How do you think comments like , help in any way, Helmet? They don't. They are more likely to turn people away from bothering to read your views but I'm sure that doesn't matter.
At least MenuPlant is polite. I'm actually interested in her view and I'm an avid waxer (blonde, light hair everywhere). I'm usually vocal on these threads.
I'm interested on the point of advertising; if we take bodies and hair out of it and apply it to, I don't know, buying a car perhaps, and I say that my Audi is the best car, the paint colour is the most attractive... am I saying that Decomposing's (for example) BMW in a different colour is therefore not good, not desirable?
Advertising is huge and we allow it to encroach on all of us, to influence us to buy x,y,z, we watch a,b,c, etc. It would be a bit short-sighted to say that it doesn't influence our choices because as MenuPlant has said, we don't live in a vacuum. I'd agree also that it's insidious, probing our insecurities and making us actively move towards - or away from, certain things.
I've always hotly denied that hair removal is anything other than personal choice and MenuPlant is saying the same thing, I don't read her posts as controlling. If I think of my own hair (blonde and fine), it really wouldn't matter if I didn't wax my legs because the hair probably wouldn't be noticed but for somebody with darker or thicker hair, they might not feel so carefree. So I'm comparing apples with pairs, I will never feel the same as a darker haired woman because I am not one, will never experience the same pressures she might face.
I think that what irks me with this hair-removal argument is that the usual vile comment trotted out (not on this thread, yet) is something along the lines of 'your partner must be a paedophile'. I think that sort of comment puts women on the defensive immediately (and rightly so) but it undermines what posters like MenuPlant are actually saying - that we're all free to do what we want, just that we should be aware that the pressure is coming from somewhere and it's not from us individually. If I think about car-buying, I get that and can transpose that to hair removal.
I shaved my arm hair once just to see what it was like. It made my skin feel clammy so I understand what non-removers feel when they say they prefer to keep their pubic hair. I personally don't, I get everything removed because I prefer the feel and look of that. I suspect that IF it wouldn't have such a pornification 'alliance', for want of a better term, AND that the next generation of young women are being pressurised into removing their hair, that nobody would bat an eyelid over the personal choice element, if that were truly what it was.
I can say that for me, it's nothing to do with porn. I'm married, never have been or would want to (or be able to) be a porn star but, for a young woman who is going through puberty to be coerced/forced into hair removal - or feel different and not in a positive way, that's really not good and I wouldn't want my daughter to feel this pressure. But she undoubtedly will. I'm concerned about that. How does this get stopped?