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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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

849 replies

Longstocking2 · 04/01/2011 23:52

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

OP posts:
bamboobutton · 05/01/2011 10:19

i don't shave anymore, too much damage from cs scars and overhang so its hassle.

i probably am missing the point but a lot of the posts on here are along the lines of 'it's definitely porn' plus im skipping some of the longer posts.

tyler80 · 05/01/2011 10:19

I actually find it rather bizarre that someone would shave their pubes in the name of hygiene and then wear a nappy sanitary towel because nothing makes me feel more unclean than wearing one, pubes or no pubes. If I shaved then used a baby wipe I'd shred it Grin

tyler80 · 05/01/2011 10:21

Sidge but no hair at all or no hair underneath?

Longstocking2 · 05/01/2011 10:22

I think few groups of people are more vulnerable to cultural expectations than young women, adolescent girls etc.
One distant whiff of "That's Disgusting!" and I can imagine endless generations of lady gardens razed to the bare mons.

I just can't get my head around the discomfort around regrowth?

I used to get my bikini line waxed which was ok but whenever I've depilated or shaven the wings of my haven I have had really itchy regrowth.

You shavers are made of tougher stuff than me!

OP posts:
bamboobutton · 05/01/2011 10:23

i didn't say all advertising maktaitai, i was responding to rivens post about fashion advertising, which i have never fallen for.

CognitiveDissident · 05/01/2011 10:23

I think that the feelsgood factor is more to do with the fact that youn are conditioned to think body hair = itchy, uncomfortable, unhygienic.

maktaitai · 05/01/2011 10:23

It matters a bit IMO evildead because it costs time and money.

Sidge · 05/01/2011 10:23

tyler80 no hair at all.

tyler80 · 05/01/2011 10:25

I do wonder as well if reported rates are higher than actual. If your teenage mates mention it's disgusting you may just pretend you remove everything too without necessarily doing it.

tyler80 · 05/01/2011 10:28

I've never seen anyone at the with no hair at all, over here or in Denmark where everyone showers naked at the pool or in Spain on the nudist beaches. Even in the porn I've seen they've had a landing strip.

Longstocking2 · 05/01/2011 10:29

I'm just looking at my daughter and feeling sad that she's going to have to grown up in a society where she'll get the message that so much of her natural physical state is 'unhygenic' and disgusting in some way.

It just seems a little fascistic to me. I think natural women really do look beautiful, I find the plastic porn type of image genuinely unattractive, the ball shaped boobs, the baldness, the hysterical grooming. It all feels a bit, I hesitate to say, but a bit like a gay man's approach to a woman's beauty? IFYSIM?

(No offence to any gay man, but I do find the way gay men decide what women should wear in high fashion slightly tinged with misogyny)

[runs and hides under sofa, this is only a discussion site, I mean to offend no sister!]

OP posts:
MackerelOfFact · 05/01/2011 10:33

Mine looks a bit sad with nothing there, but left to it's own devices it is wild and creeps halfway down my thighs, my knicker elastic rubs on it, it gets matted, it itches, I get spots down there and most importantly, DP can't find his way in! Mmm. So I Nair it all off every 6 weeks or so - after about 2 or 3 weeks it is a perfect length. I agree that sex is better without the hair but it does look horrible. Like a little dead mole or something. Trimming sounds itchy which I why I take it all off and regrow. Oddly find this less itchy than having a full mop.

JenaiMarrHePlaysGuitar · 05/01/2011 10:37

I tried going bare for a while, but 2rebecca , slidy and sweaty is exactly how I found it, too. Yuck. I found sex really uncomfortable, too. DP didn't like it either (even though it was his idea).

Now I trim, to keep things cleaner, and do the sides if I'm going swimming. But I'll never go bare again. It's vile.

hmmSleep · 05/01/2011 10:38

I don't shave mine, I do however use conditioner on it Grin.

Serendippy · 05/01/2011 10:39

I shave my legs because I like how they feel when they are clean shaven. I shave my armpits because they don't get as smelly. Neither of these habits, as far as I am aware, come from porn or a desire to be pre-pubescent. I wax most of my pubic hair because I like how it feels when it is done. Anyone who shaves their legs but has issues with the porno/pre-pubescent nature of a shaved lady garden has double standards. After all, what age were you when you last had naturally hair free legs? Trying to recreate that age, are you? Thought not. And neither is your DH just because he appreciates shaved legs.

smallwhitecat · 05/01/2011 10:41

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ASecretLemonadeDrinker · 05/01/2011 10:41

Trimmed /slightly waxed - ok. Hairless is just weird weird weird, and I am

Giddyup · 05/01/2011 10:42

I Veet it all or most of it off, I can never get the leaving a bit of it to look quite right. DP coudn't give a mokeys either way, although when pushed he prefers it when there is a bit there. I am 8 weeks post partem at the mo and look like a 70's porn star as I am too scared to veet over my c section scar and he still doesn't care either way. It would be OK to do it now though, surely?

SnowyGonzalez · 05/01/2011 10:43

Evildead, the fact is that a shaven muff DOES look prepubescent! Why can't you admit that?

As for the youth thing, aren't these young women with bare muffs also plastering anti-wrinkle creams on their dewy faces? I argue that in porn it's about youth and this has filtered down into mainstream society.

Your question about sexual pleasure is a good one; I would say that that in itself doesn't negate its value. But, as someone else said here, I don't find that enough of a reason to shave it all off.

There is a footbinding aspect to this issue of excessive over-preening: the hair, brows, eyes, teeth, chin, pits, skin, muff, nails, clit, arse, back, hands, feet - the list goes on. It results in an awful lot of time and attention being focused on maintaining an impossibly high-maintenance body, potentially to the point of narcissism. Time and attention which could be spent much more fruitfully on pursuits which would have a far more constructive and beneficial impact than just making someone look pretty.

Now don't read extremes into what I've just said. I think it's important to look after oneself, and too feel good about oneself. But we have to keep this, like everything, in perspective. Our culture is constantly urging us towards narcissistic self-obsession to get us to spend more money on stuff we don't need. That is a sickness.

Timebends · 05/01/2011 10:43

Looking at a forum - "The Student Room" recently to garner some uni info for my daughter I clicked on a thread about this. (No I can't explain why - just nosy I suppose) The young men's responses suggested overwhelmingly that they expect girls to be hair free and most were repelled by the thought of a girl "au naturel". Surely it can only be due to use of porn becoming mainstream? I was a bit shocked by the extent of the expectation though and a bit sad for our daughters.

ASecretLemonadeDrinker · 05/01/2011 10:44

Of course it's not the same as shaving your legs! Men shave their faces (usually) - fine. Then you get the weirdo that shaves his balls. Doesn't compare.

Longstocking2 · 05/01/2011 10:45

also, the 98% was only an anecdotal percentage quote from ONE practice nurse not a MORI poll!

sorry to wave my data around like it was any more than one nurse's practice experience.

OP posts:
rubyrubyruby · 05/01/2011 10:46

This reply has been deleted

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SnowyGonzalez · 05/01/2011 10:47

Dead mole!!! Shock Grin

smallwhitecat · 05/01/2011 10:50

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