and I agree whole heartedly with your assessment of pubic hair featured in the last paragraph of this article. Pubic hair is the Golden Gateway to the sexual encounter. Sex is good, and intense when tension is built steadily throughout the sexual encounter. Barriers, (such as pubes and underwear) serve very naturally to create anticipation, and heighten the pay off when that first finger finally sinks deep into that soft, warm wetness, that so luciously counters the tactile sensation that precedes it. Taking the hair away, is like turning that anticipatory aspect of sex, into a water-slide where you don't even have to wait in line to get the thrill of the slippery ride to the splash. My take on this issue is undoubtedly skewed by the environment in which I became to be a sexual being. I grew up in the Bible Belt, in the 70's & 80's. Girls who "went all the way", were invariably labled "sluts" and socially prodded into a self-fullfilling prophescy that often saw them become sixteen-year-old mothers with redneck seventeen-year-old husbands enrolled in truck driving school. Therefore, the majority of the girls with whom I experienced those encounters that aggregate into an adult sexual appetite, were implicit in their resistence to my advances. The first time I was allowed to touch a bare breast, it came after so many failed attempts to do so, that its magical softness seemed to exceed any expectation I may have ever had about it. Nothing could ever rival the joy I felt the first time a girl placed my hand on her belly, and allowed me to move my hand slowly downward. The process of getting to the destination of which I'd dreamed for so long, made the reward so exciting that I bearly keep from jumping up and down like a bigger nerd than I already was. First I unbuttoned her jeans. This allowed my hand to venture just to the upper edge of soft, cotton underwear. I carfully traced this delicate boundry with a single finger, getting more excited as it wandered into the "V" of her leg. Then that finger met that fabulous electric fur, and I knew the world would never be the same. I progressed this way, slowly, tugging gently at this wonderful erotic that was being so graciously shared with me. My pubic play seemed to work for my female friend as well. She moaned and smiled as I would rake four fingers up from just above (what I later learned was) her clit, gently stretching and fluffing her fab fur. I remain convinced that it was this foreplay that made her keep her eyes closed, and pretend that she didn't notice, as I withdrew my hand, slowly unzipped her jeans, and revisited, this time with a different objective. (that's how "good girls" avoided being sluts -- they never said "yes") Today, some sixteen years later, I still enjoy this same ritual immensely, even though the permission issues are long since passed. I like to kneel before my lover's secret garden, and stroke, groom, and style until I've unearthed that precious family jewel. Concealment is sexy. Cleanliness is sexy. Pubic hair is sexy.
I remember taking an old girlfriend home one night after a few months of not seeing each other and being pleasantly surprissed to discover that the thatch (and I really mean thatch!)was shaved off. I can't even remember what exactly she said about it, that it looked good and felt good. For m the thrill was the tactile acknowledgement that she thought about herself sexually. I think it's the same with thigh high stockings and other ways of appearance that say yea I like this too. Maybe I've just dated too many Catholics girls who made it seem as if they were doing me a favor by having sex as it was something they wre not concerned with.
haha. interesting - although i'm sure you're not as interested in the female commntary...
i notice some of the men who came of age during the long hair era.....still have hair drooping down to their ass.......vanity.....vanity.....self deceit ! why do women get fooled into thinking that looking like an anorexia nervose terminal case makes them beautiful ........ when i was a little boy it was before brassiers (?) came along and even to little boy the womanly movement in the chest area was enthusiastically noticed.........hair is part of the human mystique male of female i agree with you........male or female hair should be styled pleasantly. i gave up trying to have long hair.......because my forehead started heading for my butt......i do still have a full beard and mustache (?) as a means of being well trimmed my self.
