Bikini waxing seems to have started being common as bathing suits grew smaller. It’s often called a Brazilian because smaller suits and thongs were especially common on public beaches there before they were in the U.S. I’d guess it became noticeably common here in the 1980s at the earliest.
I doubt that more than a small percent of real world woman are completely shaven or even almost so. It’s high maintenance and can quickly become uncomfortable, doubly so if the required maintenance isn’t done as regularly as it should be. Most of the women in the U.S., as elsewhere in the world, aren’t thin and fashion-conscious teenagers.
When I read the thread title about women shaving, somehow the first thing I thought of was women shaving their faces. Oh dear yes, female facial hair removal is a huge industry. (Shh, we’re not supposed to talk about it.) I don’t think most women nowadays prefer to shave their beards, when better techniques are available, like threading, that have less impact on the skin.
Many years ago I dated a young woman who had a beard. It was light and very sparse, almost invisible. But she left it alone.
Recently I made friends with a lesbian from Africa who has a beard. She is one of the most beautiful, amazing women I’ve ever met, and her beard does not detract from her womanhood in the slightest. I respect their choices as individuals. I also don’t expect most women to ever find their own beards acceptable.
For female body hair in general, all I want is for each woman to do what individually pleases her, and for everyone to respect everyone else’s individual choices. It’s just body hair. <shrug> It’s part of being human. Removing it is also part of being human. We have a range of choices. Multihued rainbows of diversity of invididual choices are what makes humans beautiful.
Thank you, Johanna. Maybe your post will stop my dear wife from shaving. She gets these soft fuzzy sideburns that are just… mmmm.
With all due respect to the non-hair lovers, the hairier the woman the better as far as I’m concerned. In fact, my worst extramarital temptation was in the form of a young female bear cub.
Hm. I wonder if this is why straight guys and lesbians don’t hang out together as well as straight women and gay men-- the incredibly different opinions as to what constitutes “hot” in women. Gay men and straight women have eerily similar tastes in men (and my apologies to the bi folks for the lack of blatant stereotyping).
I’ll say this for lesbians, they tend to be more free of looksism than straight women, straight men, and gay men. It’s like when lesbians got together about the society they want to live in, they ruled out judging others on their looks. Make any general statement, there are counterexamples, someone will write in to say she was looks-discriminated by dykes, but on the whole I think my statement is valid.
This is not to say individual lesbians can’t be soignée, put together, and looking hot… just that it’s understood as a personal choice and not a societal imperative. Then there are are boiz in the lesbian scene who get T injections and actually grow their beards on purpose. Ursa Major. But that’s really a transgender thing.
The responses declaring that the shortening of women’s clothing led to the need to shave are not answering the OP’s question, but merely begging it again.
It is not enough to assume that shorter clothing led to a need for shaved skin. Since the natural state of the skin is to be hairy, why would short clothing suddenly demand that it be shaved?
And don’t answer that it looks better or more desirable. The question is: Given that it is by necessity a manufactured appearance, WHY should that look be seen as better or more desirable?
One hypothesis I’ve seen is that it represents sexual submissiveness in the female by rendering her skin more like that of a child. Adult womens’ legs are hairy.
Sexual differentation. Women naturally have less, lighter, and finer body hair than men do. To exaggerate that difference, women shave the body hair. Men naturally have more musculature than women. To exaggerate that difference, some men lift weights to build the muscles beyond any practical purpose. These things exaggerate the feminine and the masculine, which makes them more attractive to the opposite sex.
I’ve never really understood why men don’t shave or trim their armpits. With a wet/dry electric razor, shaving them takes about 2 minutes/week and makes life much pleasanter. Even trimming once a month with a pair of scissors would significantly decrease the incidence of sweat stains and the need for deodorant.
Back to the OP, I imagine that fashion advertisers started the trend (for both legs and underarms), and that the practice proliferated as it became easier and easier to do (cheap disposable razors, shave gels, electric razors, nair, etc.).
The OP mentioned women not shaving their heads. Well, one of my girlfriends shaves her head. She’s queer and proud. I have often said how much I like long hair, but in her case I think shaving her head actually enhances her beauty.
Gaah, I can’t remember where I read it, but I recently learned that in Mexico women of Spanish descent make a point of not shaving their legs because having hair on their legs confirms their European ancestry, since the native Indian people generally don’t grow hair on their legs.
I agree with meara: Guys, grab a pair of scissors and trim a little! A rule of thumb: if it straggles out of the short sleeves of your T-shirt, trim it. Also, trim chest hair that pokes up over the neckline of a crew neck t-shirt. Thanks.
I don’t recall seeing children with hairy legs. Maybe I just haven’t been looking properly. It was a looooooong time ago, but I seem to remember that when I started noticing my own hairy legs was when I started shaving them (age 12 or so.)
Shaven pubes are rare enough for me to comment on it when I do the external exam on dead women before autopsy. The vast majority are shaven.
Our autopsy cases probably tend to center in the 30’s and 40’s with a sprinkling in the 20’s and a sprinkling of older ones. The reason for the relative youth is we often don’t do autopsies on people 50 and up, as they have medical history sufficient to explain cause of death. We autopsy people of any age who have been homicide victims, but again, yer homicides tend to center around 25-35 with a few in the 40’s. Older homicide victims are quite rare. Cuz they don’t indulge as much in the behaviors which lead to homicide. In particular, having too much fun.
Our victims also tend to skew lower socioeconomic classes. So I think, when I say that shaven pubes are rarely encountered, that they’re rarely encountered. I think gatopescado is encountering a select class of women. That is, those who want to have sex with him.
Personal note: I once dated a man who was crazy about armpit and pubic hair. Said the tufts were sexy. He was American.
Dammit. Typo. That ws supposed to be 15 through 35. Lots and lots of young men in the 16 to 19 range getting blown away over arguments over turf and women. Damn shame.
By the way, female deaths who belong to the medical examiner are outnumbered by male deaths 3 to 1.
:dubious: Really? As I recall, mine and my friends’ came in around puberty.
I just flipped through a few sites on Google and the consensus pretty much seems to be that it does indeed come in aroudn puberty. Is it common that kids get it earlier?
