Sneaky little bugger, isn't he? And he knew how to hide it from everyone, too. Hmmmm...... Good thing you were on the case!

As to body hair, I don't care what people do with their bodies.

the fact. I told his grandmother. He's not allowed in the room where her computer is any longer. She locks the door now. But, he has his own laptop computer, so I assume he's using that to feed his hormone overload these days.

We don't communicate well with each other. It's a long story. But, I'm not into causing him grief. Like I said, I probably would have been looking at porn videos when I was 15, too. They just weren't available back in 1960.

God knows we never looked at naked pictures growing up, much less harbored naughty thoughts.

It was about people having unrealistic expectations
about sex and bodies on account of porn.

Instead of it being a whole bunch of creaky codgers sitting on the porch hand-wringing over what they think is happening in the dirty minds of "kids today".

Sorry, I've seen that play. It was already old when Socrates did it.

Sorry.

Not only did he get the thing infected (yes, porn is one of the more common vectors for malware but it's not that difficult to avoid), he didn't even use Incognito Mode! Dumbass.

I'm an old guy and have never encountered this in real life.

Clearly, you don't know me, then.

And thanks to porn, we have a generation of young men who have never seen a woman in her native state. When shown pictures, the nearly universal response is Ewwwwww.

I think I'm glad I'm an old guy.

THAT issue you have an opinion on.

jeez.

Expectations are strange things.

We'll be seeing the film for sure.

Want to put on a nice, shiny look for your close-ups, after all.

alas.

Thank you so much for posting it.

I doubt it was the hair.

He was gay, so he blamed her. It's not like that was unusual.

It seems like she lived her own life, and when the family of the young girl contacted her, she told them the truth.

My advice? Millennials should stop looking at (unrealistic) depictions of sex and start meeting people to have sex with.

Millennials often come to me for my sage advice on their sex lives, which they are obviously blitheringly incapable of managing themselves.



...at which time I doff my smoking jacket, polish my monocle, and regale them with my time-worn pearls of profundity and wisdom.

Actually, it's snark and sarcasm, which is patented Gen X humor.

that has ever been posted. It is hilarious

And I ain't crying for their plight. There are pluses and minuses to every blasted thing.

But also an entire commercial apparatus dedicated to personal grooming and hair removal

Now WHY there's a growth of such a thing, porn could be a reason... But I don't think that it's the only reason.

I mean, we've been breeding it away via sexual selection for hundreds of thousands of years, so maybe there is something in our brains that doesn't like it. And it isn't as if this is a new thing, as may angelic figures in old paintings did not have pubic hair. Quite possibly, the removal of hair has some sub-conscious value of transcendence from our animal state. In any case, it might be entirely natural and hair removal may merely be helping us get to the end result quicker that sexual selection has been leading us to.

than that. And it isn't influenced by people doing things to themselves. Even after those "hundreds of thousands of years," we're still growing hair beginning at puberty. I'm sure it's a cosmetic thing, but such trends often have influences that create them. No matter how many people remove their body hair, that will not influence natural selection in any way.

There is some evidence that the European genes that determine skin pigmentation may have originated only 20K years ago. Humans have been breeding out their hair long before that by hundreds of thousands of years.

No matter how many people remove their body hair, that will not influence natural selection in any way.

She tells me that about 50% of her customers are young women wanting to get Brazilian, or something like that, waxes. Don't know if this trend originated with porn, or if porn is reflecting the current cultural norms, but girls nowadays experience a lot of peer pressure to be bald down under.

to me. I know for sure that the idea never even occurred to me in my youth, and apparently not to any of the people I dated, either. I suppose the introduction of smaller and smaller bathing suits might have played a role, though.

I remember some 4,000 years ago when one lady I knew said she couldn't wear a bikini. Since she broached the subject, and was very attractive and buxom both, I asked why. She said that a regular bikini bottom wouldn't cover up her other "do," and unless she was in the mood, didn't want to entice someone into a sexual encounter. She said that with a far more graceful wink that Palin.

Times change, but I'm still game for that kind of enticement.

it's what is generally observed in sociology as a generational-walled trend. An example people are much more familiar with is men in hats and daily suits. People who reached adulthood prior to WW II continued to wears suits and hats into their twilight years; people who reached adulthood in the late 50s and Kennedy era wore neither, the notion of doing so, even having seen their fathers do so and continue to do so was foreign. It forms a generational wall...and once such a wall is formed and entrenched by years of social conditioning...it's likely permanent or nearly-so.