I'm a male, 31 years old, and I have been shaving off all my pubic hair since I was 16. For the last 15 years, it still adds to the excitement, since the "excess bagage" around my genitals has disappeared. I highly recomend everyone to try it; daily maintainence is the only drawback. Having gone to nude beaches, I do see that I am no longer p[art of the minority--it is cathing on. I am sure celebrities are doing it as well. I see a day where pubic shaving will be much more accepted and common amonsgt everyone, regadless of sex, race, religion. It is a matter of cleanliness.
I'm shaven. I simply must shave. My regular 'do' is sparse and quite unattractive, like that bald guy who combs over from one direction.. :-) Seriously, I can feel my boyfriend's bushyness all over my pussy and its sexy,... and he can get at my flesh so much easier, and I've been told i'm tastier that way. Men CANNOT shave, I disapprove. I love the wiriness of it, the free-spiritedness of men's bushes...gosh, I gotta see HIS NOW now that I've written about it!!!
Hey it's not such a big deal. If you like it bare then shave, if you prefer a bush then by all means, keep it, but don't assume that people who do, are closet pedophiles or just following a trend. I've been shaving for much longer than it's been trendy, and it never was at anyone else's request. It was a decision I made, to please myself. Contrary to want you seem to think, some of us do have a mind of our own.
1. aesthetic and sexual appeal of both shaved and hirsute pubes are distinct and present. the need to make a case for or against seems redundant. 2. hair isn't the last bit of exhibitionism left. exhibitionism is conceived entirely in the mind. exposing bodyparts is the crudest way to do it!
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Man, whatever floats your boat. Pubic hair preference is a personal issue. The notion that men who prefer "bald" women, want little girls is shear nonsense! An old girlfriend of mine went bald 'cause she liked an unobstructed view during coitus. I've had to adjust to my girlfriend's decision to stop shaving due to bumps & irritation. I'll miss our "trim sessions" & the prickly-ness that acompanies re-growth (talk about extra-pleasure). Just as long as there isn't a "bloomer" resurgence among women, I've no problem with "bush" (except Jeb & George).
Another reason for cutting back or shaving that I didn't notice you mention is the likelyhood for cunnilingus to be performed by ones partner. It would be an obvious invitation, if one did not have to get a mouthful of hair or have to part the way with toungue.
Thanks for such a great essay! Regardless of whether women shave their pubes or not, the key issue here is that they THINK about why they do or do not do it. Just as with anything else, THINKING is a must! People who say they shave "just because" or that it doesn't mean anything are clueless! There are many reasons that one might choose to shave or not to shave body hair, but because there is this misguided (not to mention misogynistic and homophobic) notion that women are unclean and that body hair is somehow unsightly or not "feminine," any woman who chooses to shave because her hair "gets in the way" or because she's worried that her lover might -- god forbid -- get a mouthful of hair, needs to think about whether she really is making up her own mind!
I think that your article is wonderfully enlightening, however I diagree on at least one point. I think anyone who has tryed to perform oral sex on a woman with a very thick George W. has been disgusted. The combination of the mouthfuls of hair getting in your mouth along with the fact that hair traps SMELL is enough for me to advocate a woman at least TRIMMING her hair. I also tend to prefer highly groomed bushes (not necessarily completely shorn). I think that the shapes that are made combined with the fact that the woman pays so much attention to her personal hygiene is VERY on-turning. Lastly, it's a bit of a stretch to assume that all people who like bare female crotches are pedophiles. No more than people who like leather are into screwing cows, anyway.
Great article. Being a woman I have debated the pros and cons myself. being ttimmed a little is ok, easier to clean the area anyway. but i dislike the artifical look of bald or brazilain styles. its fake, but to each woman her own. the guys have a point on cunil. but i love my hair. i dye it to mach my head. its a cute cunny why not show it off! you forget we can have fun with the hair down there too folks! hell the colonial(the white wig folk) in france . women, would powder perfume and braid thier pubes! longer the better!
