In being surprised that apparently 98% of UK women under 25 have no pubic hair at all?

[Longstocking2]

Is that true?

A friend who is a practice nurse says she presumes it's just a fashion. None of her women under 25 who come for smear tests have any pubic hair.. all shaved, shorn, waxed to nada.

Obviously that's fine but it seems a little universal to me. Aren't there any rebels out there?
Is it just for the boys they do it?

Does the image not come from porn originally?

{shock]

would love to be enlightened!
Clearly I'm over 25

Im all shaved down there - I have done it for years now, and I'm 25. I first did it when I was a teen, just out of curiousity, not through anyone's influence. I do like the cleanliness and hygiene factor of having it gone, but then I shave my legs and underarms too, simply because I dont want hair there. DP has never questioned why I have no hair, and I certainly dont aspire to be a porn star either. I shave once a week down there, and its quick and easy to do

To be briefly controversial, I don't believe all these women who choose to cover their heads and faces are acting without being influenced by the massive approval of those of their menfolk who are extremely misogynistic in my opinion.

nurseblade Wed 05-Jan-11 13:39:04
Dittany: I don't support him in that which is why I won't grow my bush back. I didn't say my experience trumps others, just that the world is not as black and white as you see it.

Your brand of feminism seems to be about women doing what you want rather than them doing what they want. How does that make women any more free? There is little difference in men telling women what to do than there is in women telling other women what to do. For me, freedom and sexual liberation means women making their own choices, not being dictated to by you.

Honestly....dittany is not dictating she is telling you,as far as I underatand it, that your choices are nt free.

It is interesting which bits of culture do get distorted by this stuff though. When I was in America in 1990, I was amazed by the enormous range of vaginal douches on sale in every drugstore. I'd never even heard of the idea. I saw a few ads for them, plus a few stand-up routines talking about them. I have never heard of UK vaginal douche aficionado, though the 'complete douche' insult seems to have got through via films. Does it happen here?

I suppose douching is about perceived smell and shame, which is not pornification. I've just read Paper Houses by Michele Roberts which talks about a London job she had in the early 70s where every time she went into the toilet after one particular older female worker, the smell of vaginal deodorant was overpowering. Clearly this stuff does happen in the UK, but it had never reached me. Just wondered if I'm unusual in that.

Dittany, cultural pressures dictate that, as a woman, I should have long[er] flowing locks of hair on my head. I don't. I haven't failed to notice the fact that you have made no reference to that, despite including it when quoting me and stating that this was also due to pressure from men and porn. My decisions, influenced or otherwise, are mine and mine alone. I wasn't born to inherently think that being hair free is a good thing. I tried it, I liked it, I continued to do it. What is more simple than that?

Oppression does not need to come from a group of people - it can be a majority, a minority, a group or a sole person. The fact that you see it as your place to tell or dictate to women how, what and why they think is oppressive, regardless of your gender.

My arguments are no more inane and denying reality than yours - the difference is that I am open to the fact that there could be a multitude of reasons for why people act as they do and not all those reasons are or have to be negative, though some may be.

Clean because there is less likelihood of sweat collecting on the hair, and also when you have a period - yes I do have a shower everynight, but I cant go around washing my bits at work when I have a period

Sweat argument is weird too, seems hair is the body's way of collecting sweat.

"This "wahhhh you're telling me what to do" to feminists, whilst obediently going along with sexist dictates, and shouting at feminists who point them out is very odd"

Well yes, precisely.

But I dont want my hair to collect sweat FeministParent because it's smelly and that's "dirty", so off the hair comes

Although we are all individuals and have the right to make our own choices about our bodies and how we present them, it doesn't mean that individuals have a right to suppress discussion and analysis which attempts to throw light on why certain types of behaviour flourish at certain points in time.

The OP was asking why there is currently a trend towards hairless pubic areas in young women. What factors are now causing women to make this choice in our society today, when historically it has not been a way the majority have chosen to behave? If hygiene is a driving factor, why do western women now feel that their pubic hair is unhygenic? If the fact that it feels nice to be bald is a main reason, then why are we only now coming to realise this? what is happening in society to cause behaviour and norms to shift so far in less than a generation?

Just because some of the societal arguments are at odds with some posters' personal experience - doesn't mean that those posters are under personal attack.

Well in all the years I have been shaving down there, I have never once had any infections. Why if the infections thing is true, dont I get infections under my arms or my legs? I just like to feel clean, as I am sure many people do - it's my way of feeling clean

I think those posters feel under personal attack because people are trying to dictate to them how they reach their own specific personal decisions, despite them stating the contrary.

I don't know about bald lady gardens looking prepubescent, but I associate it more with geriatric old ladies having spent many years working on geriatric wards, bathing and attending to their physical needs.

so bald fanjo = very old lady in my book.

'Sweat argument is weird too, seems hair is the body's way of collecting sweat.'

Ever lived in a place where it's often over 40 degrees and 80+% humidity?

I depilate because I like it. I always have. In the past, I wanted to flaunt my fit body to attract men for sex, which I love. I wanted everyone, including me, to see me first, not all that hair.

I liked the feeling of sex with a smooth undercarriage.

I'm also attracted to men with hairless chests. I don't like men with a lot of body hair at all. Eewww. Facial hair, yuk to me. Back hair was a dealbreaker for me.

That's probably cultural, too. I'm Latina and there are not so many Latino men with a lot of body hair.

I was attracted, still am, to black, Asian and Latino men mostly (DH being the exception :o) and for the most part, these peoples don't tend to have a lot of body hair.

An opinion backed up by your facts dittany are valid for you, not for women who have stated otherwise. Your facts are not their facts, your experiences are not their experiences. To constantly try to insist that you are right and they are wrong about their own personal experiences is oppressive, but I am certainly glad you do not possess the power to follow through on what I believe are your oppressive opinions in suppressing others' experiences.

Kerry I must be a freak then Im 45.