The percentage of adults under age 40 who trim or shave and have since the age of puberty is higher than the percentage of people over the age of 40 who do neither. The cultural shift is a tidal shift away from hair below. The likelihood is the the age of the natural muff is over, at least for the time being until there is a a broad cultural shift that decides that not maintaining the public hair is counter-cultural and thus cool.

It's by all expectations not happening any time soon...after 20+ years, it's not a fad, it's just the new state of affairs.

(Me? I don't care...I remove my hair because I swam competitively for so long that body hair began to squick me out. Even if the trend was towards more hair I'd still remove mine and likely exclusively date others who did so.)

My dad had a wonderful collection of fedoras in the front closet I never saw him wear. I later appropriated a few.

People can change their clothing habits, and haircuts, too. I went from the buzzcut era to the hippie era to the buzzcut era, basically.

The problem, such as it is, with shaving the body, and head, as it tends to make people look more alike than different. Very few wear the shaven-head look well. Kills individuality, and variability.

It may contribute to it, but I don't think it's a huge factor.

It may be as simple as personal preference. I don't think it's an earth shaking, pressing issue. Their bodies, their choice.

My husband who would be 65 if he were still alive did not like his body hair. He shaved his head, his pits and his groin. His facial hair? he would sit for hours in front of a makeup mirror grooming his beard with tweezers. He wouldn't shave his face because of the tendency to get ingrown hairs. he even tweezed his eyebrows.

Now that I'm older, I've noticed that hair doesn't even grow on certain places of my body any longer. I've never been an eyebrow tweezer, but I don't even grow hair on my legs or arm pits like I used to.

The only place that hair grows on my body that bothers me, is my toe knuckles. Is that weird or what?

Grooming and style change just like fashion.Take any body hair, any culture and any time period and you will find lots of variations (i.e. Japanese women currently shave their arms as well as legs but few go Brazilian.).

Last edited Sat Jul 20, 2013, 01:46 AM - Edit history (1)

and the hair on her legs could be counted on both hands. She has never had to worry much about removing body hair.
My German mother and tow of my three sisters have had extensive electrolysis to remove unwanted facial and body hair.
Personally. I think men should have, at least, a few chest hairs, but that's just me.
I recently read an article about men's grooming habits that said that increasingly men are going to salons and asking to have their "ass, crack, and sack" waxed.
I think that sounds like torture but suppose it is really just fashion.
And who ever up-thread suggested our fixation on looking young probably has something to do with the fashion.

edit: should have been back, crack, and sack. silly me.

In the words of Dr, Evil:

"There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum... it's breathtaking- I highly suggest you try it."



It's like the difference between having sex with a condom or without a condom.

it's a bit of going along with the crowd as well as learned habits. Generally, young girls are taught about their hygiene by their mothers. If their mothers have a propensity towards being bare, then their daughters may too. Also, if all their friends are doing it, then it's likely they'll do it. I don't know why men or how they're being influenced works into this.

What other men or women do with their body hair is up to them.

My friend is an esthetician (I just botched that word, I think) and she does Brazilians for her clients. She has made comments that there are women who come in and say their partners want them to look like the porn stars. I think porn helped start the trend and keeps it alive, but there are other factors as well. Some women do it for their own preference. Others do it to keep up with the Joneses...or the Joneses muffs.

Porn has certainly evolved over the last twenty or so years. It's gone from women with real boobs and some hair to girls who all look the same - bleached, waxed, augmented, etc. Not that I ever watch it.

P.S. come on, we all know Grandma was searching the porn tubes.

made me think of something that happened with my late MIL some years ago.

She had cable, and one month got a bill that showed she had viewed some porn channels.

Mr Pipi called the cable company and told them there must have been a mistake...

Oh...how did he know, they asked...

Because she's 90 years old and lives alone! was his answer.

Oh. OK...we'll adjust the bill.


I still suspect to this day that she accidentally tuned to the porn channel and (because of macular degeneration) kept watching because she thought it was one of those wildlife shows

Literally made me

have people pretend it isn't revealing the pubic area.

and I couldn't help but notice that all the naked young girls flinging themselves at the Eagles in the early days were au naturel. I don't know if the new look is driven by porn or not, but it's certainly different from my younger days.

Bottom line, I really don't care what people do with their bodies, but it would seem to be a lot of work (and pain) to keep up.

I don't remember anyone who shaved those parts during my younger years. I do remember a bunch of women in the late 60s and 70s who didn't shave their legs and armpits, though. It never troubled me at all.