"A man who likes a woman who shaves everything off is a pedophile," Pam Winter, self-proclaimed hairy female blares, and yet I challenge the reader to consider which sex is more obsessed with its mate
Picture yourself driving through a neighborhood and you see two similar homes next to one another. One home has impeccably landscaped gardens, the grass is trimmed and the 'bushes' are finely shaped. The other home's gardens are overgrown, the grass is long, weed infested and generally unkempt. Which house are you attracted to? I suppose it depends on taste, but I know where my taste lies.
I for one (a male) find shaving to be a very clean and erotic feeling. I have yet to share this new "me" with any lovely lady, but cannot wait to see her reaction and to see how it feels to me. I will probably never grow the bush back, even though the maintenance is required daily....like a beard...one never knows WHEN opportunity might strike, now does one?
Something I find astonishing is the objection to female public hair based on smell. Call me odd but the smell (it's earthy and animal, not prissy like a flower, therefor "smell" is most appropriate) and taste of a lover are and always have been the most erotic parts of any encounter I've had. Given the olfactory triggers and receptors built into human sexuality, this is only natural. What I find objectionable are the artificial odours and flavours to which people subscribe thanks to their susceptibility to the advertising lobby. The only things that stink about luxurious public hair are douches and perfumes which some prefer to the real thing. Give me a lover's post-coital smell on my face and beard any day over some con job dreamed up by Calvin Klein.
Well research and interesting article. Who knows how long this "sex" trend will last!
Well research and interesting article. Who knows how long this "sex" trend will last!
Informative and provocative essay. I like hair, regard it as a primary sexual characteristic, and think shaving or trimming amounts to self-mutilation, the recent trend toward which I blame on the horrible fashion in swim suits that look kind of like diapers and which I believe were introduced by women-hating fashion designers.
As a woman who has removed hair from the pubic are for many years I would just like to say that it is a preference of being groomed in the area and there is nothing more unntural in this for me now than shaving my armpits. I prefer it for many reasons it feels good and I prefer it for reasons of hygene and comfort and I think it looks better too.
The best thing about a shaved pussy is you don't get hair in your teeth.
So you're a paedophile if you like shaved bodies? Surely all depillation stems from the desire to look younger. The ancient Greeks and Romans shaved their beards with sharp stones in an effort to recreate a youthful look. Humans are vain creatures who are alone in being aware of encroaching time and the inevitability of death. To try to regain youth, or at least prolong it, is a powerful urge (consider Cher and Michael Jackson). We are virtually all guilty of vanity in one respect or another and our desire to look younger or to see something younger in our partners is merely a part of self flattery.
Pussy hair..... ambrosia and the symbol of the pubic... if it is not ther, how do you know you are close? The touch of it, the coarseness... rubbing against it, combing it, carressing the curls are all part of lovemaking. The "triangle of desire" without the triangle or dressing. Give me the real thing... not a ruined, shaven mockery of the palace of pleasure!
What a good article, setting off all kinds of alrams for people and lengthy, interesting responses. I've gotta throw mine in, too...I have a lot of BUSH, but it wasn't always happy for me...When it first grew in, i plucked it out...then I shaved it, only to find the itchy-scratchy afterwards to be another horror...and I swear, it caused even more hair to grow.To me, it was another wag of mother nature saying "don't fuck with me." Since then, because of my adolescent shaving, I've viewed the bared porno coochie as a turn-off, as something pedophil-IAC (NOT to say that engaging in =pedoPHILE---what a reaction to THAT your article produced!!!There IS a difference--IAC being the reference to younger, pre adol-bodies, PHILE actually pursuing pre-adol. bodies) Fortunately, there are articles like this that evoke responses to widen my own perspective (although shaved coochie is still not my thing, unless it's part of a "scene").As to the mouth of fur responses people have, I've never understood that in the same way I've never understood the reference to cunt as "fishy." I mean, if it's your lover's cunt and the hair in the throat is annoying, keep a glass of water by the bed, smoke a cigarette, I don't know...love a grrrll, love her cunt, all of it, shaved, not shaved, whatever! (Is hair nearly as mouth-overcoming as a dick, anyway?)Then again, I've been known to look at the shower after my lover leaves and see the hairs as kind of treasures, evidence that they've been there.It all boils down to "whatever gets your goat and rides it," but I'm also with the respondee who wrote "THINK" about it. I'm sorry I've rambled here, kind of stream-of-thought, but I have to prepare for a discussion of this article later with some friends, mixed shavers and not among us.VERY INTERESTING!
