I am so shocked about that thread stating most women have no pubic hair

[roseability]

I don't know quite why it has disturbed me so much. Like most women I have plucked/shaved and groomed for many years of my life. However the thought of putting myself through that really upsets me for some reason. Not that I plan to. It is just that I have never, ever considered that pubic hair is undesirable. I can't help but relate it to women in porn with little or no pubic hair and it makes me sad to think girls and young women (I have a daughter) will no doubt feel insecure about their vagina and how it looks in this way.

I am by no means a good feminist. As I mentioned I do shave my legs and I wear make up. I have read Beauty and Misogyny by Sheila Jeffreys and I question why I even do this. However it makes me almost weep to think of my daughter being influenced in such a way.

I was just really upset by that thread and I m not sure why

Freshness...I just shove a roll-on up there if it gets a bit whiffy.

OMFG at that advert Math!

i started trimming etc long before i ever thought about boys never mind sex, and most of the women who i know did too, so how can it always be about men and what they want?

i shave because i suffer with thrush, cystitis and im sure ive invented some other problem down there thats not recognised (i am definitely sti free though, just been checked! ;) ) because im always uncomfortable there and shaving stops it feeling itchy and uncomfortable but i dont do it excessively, always let it grow back a fair bit and shave again.

why were you not taught to love your body as it was, though? Why is it not regarded as bizarre to trim your pubes. It should be; but in fact not trimming and going out in public (beach, pool) is regarded as bizarre, at best, an obscenity, at worst.

I agree it's not directly about boys and what men want. It's about cultural messages and conforming to expected norms (or else feeling unfresh read: dirty, or freakish)

which is capitalism more than anything else, which that advert Mathanxiety linked to illustrates perfectly

Douche? yuk

never have never would, as far as i know its not good for your health and as i said i hve no issue with my natural odour.

Do you use deodorant Sakura

on your armpits obvs

?

The fact is that in the UK this is a fairly new phenomena, I really think it is worth noticing that in 30 or 40 years women have gone from not giving a second thought to their pubes aside from a bit of bikini line removal, to removing more and more pubic hair, to now where the done thing is to remove all of it and there is increased awareness of what women "should" look like in terms of labia etc and there are medical procedures there for those who feel that their genitals don't cut the mustard.

In my day it was normal to shave armpits and legs, not I guess it is armpits, pubes and legs. That is an awful lot of grooming to "have" to keep up - and girls and young women will have to keep it up if it is the norm to do so. There is little real choice there. No-one wants to have genitals that others consider weird looking or dirty.

I really do find it very depressing.

I think that arms are next - many dark women already have their arms waxed and I think this trend will spread. Basically women aren't supposed to have hair anywhere except on their heads, are they. It's a hell of a lot of maintenance fighting nature in this way.

Pristeen veginal deodorant ad:
"The real problem, as you very well know, is how to keep the most girl part of you - the vaginal area - fresh and free of any worry-making odours.... Starting today, why not make Pristeen as much a part of your daily life as your bath or shower. It's just as essential to your cleanliness. And to your peace of mind about being a girl. An attractive, nice-to-be-with-girl."

Fools.
Pubic hair was the heart of the problem all the time.

Who wants to be a nice-to-be-with-girl?? Dull.

lol @ "fools"

Sorry roseability, my post was directed at blindassasin.

at 'worry-making odours'. FFS! No-one worried about them until you told us we had to.

This has been posted before but it's excellent. Marketing to men and women.

It is capitalism. Continually inventing new ideas that will sell. And what isn't a better target than women and girls, trained to conform to a capitalist, sexist idea of beauty? Now there will be new products to sell and ideas to advertise when pubic baldness is the new fashion. When will it stop?

I have a utopic vision of every woman and girl refusing to wax, shave, pluck, preen and diet. The beauty industry and the misogynist bastards that run it.

sorry didn't finish

and the misogynist bastards that run it will be ruined

I think there's a visceral hostility towards women in those old ads. Maybe fear too.

On the same site there was a discussion of the fact that twentieth century integration of most workplaces has coincided with serious efforts to eliminate all indications of women's natural bodily functions as they relate to fertility - basically to make women seem more like men in every way possible, from clothing (business suits for women) to the introduction of deodorant pads and tampons that attempt to remove any indication of menstruation.

In the case of shaving pubic hair, a woman's body becomes more like that of a child. The fear of women's sexuality is surely at play here, just as fear of women encroaching on traditionally make turf has affected the progress of women working outside the home. The more women seem to behave like adults and claim the prerogatives of adults (to vote, to earn enough to support a family, to join the armed forces just to name a few examples) the less comfortable men seem to be with us in general and the stronger the pushback has become.

When I was having my eyebrows done the beauty therapist told me in detail about how she did a Hollywood.
She loved doing it!