Body hair goes global! I wonder if/how/when people -- OK, gals -- in other countries and cultures will start imitating porno-Western styles in body hair. Has it started already?

My own small hunch or feeling is that America's weird in its attitude towards what's sexy. We like flawlessness and pristine hygiene; we're suspicious of the dark and the humid. I see this all the time when I look at magazine covers. Here are all these healthy, pretty American girls, projecting "I'm healthy! I'm feeling good about myself!" And the whole package is about as sexy as toothpaste to me.

I remember being shocked when I first looked at Euro men's mags, for instance. The girls in them ... Well, you could make out "flaws"!!! Gadzooks: little fine hairs on their thighs, little goose-pimply bumps here and there, even a bit of evidence that they didn't automatically grow pubic hair in a perfect triangle but had to do some maintenance to get it into that shape. You could almost -- egad -- smell them. And, as far as I could tell, the Euros thought all this ... this ripeness and "imperfection" was sexy and desirable.

Quite something for a vanilla American boy to wrestle with! After a weekend of treatment in the emergency room, though, I semi-converted to the Euro point of view on all this. American views of sex started to look insipid. Perfection and flawlessness -- and all the stress, anxiety, and strain that goes into maintaining the illusion -- started to strike me as blah, exhausting, and, honestly, not very sexy. I started digging the little goose pimples.

It was like being raised on Velveeta and then discovering real cheese. (Oops, not a very gallant comparison, but you know what I mean.) At first, the real stuff can be overwhelming in its pungency, almost frighteningly so. But you go back to Velveeta and you find yourself thinking, Y'know, it really is like plastic. Then you start thinking about what it is to be a Real Man ... Does a real man prefer it plastic? Does he want his woman to stress herself out pretending to be an ideal? Or does Real Man appreciate and get off on Real Women? I came out of that little crisis thinking, Bring on the Chevre and the Roquefort!

That said, I'm still American enough to prefer shaved 'pits and daily bathing, and to be grateful when gals make the effort not to descend into total slobhood. Other than that, though, let's get into the moment, baby.

Posted by: Michael Blowhard on September 2, 2005 10:11 AM

Hey, how come no gals are participating in this important discussion?

Posted by: Michael Blowhard on September 2, 2005 10:15 AM

"Hey, how come no gals are participating in this important discussion?"

They're all out at the laser hair-removal salon :)

Posted by: Peter on September 2, 2005 12:39 PM

Think hairy,
Think hirsute,
Get back to our earthly root(s):
Au Natural should not be scarey!

Posted by: ricpic on September 2, 2005 5:57 PM

Maybe it's just the fashion of the moment. I hope it is. You reckon it is?

It disturbs me, though. Grown women have pubic hair and little girls do not. Us females tend to spend a lot of energy on trying to rid ourselves of every trace of the extra abdominal, hip and thigh padding that we're supposed to have. Another indicator of adult womanhood that's viewed as unacceptable by current standards of "beauty." But most of us do shave our pits and legs. It's simply expected.

In spite of fashion and internet porn, I think of the pubic area as a totally private place. How you maintain or decorate it (or not) is nobody's but you and your sweetie's business. So why am I sitting here writing this? I don't know, it just feels like something's not right. Like adult women are being "allowed" less and less to look grown-up. And this does seem like one case where we woman are imposing these stringent standards on ourselves much more than men are. What's going on? Will there come a time when cosmetic mastectomies will be all the rage to affect the totally flat-chested 9-year-old look? I hope it's just the fashion of the moment. Maybe by 2010 we'll all be putting Minoxidil on our nether regions to see who can grow the biggest sporran. Ah, I see another stringent standard on the horizon.

Posted by: Flutist on September 2, 2005 10:09 PM

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Posted by: Emil on September 24, 2005 9:01 AM

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Posted by: Lilu on September 25, 2005 2:36 AM

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Posted by: Emil on September 25, 2005 12:18 PM

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Posted by: Niko on September 25, 2005 8:02 PM

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Posted by: Lilu on September 26, 2005 8:24 AM

I find that we live in a world now that almost "forces" people into fassion! For example, if suddenly models decided to cut off thier fingers, people would copy! And thats what your pibic hair is, its like your fingers! An all natural way to decorate yourself! And woman should be proud of thier pubes. End of story.

Posted by: sugar~spice on September 28, 2005 11:40 AM






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