I enjoyed the article. I like both hairy and hairless women but the silly in between bit I find a turn off.
Great story. I'm keeping my pubes though.
I find a shaved pussy with just a tad of hair very sexy!! Its so exciting to see all the goods and all the changes the pussy goes through during sex I think most men enjoy a good looksee not a big bush of fur!!!!As I take a peek now at my own pussy yes yes nice and trimed clipped close clit exposed I think most men would not object!!!!
I have a new product to use for this kind of shaving and I wanted to see if there is a market. This is a disposal razor with a comb that protects the female parts and can be used to shave even the most delicate areas. I would like some feed back from the readers terry145@HOTMAIL.COM
One thing you forgot to mention, while deconstructing the myriad reasons, cultural, political and social, for shaving pubic hair: it feels good. It feels great. I won't even go into the men as pederasts business, since my experience has been that women as well are into bare, and for a heap of other reasons (didn't I just say I wouldn't go into this? Sorry.). Basically, there is nothing like the feeling of a tongue on your bare mons, or your bare lips, particularly right near the clit. Nothing like it. Nothing like the touch of a fingertip on freshly shaved skin whose nerves are insomniac and wild and get more so when exposed. Sex, if it feels good enough, makes you forget about politics, etc for a while. Having a shaved pussy feels that good too.
I love this piece. My girlfriend and I have had debates over the past months on shaving or not. She has done it a few times (completely bare) and really gets off on it for a few days, but is bothered by the consitent upkeep. It's one thing that I think everyone one should try at least twice.
There is a site for men who love women with lush pubic hair growth...I count myself among them. Most unfortunate that the smells that linger in the hair are also lost in the shaving and pruning. Another theory of Freud"s: Some men who dislike pubic hair are afraid that a penis lies beneath the bush. Are women giving in to mysogony by shaving? Think again. Welcome comments. Balt
Not a word about heightened sensitivity? I shaved out of curiosity, but I'll never go back. All that coarse hair, covering up my tender, warm skin? It feels SO much more delicious naked!
I can hardly believe it - an entire article about pubic hair and its removal and not a single mention of the discomfort and hassle of the process. Nubs? Why no mention of nubs or rashes or inflammation?
For God's sake, nothing is worse that going down on a girl and getting pubes in your mouth that seem to stay there for 3 days. The less hair, better oral.
Its becoming accepted as a new esthetic to remove hair, some of us have for years but its only now that it is becoming ok to discuss it and its widespread, like you say, its a grooming routine.
There is an interesting aspect to this shaving phenomenon that is obviously increasing daily in that if someone was to do a demographic, my bet is that it is occuring most largely among women 40 and under and being encouraged by men in that same age group and there's a reason for this. With the advent of flesh magazines following in the wake of Playboy, a law was passed forbidding photos of women in certain physical positions that revealed too much of their intimate anatomy. This pertained to magazines readily available at a news-stand or such, not the XXX in adult stores. As a way around that law, publishers induced models to shave a part of their anatomy at first to at least provide a sense of their private structure and when these photos did not produce any additional censoring it went the next step or all the way so to speak. These people I refer in the 40 or below age bracket are largely unaware of this development. In today's world it is a very common practice and these younger people have matured perhaps thinking it was always practiced. So the curiosity of shaving was actually triggered by just "inside-the-law" pornographers and I find it amusing that today's younger women, strident and rightly so in their feminism are inadvertently playing right into the hands of those they claim degrade and debase femininity. In the words of Yogi Berra, if you doubt my contention here, "you could look it up!"