VHS beat out other video formats thanks to porn and the first businesses to turn a profit on the internet were porn-based. High quality streaming video and the increased demand for bandwidth also is directly based on porn and the demand to view it from the internet. I'd argue that, if it wasn't for porn, the internet wouldn't be what it is today. Sure it is a great place to exchange ideas and thoughts and to meet and keep track of people, but it is also a great place to see them naked too!

I bet that the second picture taken by the camera after it was first invented was that of a naked woman.

that once a person does, most like the aesthetics and sensations of doing it so much that they continue to remove the hair on a regular basis.

And yet some of it is social programming as well, we are programmed, at least here in the US to think that women should shave both their leg and armpit hair and I would suggest that the vast majority of women looking for a mate do so.

remove hair on a regular basis because they like the sensations of doing it so much. Just saying.

and there are painless or most painless ways of removing hair such as shaving.


And yes I speak from experience.

removed hair on my lower legs or pits except for medical purposes, and once for an ex's curiosity, it's never been painless. Razors are probably the least uncomfortable, assuming I don't cut myself, which is, unfortunately, not a safe assumption.

But it grows back so fast, and so sharp.

Since I'm single now, and have no one but myself to please, it's just not worth it.

Of course, I have light, fine hair, and the older I get the less body hair I have to deal with anyway.

Less smell for one. Plus, less hair means towels don't get so wet, and dry quicker.

But never looked into it, so to speak.

Funny...

I just don't like a lot of hair, on me or anyone else. But that's my preference.

I think the current trend goes beyond that, though, and has more to do with personal expectations, instead.

that had similar appearance had no other information about them other than body appearance, I would choose the woman that had the least body hair every single time. Body hair really turns me off, even when I was a child it turned me off.

First I heard was on KROQ, when the ever inflammatory Kevin and Bean had some guest in and commented that he'd shaved himself. I don't remember how it came up. It was Kevin and Bean, could have come up in all sorts of different ways.

The female sidekick (who I think was also the traffic announcer) asked if that wasn't something gay men did.

Possibly started with body-builders wanting to show off their rippedness. Swimmers started to do it later, but some famous ones were ripped, media icons, and sported little public hair but on their scalps.

Possibly bowing to pressure to avoid getting hair in their partner's mouths or irritate their skin.

Perhaps wanting to make whatever natural attributes you have less disguised--a small tree with ground-level mulch looks bigger than the same tree surrounded by plants. It reduces the risk of body lice, so that might be a reason.

If you're into underage boys and girls, reducing body hair makes them look younger (but since most guys who are 21 don't want to look 15, we can't take that *too* far. That "prepubescent look" on men isn't probably a big selling point with adult women.)

Perhaps wanting to avoid embarrassment--if you're a girl, do you really want pubic hair showing above your bikini line? And if you're a guy wearing nearly nothing while showing off your body like a lean pork roast, hairy lower abdomen and hairy back ... Eww. And if you're young and suddenly sprout hair, it attracts attention. If you're doing it earlier than most, might not be a good thing.

All of it makes for a nice trend, nice fashion. Might go away. Might become as common as men (and women) shaving. What'll be funny is if somebody issues a fatwa saying that shaving your face is haram but shaving your groin is perfectly fine.

A hair on the back of the tongue is very distracting.

And not in a "nom, nom, nom," kinda way.

A while back, I noticed that shaving my bits regularly encouraged the women I have been with to explore and play with my genitals in a fuller and more exciting way. Naturally, I enjoy this, and vice versa I presume.

you wrote was an answer.

Albeit the masking of the question was masterful...

It still is what it is: Why are people shaving pubes?

My answer is indeed an answer to that question. How could you possibly not think that this question would not turn to a subject that offends your sensibilities? I think you are bored and looking for a pedagogical discussion based on a puerile subject.

So I obliged.

If you want to be taken seriously... maybe you should try a different subject?

I boycott any porn site that uses shaven men. Thats just gross! I want a man that looks like a man.

don't try to wear Jim Morrison's leather pants.

at least for guys anyways.

Pro tip: It looks and feels good for a few days, but once it starts growing back in, it looks like Yassar Arafats beard and feels like a colony of bed bugs took up residence in your crotch.

Proceed at your own folly.

I'd actually say on balance, 100% shaved isn't the majority - while "natural" aka "fullbush" is definitely a niche/fetish market these days, the majority of what I've seen lately involves at least some hair down there. Quite trimmed, nothing that would peek out from even the smallest underwear, but still a patch or strip isn't uncommon at all.

