Monday, August 14, 2006

Shave the World

Proving my personal theory that this is the single most important issue of our times, Salon has posted a letter from a young woman who complains "All the guys I'm dating want me to shave down there. Doesn't anybody like the full bush anymore?" And they've gotten 330 letters from people who want to hash this issue out. So, apparently, it's hit a nerve.

The people who love shaved women argue that it has nothing to do with infantilization, and everything to do with what men have seen in porn. Which is good news, I suppose, although it sort of suggests that they've never thought too deeply about porn at all. Does porn trade in infantile images of women a bit? Mmmm... yes, Daddy!

Of course, the problem is that the rest of us are quiet about what we find sexy, so "sexy" becomes equivalent with the porn aesthetic- as stupid as a heavy metal video and synthetic as a rubber nipple. I find it odd that so many people are attracted to women... so long as they're not the original model, but have been modified in some way. Doesn't anybody just have a fetish for human beings anymore?

7 comments:

SecondComingOfBast said...

Everybody is the same on a human level when it comes to beauty, deep down inside, but at the saem time there's an old saying in the restaurant business-the sizzle sells the steak.

Me, I prefer the bush, the bushier the better. Preferably blonde. Auburn, maybe.

sock monkey said...

"Synthetic as a rubber nipple"

I just finished Irving's "The Water-Method Man". The book opens with a urologist giving his patient (the main character in the book) a plastic breast, of realistic colour and texture, to bite on. Evidently, when you're erect, the glass rod goes in better.

Of course, this has nothing to do with your post...

sock monkey said...

A while back, I spoke with an aesthetician acquaintance of mine about the Brazilian wax. She said that many women opt to keep a small tuft of hair so as not to look completely prepubescent - i.e. many women felt ‘weirded out’. This begs the question of why they’d clear-cut (borrowing your words) to begin with. But of course, we already know the answer.

Rufus said...

There are also a lot of single women who do it, but even there, I've gotten the feeling that it's a competitive thing- everyone else has a boring old vagina, but you have the porn model. But, I agree with Patrick on this- there are plenty of us who actually find the average female body very arousing on its own. Imagine that.

sock monkey said...

The porn-model vagina also better exposes piercings and tattoos.

Add to the equation men's titilation at the thought of a woman waxing another woman... not all men, granted... but for those prone to 'lesbian fantasies'...

Rufus said...

And that's all understandably kinky, especially if you have a vivid imagination! I'm not opposed to the kink factor when a woman wants to modify her body. But, what I don't get is the idea of a young man with a woman's vagina spread before him saying "You know, it's okay... But, can't you soup it up a bit?"

Anonymous said...

To shave or not to shave, that is the question...I personally believe that when a woman has really dark hair it's better for her to shave, perhaps it is less noticeable when the "bush" is of a lighter color. Shaving completely has many advantages, like better hygiene. But if someone likes/dislikes the "bush", his or her partner should perhaps consider pleasing him or her a little, by shaving or not shaving.