I personally am a man who enjoys the totality of a mature woman and I believe that hair is very attractive. The very women who shave spend probably millions upon millions annually to style,curl,tint and otherwise make the hair on their head as attractive as possible. Why then would pubic hair, regardless of color or growth be unattractive. Doesn't seem to make sense. Of course pubic hair adds to the mystery of it all if you think about it. It's the difference between romancing someone at a dimly lighted cafe or grabbing something at a neon-lighted fast-food spot.
In other cultures, many third world, the defoliation of women's pubic regions was done as a form of humiliation. As a novelty it sure can be fun, but steadily, no-way not for this guy anyway.
Recently I had an experience which I'll share. I had been inactive for a long time by choice, not do to illness or incarceration of any type. A woman considerably younger, came on to me with a great deal of verve and literally surprised the dickens out of me and of course it was extremely flattering. It was not something I expected at all. She was most attractive and as one might say, well packaged. The first time we became intimate, touch only, not sight and nothing further at that time, I was excited as all get-out looking forward to what I was going to feel and comb with my fingers and what to my wondering digits did I encounter? A partially trimmed mons that felt like I was touching the tips of a brillo pad and then smooth flesh. It made me feel like a pedophile and it was a turn-off. We later carried our intimacy to completion and I shared with her my thoughts about such maintenance and she admitted the idea came to her by seeing a previous boy friend's flesh magazine and at his insistence. She elected to stop the practice. Another event that caused her to do so was finding that her 14 year-old daughter had started the practice as well after finding Mom's hair residue in the tub drain. To those fellows who say you don't get hair caught in your teeth, I'm compelled to ask just what is your target area and what role are your teeth playing in focusing in on it!
Lastly I'll make this observation, I have always felt that the shaving of under-arm hair by females was done so because that growth was symbolic of hair elsewhere on her body. It is culturally expected that women follow this procedure in the warm weather months because of fashions but I'll admit in the off season, I'm one chap who finds it erotic, stimulating and exciting as could be as have European writers of erotica through the ages. A very famous vaudevillian known to anyone reading this missive, used to remark about when women began shaving under their arms after the turn of century, particularly those in theatre at that time and he always observed, " the reason had not as much to do with hygiene as it did preventing we males from getting a preview of what was down below!" This very comment was made on the Johnny Carson Show years back.
Well for what little they're worth, those are my thoughts interspersed with facts. Ladies whatever you elect to do, remember what you've got is the closest to heaven on earth for any straight male but keep in mind in doing it you are if not saluting, certainly winking at those pornographers of not so long ago.
Your article on shaving was very informative, but I took another direction. I find my own hair removal technique to be far more sensual and with no side affects.
I had a mole which was causing me a problem along the elastic line, so sought help from a doctor. He recommended the mole for removal. On the day of the "surgery" a nurse arrived with razor in hand and proceeded to give me the Yul Brenner look. Boy, was I embarrassed!
The mole removal led to me avoiding panties for several days, until it was adequately on the road to healing. During that time I found it orgasmically very stimulating. I suddenly discovered the experience of not wearing panties and allowing the breeze to blow over the surface.
When I finally got around to wearing panties again I noticed that the better quality nylon slid back and forth over my clit. The nylon bikini I was wearing was sliding back and forth as I walked from my car to the office a block away. I had a tremendous orgams and had to stop briefly at a newspaper rack. It was all I could do staying on my feet.
I enjoyed the pleasure so much I continued to shave, but I was concerned that one slip of a razor could cause a problem.
I dug around in my bathroom and located an Epilady I had attempted in years past to use on my legs. I began using it on my pubic area. It stung somewhat at first, but not nearly as much as plucking my eyebrows. To my amazement I did not have to repeat the hair removal for more than five weeks.