Yes, for some reason, body hair has become a topic. It has been in the past, as well, for a short time. Porn is also a topic sometimes raised on DU. Current events, more or less.

by young people's apparent dislike of their natural bodies. Although people usually want to look fashionable and their best, folks seem to be going to extraordinary extremes to become what they are not.

I remember the student guide from my high school days in 1959-63. One line I remember from it, in the dress code and personal grooming section said:

"Boys will be clean-shaven and natural in appearance."

Even though I didn't really start shaving until the end of my Freshman year, I remember laughing at that line. In 1969, after completing my enlistment in the USAF, I stopped shaving altogether, and have not seen my chin, jawline or upper lip since. I guess I'm no longer "natural in appearance."

It was an issue in my relationship. I don't believe in changing myself or doing things to my body I am uncomfortable doing, just to please my partner.

And all the people here saying that body hair is gross or you are somehow undesirable if you keep it the way nature intended. And that feels judgey to me.

Just another rotten example of the way women are supposed to conform to men's desires, whatever they may be. As a woman over 40 and single, I am tired of being judged for how I look, by men who aren't exactly god's gift themselves.

Hairlessness is a style, one that has had staying power in Western cultures. And there are people who have personal preferences, and there are pedophiles who like the childlike quality of hairless women. But I don't think it's a straight line.

Btw give the kid some slack. He's fifteen and curious, and probably hormonal as hell.

As for the kid, I don't care if he looks at porn. I just don't want him doing it on my mother-in-law's computer, which I have to keep operating smoothly for her. Porn sites are rife with malware.

There's a site that kind of mirrors YouTube that I stumbled across some years ago...WHOA... And as soon as it opened a hundred others opened. I couldn't close the damned things fast enough. And I ended up with a virus. Scared hell out of me for a while, LOL!

You can set up a virtual machine on your computer that isolates traffic within a different operating system. Then you can surf willy nilly without too much fear of infecting your basic computing environment.

In other words; the tubes can't touch the sensitive parts of your computer.

and what the neighbors thought!

and nobody notices or cares, until a woman has a simulated orgasm with a Brazilian wax.

Props for making a body-hair thread and a porn thread all at once, though. This ought to be fun.

The last great pube war was actually just shy of a year ago so I guess we were about due.

...

Wait, err... I don't wanna know, do I?

The threads get sketchy after 600 replies, eh?

A megathread full of megawin.

Where are the pictures for this thread?

removing the 'inner lips' is now all the rage.

I was going to post a link but thought I'd get banned. Just google it yourselves.

Is the movie "Demolition Man" a preview of the future? I sure hope not, although Sanda Bullock was sure cute in that one.

Maybe you should google it...

an*l bleaching.

I gotta look that up to see what purpose that would serve.

*edit* ohhh THAT surgery... I know someone who was seriously considering that for some reason. She sent me pictures of herself asking me if I thought she needed it. I found it very awkward. I find that procedure more screwed up than breast augmentation.

I can't say that I have looked at enough samples to reach that conclusion. But, as things are, I will accept your statistics-less summary . The thing that get my goat are tattoos, it is hard to walk down a city street without seeing countless exhibits of them.

without pics

lets flash back to the early 70s when porn movies went from loops to theaters ,the "talent " were normally hairy and it got in the way of the shots so the directors thought the less hair the more movie magic .People who watched porn fantasized about them being in some of the action and took to trimming , shaving ,oiling and what ever the movies showed.

With so little work like there was in the pre porn world people got into new jobs like shaving , waxing , bleaching and what ever is called for .

Everybody wants to be a star and the term porn star has blurred into main stream pop competition.

I shave most of my body hair. I think it feels better, especially in the summer. I couldn't care less about porn. Who cares what people do to their own bodies?

It's probably a personal preference- This is kind of like a chicken and the egg thing. I've been privy to lots of intimate personal discussions due to a short stint in counseling. Lot's of people that have never watched porn are very particular about body hair. You'd be amazed at the number of normal people that are not porn consumers, that shave, pluck, wax and debilitate the genital hair- some remove it all, some just trim and shape. Personal preferences are called personal for a reason: they are the decision of the individual. If a lot of people choose a preference that is different from the "norm" it isn't proof that they have been pressured to make that decision in that way, it just prooves that the "norm" is anything but.
I happen to agree with the proposition "live and let live" when it comes to this sort of stuff. Some people find the notion of body hair "down there" to be smelly and dirty, others find that same body hair sweetly perfect. I am so happy that there are all sorts of different personal preferences and forms of sexual expression available to free adults in America. Wouldn't it suck if we all subscibed to the same notions of beauty and sexual expression? Vive Le Difference!