Maybe it's because I'm not terribly hirsute, but the last thing I am concerned about is shaving/waxing/removing the hair from another part of my body. If I was an afro-bush woman, I may feel differently, but I see it now as another piece of up-keep I don't need to add to my life. My legs and armpits are enough to do. Add that to painting my toenails, keeping my fingernails filed, dying my hair and keeping sunscreen on my body and I'm done. Man, I've gotten lazy!

That's why I married an Asian* woman. It keeps someone in the house to paint my toenails and keep my fingernails looking good and do all my eyebrow maintenance and back shaving. I get to be lazy (I don't have to do anything but sit still and watch TV) and still be groomed.

And now that I've made an issue of it, no I'm not ugly. But I'm also not particularly attractive. I have very attractive eyes. Otherwise I am one of those people where there is nothing wrong with any of the individual parts but somehow it all comes together blandly.



*No, that isn't really why I married an Asian woman. The Asian collection just happened to be the first catalog I got in the mail.

OK, Alex... I know I mojo'd you... but that just cracked me up to the point that I'm getting stares at the computer lab.

As GD points out, I would not limit the phenomenon to women. However, this thread started out with a discussion of women and appearance standards. I still submit that 1) underwear up the ass v. underwear not up the ass, 2) ass hanging out the top v. ass not hanging out the top and 3) pubic hair v. no pubic hair are fashion shifts of rather cosmic proportions, and I am curious about the cultural moment that birthed them. Was it Pamela Anderson getting her a****** waxed? Something else? Should the progenitors be haled as liberating pioneers a la Kinsey? Or is somebody out there having a good laugh?

I totally agree. Only I'm too lazy to paint my toenails most of the time too.

You didn't express a curiosity (which I am all in favor of) you pronounced a conclusion (with which I disagree).

But I also disagree that the things you list are changes of "cosmic proportions." Bu then my wife has been doing the things you find so cosmic for more than 20 years so maybe I'm just used to it.

As for honest curiosity on origination. I posit:

1) Thong underwear: women found that thong underwear simply works better with certain kinds of clothes. Especially the kinds of clothes they wear when out partying and looking for a ****. Once they grew accustomed to wearing it, why go to the hassle of maintaining two sets of drawers?

2) Pubic shaving and trimming. I see a couple sources for this. First, as women became more involved in their own sexuality they were more interested in, and willing to, do things that didn't hide their interest in sex. Shaving and trimming requires, first of all, a willingness for your partner to know that you're thinking about that area. But there is also a male origination for it as well. When sex is personal most men don't really care what the groinal looks like so long as he gets to put his tinkle-thingy in it. However, with the growth of movie pornography this personal disinterest is lost and, frankly, when both the vaginary region and the penunitary regions involved have metric assloads of hair, it is difficult to see what it going on. So porn producers start to clarify the picture, so to speak. It gives men ideas, more and more women are watching porn as well so they get ideas. A new cultural acceptance of women experimenting with the pootytang areas has opened the door for trying it and a lot of people find out that for various reasons they like it. Just because a fully shaved pubis monstrosity has the same amount of hair as a six-year-old does not mean that someone likes it because of that. Maybe they like it despite that.

3) Ass hanging out vs. not haning out. I place this one at the feet of women more so than men. As women become increasingly willing to sexualize themselves it seems a reasonable byproduct. Just 30 years later than the tube top with did the same thing for the boobages region.

4) Tattoos. Tattoos are simply cool. Yes they can be done poorly or for bad reasons, but that is gender neutral. I don't see why it is any different or worse (though certainly more permanent) than lobal mutilation.

I prefer to remain coiffured. I have very sensitive follicles and I quite enjoy a scalp massage. I miss the hair when I'm bald (and I also don't like looking prepubescent.)

The bare/haired hoo-ha is clearly a personal preference, and nothing more.

Well, damn - this conversation has progressed way too far for me to chime in with my intended snarky post. But I will toss in that, if we fear the influence of fashion on our daughters we can always take a lesson from the islamists and require our women to wear Burkas and head scarves to protect them from our irrational masculine lusts.

is it too late to say Im sorry I brought it up? :rolleyes:

Yes, but look at the lively discussion you generated
;)