My 50 year old husband could not have been more pleased with the result as well. Our love making went from an okay 2 times a week to twice and three times a day. He usually concentrates on having his own climax, but it he gas gotten totally turned on with his tongue on my smooth mound. I can't get him to stop sometimes.
He asked if he could take over the duties of hair removal. I graciously agreed. What followed his first "chore" was the most unbelievable orgasm I've experienced in my life.
I begged to get even by shaving his cock and balls and he gave in. He was concerned that shaving could nick something vital, so agreed to the Epilady. He immediately noticed the flow of air over his equipment and sensitivity was awesome. We've both died and gone to heaven!!
Our love making has never been better. I have been using the Epilady now for more than a year and my husband for ten months and we have yet to experience nicks, razor burn, stubble or ingrown hair. The hair regrows from the follicle and grows in very soft and fine, like new baby's hair.
I'd be interested in knowing if others have found this to be as satisfying as we have.
Rae
great!
I love to be smooth as a man.
*****************************
Thanks for this interesting article about shaving the pubes.
A few remarks to this article:
- PLAYBOY now shows in the August 2001 issue a women
(the centerfold-lady Jennifer) who is shaving her pussy.
This is a milestone in history for PLAYBOY I think.
After all the years and years of "fullybushes" PLAYBOY
hits the 21th century, and it is good so.
- I strictly disagree with Pam Winter, men who would have
shaven women are pedophile. Otherwise, women who likes
shaven men are also pedophile ? Such a rubbish.
- We, as a shaven couple likes to have oralsex and it is
disgusting to have hair between the teeth when we lick
each other. And the smooth skin is a high sexually feeling.
- It becomes more and more common here in Europe in the
nudistscene to shave the pubic. It is true, that shaver
are modern exhibitionists, then most shaver likes to
show off at the nudebeach. (me too)
- I own a group and forum for shavers at yahoo and have,
after only 18 weeks, more then 2000 members worldwide
- Shaving the pubies is increaseing very fast, all over
the World.
- Put in the word "shaving" in any searchmachine in the internet and you get tons of picture, forums and clubs.
- our slogan will be: KISS - keep it smooth shaven
smooth greetings
shaverxxx@yahoo.com
Perhaps one reason we actually do grow pubic hair (and therefore should not shave ALL of it off) is to minimize friction when getting busy. I can't imagine having all my hair shaved off and then fucking someone who still had hair down there -- wouldn't it give you Indian burns? -- but even worse would be total skin on skin. Ouch.
pubic hair has always fascinated me and it distresses me to see so many women (and men) discard it. it may well be a form of exhibitionism, but it seems more like a fear of the natural to me. and maturity. there's nothing quite so exciting as a hairy crotch, curly pubes, especially dark ones. i have an especial taste for the pubes of true redheads. something about those carroty red strands veiling those pretty pink pussy lips, really turns me on. i hate it when i see a picture of an obviously true redhead who's shaved it all off. coming of age in the sixties, amongst the hippies and other bohemian types, i grew to love the untrimmed pubes and even unshaved pits i saw around me. i've never gotten over it. and never will. mystery? maybe. i don't know, but i do love the realness of a hairy female crotch! real women ARE hairy. depilation is an avoidance and a weird fetish as far as i'm concerned. let'em grow! -kowboy
Here's a good example of the institutionalization of genital grooming:
http://www.menessentials.com/tips/shaving_privates.html
Hi there Liza,just read your article on shocking fuzz, i think it is a great article,it must have taken quite a bit of research.I think women shoud'nt shave its a natural nice spot to be in the thick of it all,its dam sexy especially when its poping out of sexy nickers ,what fun. all the best great article Euroboy.
Excellent article. Thanks for giving a sane and funny overview of something that seems weird, if only in its quick-changing character, to a lot of us. Maybe I'm still erotically stuck in my teens, but all this shaving stuff seems just a bit, well, odd to me.
