For me, it doesn’t matter what’s in style, since no one sees my bush, aside from me. Even my boyfriend rarely, if ever, takes a gander at it. I shave a little bit, because I get really sweaty when I’m hot, and hair just makes it more… gross.
Is it really such a fucking big fat hairy deal?
FWIW, I prefer a landing strip but I’m not disgusted by the sylvan grove either.
Depends on how big the woman is.
Maybe I do get a little miffed at the assumption that shaved/bald is in… because I like men with body hair. I wouldn’t dump a guy for not having body hair - or for a bald head - but I kind like full beards and guys fuzzier than me. Every leading man in Hollywood or TV is “manscaped” and has less hair below the chin than I do. >sigh< Ah, for the days when leading men had manly furry chests…!
(In the interests of disclosure, my man is balding and, yes, has never had as lush body hair as me. Like I said, it’s a preference, not a mandate.)
Just once, for one year, I’d like furry women to be in style, all those models and high fashion types lamenting that they just can’t grow their leg hair plush enough and me cackling madly in the corner with glee. Yeah, I’m evil that way.
E…ew.
Anything short of “Buckwheat on a bad hair day” (thanks Cutter John!) is fine with me, although I prefer it trimmed.
Although to an older guy like me (46), a lot of modern trends initially caught me off-guard. Suddenly every woman is shaved, has fake boobs (yuck!), a tramp stamp on the back and multiple tattoos and piercings.
When I was young, we called these people “Carnies”.
I’m a fan of the landing strip. My most recent ex, the Sexiest Girl To Ever Walk This Earth, had a landing strip. Damn, I miss her.
Trimming and especially waxing, never really made it to the shores of Japan. I guess in part because many girls have very sparse hair down below anyway. It’s just the odd few that have a particularly bold bush, and they think nothing of it.
I (used to) enjoy a good hair feast now and then, but a bit of trimming was always preferred.
I’ve never really waxed or done anything to my own pubes (the few times I tried just trimming with scissors it grew in prickly). But I did get a comment a while back about how it all looks so neatly manicured, despite the fact that I do zero work to it. I mean, zilch, nada. If someone hates that I’m hairy they can go in with a razor and do it themselves. It definitely shows a little when I wear skimpy underwear, but I can wear a bikini without any hair showing. So I’m one woman who can wear a swimsuit without any trimming, or anything showing.
(warning! TMI!)
I’m naturally a bit hairy, so I shave my bikini line but never have waxed, though I might try waxing if there’s a chance of anyone but me seeing it. I don’t trim what’s left very closely because it gets kind of bristly and itchy as it grows back (maybe I should use conditioner?) Not that anybody sees it much anymore, anyway. The ex didn’t seem to mind, and in fact complained when the nurses shaved me for my C-section.
I can wear a bathing suit without pokage. I don’t wear tiny, skimpy things (nobody would want that), but in a normal one-piece everything is tucked away.
But then, I am relatively less endowed when it comes to body hair. If I’ve got my winter pelt on (long trousers all the time, get lazy with shaving), I really only have noticeable hair about an inch around my ankles. The rest is very fine, very sparse and very hard to see.
You know what? I don’t care if it’s a good look. I am here to swim. If you don’t like it, don’t look.
I like it all. Shaved, landing strip, 80s bush, whatever. It’s all good. Except the Hitler.
When I was a teenager I had a summer thing with this girl who had never shaved before. It was very slightly weird but didn’t slow me down a bit. I’ll tell you this, though: even the women in those vintage Playboys are trimmed to a certain extent. Trust me.
I don’t like hairy legs because balls to what happened 100 years ago; dudes’ legs have been hairy and girls’ legs have been smooth since long before I was born. I would be uncomfortable if my leg rubbed a hairy leg under the sheets.
Thank you, Scissorjack! I remembered that story but not who it was. I racked my brain trying to remember then tried googling various combinations. They lead to some interesting, but not particularly productive results.
Now there’s where we differ. To me, a grove is okay, bald is okay, but a landing strip just looks silly.
I’m sure that when hairless legs and armpits first came into vogue, men and women were wondering when hairy legs and pits would come back into style too. They didn’t. The trend won’t reverse itself if history is any indication. It seems to me that men like their women hairless. I prefer(but not require or need) a woman who is hairless from her nose to her toes myself.
I’ve read porn from the 1800’s that included women who shaved their pubic hair off; it’s not a new idea.
Personally, I like some hair. The whole bare crotch thing gives me a certain jailbait vibe; adult women are supposed to have hair there !
It’s true that Ruskin never consummated his marriage, but there’s still no scholarly consensus on why this was the case. The marriage to Effie Gray was annulled on grounds of “incurable impotency.” However, in his deposition, Ruskin stated that “her person was not formed to excite passion” and that “there were certain circumstances in her person which completely checked it [i.e., the ability to feel passion].” This suggests that there was something about Effie’s body that turned Ruskin off. As Ruskin’s biographer Tim Hilton points out, she probably wasn’t deformed in any way–she remarried John Everett Millais and had eight kids with him. So what was it, then?
Mary Luytens speculated that it was Effie’s pubic hair, and this interpretation has become the most well-known. Other scholars have suggested Effie may have been menstruating on her wedding night (the wikipedia page on Ruskin does a pretty good job of presenting these competing theories).
We’ll probably never know for certain what it was, but it’s worth pointing out that Ruskin had a lot of psychological hang-ups about sex and the body in general–I doubt he could ever have had sex with anyone.
As for myself–I prefer a trimmed bush or a landing strip. Completely shaved just looks too prepubescent to me.
But Interconnected Series of Tubes is probably right–it is a generational thing. Whereas I reached sexual maturity in the mid-1980s (when pubic hair still abounded), younger guys no doubt are accustomed to seeing women without any pubic hair, and don’t see the shaved look in the same way that I do.
The bush might come back into fashion within another generation or two, or it may have gone the same way as women’s armpit hair and leg-hair. In the U.S., anyway.
Hmph. Some hippie you are.
Ringing in: I, too, am a fan of manscaping. Taken from experience, I appreciate a woman who keeps trim while I am performing cunilingus (sp? but trying to be polite). Nothing sucks more (no pun intended, but in line with this thread, um…never mind) than to have to stop the performance to remove hairy bits in the middle of the action. I would only imagine that the fairer sex would not enjoy having to stop giving a mouth hug in order to remove … pubic floss:eek:. I know I wouldn’t enjoy a break in the action at that moment.
Also, I seem to remember, on random viewings, that upon the advent of photography in the 1800-ish, many female nudes were often shaved - legs, pits, and down under as well. This is not a new thing.
Lastly, I do appreciate a partner who cleans the carpet. Being of native american descent, I am not very hairy. I have had several partners who appreciate this fact. Let’s face it: Sometimes a mouthful of hair is not a good thing.
I don't know what era Playboys your father read, but the beginning years downplayed body hair, whether by airbrush or razor. It wasn't until Penthouse started sapping market share coincident with later 60s counter culture co-opting that Hefner and his directors started printing the more natural look.