So my question is, if bush is ever more exposed, what are the cool trends in decorating and dying it? Mini-dreads? Hair extensions? Little beads? Personally I think I may try bright green. Let's see what my S.O. says. . .
Really liked the article--helps to know that others are doing this.
Really good article on pubes, LIz. I'm one of the straight males who do bare it all, and I thought you handled that angle with class. Cheers,
Jeff
Most Indian women leave their pubic hairs natural and unwaxed. At the most they trim it with scissors. Many Indian females in India also leave their armpits natural.
I love Armpits shaved hairy, or with stubble and have a ton of pics and videos on our free forum.
http://www.girlpits.com
I loved this article and I adore hair on a womans body.There is nothing more erotic or sensual
The argument that hair is unhygienic makes no sense. If this is so, then we should all shave our heads. The fact is that women shaving their nether regions is now fashionable, and God knows, fashion rules.
One of my fondest memories as a teenager (late 60's), is making out with my girlfriend in the back seat while parked near the lake, rock music playing softly on the radio. The absolute best feeling in the world, was whenever my hand slid down her belly beneath her skirt, and felt the silky roughness of her pubic hair. As we kissed and probed, and she became moist and passionate, the slipperyness of her juices in the midst of her hair was intoxicating; my God, nothing ever felt so good. She had a full, dark bush that was, quite simply, beautiful. She was never unhygienic. Not once, ever. 40 years later, I can close my eyes and still feel her hair, still experince the rush, and still hear our music.
Hi, I enjoyed reading your article. It made a lot of sense. I hooked in to the Net because I was truly surprised at the fad to no hair and wondered WHY?
I do not want to make love to a pre-pubescence female. I want a WOMEN who is proud of her sexuality.
Malcolm
I'm very surprised that the author did not mention how enjoyable oral sex can be when the area is shaved, and the lips and clit are exposed. (Other commenters have already pointed out how great oral sex can be with the area shaved.) The article seemed to focus more on politics and aesthetics rather than sex. I had the impression that Nerve was supposed to contain edgy, sexy writing. This article feels Victorian and anthropological.
I tend to believe that its the pole dancer syndrome that is at the heart of why women are now modeling the pure Barbie look. Women don't seem to care about the the timely trespass of that not invisible change that the venus bush encapsulates. The mystery of when you are old enough to sprout the grass on the proverbial knoll, there would be anxious hands eager to sow it.
It was an adventure, a time of passing and feeling, smelling and tasting of the raw, natural feminine beauty of the triangular haystack. Boys became men, and women vaunted their thick bush as being more woman than those who were sparse, like the heavy breasts of a full figured women standing next to Olive Oyl.
Men are simply pussies today. They have no idea, no history, no romance to the equation. Pave the street and put up street lights so they'll never get lost, or ever feel the soft awakening of parting the trail, or having shadow throw soft darkness that closes the composition. And speaking of that vernacular, how can we now describe these shaven gloss coats? The extreme razor worshippers who remove every follicle and then wax themselves shiny now have the appearance that only a high priced call girl or out call stripper would be proud to fashion. Alas, are all women dancers or hookers? Or do they just want to look like it?
Surely Pussy is now obsolete, so in addition of losing the thrill of the hunt, a universal standard of identification is lost forever. OH, I get it, its a Mexican Hairless Pussy, now that will gain huge momentum, and that will no doubt be twittered by dinner..
PS. One more thing. Like the emperor who was naked, most of the women who remove everything better look at their parts closely.
The few that I have seen look like the last thing they had sex with was a cherry bomb.
Too many parts flying around..
Spare me. When I want to get that close, I'll find it through the forest.. its softer down there.
What do you think?
Nothing brings greater pleasure to me than the sight of a
dark "V" between a woman's thighs...unless it might be the increasing sounds and movement of her arousal as my tongue works it';s magic.
Now you say something