Crystal Renn posed nude in the May issue of French Vogue, and the sight of her public hair has been too much for some people. The comments at The Cut are filled with revulsion for Crystal’s crotch.
Whether the photos are flattering or appropriate or anything else, my interest is in the reactions. What the hell is wrong with people? Those who object to the pubic hair insist that their aesthetic hasn’t been formed by porn. They talk about how nice it is to be “clean down there.”
What isn’t clean about natural hair? It seems very anti-woman to insist on a waxed crotch. The hair is a sign of adulthood – it’s what separates a woman’s body from a child’s.
I admit I don’t watch porn. It make me too sad. But I’m aware there’s a fatwa on body hair these days. It seems creepy and it seems babyish. It’s as if the very idea of pubic hair is terrifying.
It depresses me to confront the fact that women have yet another reason to feel shame about their bodies. I’m glad that Crystal Renn is breaking barriers, if that’s what she’s doing. If she reads those comments, though, she may feel she’s committed a federal crime by looking like a natural woman.
Opinions, anyone?
Word to thine Maman, Sistah Wolfie…
I also can’t get with porn…and…
The pubic hair thing is, in my mind, just another way for
men to try and put women in the image of a little girl
with no threatening fur nor braincells.
However, I can’t get with the picture of Renn on
her knees in the dress with the panties around
the ankles…it, too, reminds me of a little
girl sort of pose with the big frothy princess dress…
only “this little girl is waiting for you to give it to her…”
I can’t put my finger on it, but it freaks me out.
ugg.
XuXu
http://www.frenchshelter.blogspot.com
I told my gen y sister yesterday (in the course of a conversation on this very topic) that my gen x husband has a distinct dislike for the shaved/waxed lady garden. It looks childlike and creepy to him. She was pretty astonished by this information – which I found incredibly depressing.
Anyway I think it will all swing back again – I remember in the 90s how all the young guys I knew felt the pressure to wax their chests, and the only people who didn’t were in the bear club. Beards and chest hair cycled back into style, I suppose female pubic hair will make a comeback too, eventually.
Why do people want to look like they have a plucked chicken between their legs?
Or a angry bald man?
I have got far more enjoyable things to do with my time, manipulating my pum pum to look like a child’s is not one of them
Kate Moss did a shoot in Vogue in the early 21st century maybe circa 2002/3 and her pubic hair was out of control! I don’t think she cared or cares fro such matters and quite frankly neither do I.
In fact I get scared by women with strips and nothing, I don’t go looking they appear in the gym changing rooms. I feel naked without a good bush!
Aha! A subject I have mused upon greatly in the last year.
I have never subscribed to the waxed fanny look in my life. To me it’s just too much effort/pain/money and as a non North American women, I feel no need to get rid of too much hair. Hell, I had hairy pits for most of my life too. I know many Americans find hair too revolting for words, but as a European, I have no such qualms.
I’ve never had a male complain about my hairy parts, and my partner, like Skye’s, has always professed to not liking the ‘shaved/waxed lady garden’.
Anyway, this year, to my surprise, I suddenly had the urge to get it all off. This was precipitated by the arrival of grey pubes. Ultimately, I don’t care if my crotch goes grey, but for some reason, I’m not quite ready for it yet. So, the obvious choice was remove it. So now, I’m a born again baldy, at least for a while.
Ultimately, I really don’t care if my bits are hairy or not. I quite like being hairless; it certainly makes me feel a bit different. In the long term, though, it’s just too much effort and pain.
I think the negative reactions to a normal lady garden with bush are bizarre in the extreme. Who really gives a fuck whether we remove our hair or not. It’s not ‘cleaner’; it’s just bald.
I can’t help hoping that the next generation are a little less obsessed with all this nonsense than the youth of today.
I think this is mainly an American thing – but I could be wrong as I haven’t checked out too many crotches lately. I feel its just another version of foot-binding, another way of telling women they are made wrong somehow.
Remember several years ago when Julia Roberts raised an arm to wave and she had *gasp* underarm hair. People went insane, there were newspaper columns devoted to it. Even though I am one of the ones who shuddered when I saw Moniques (spelling ?) hairy legs I was proud of her as well for just being herself. It’s hair people, and its not wrong or unclean.
Of course one way or the other is down to personal preference, much like a haircut on your head. Personally, I like it hairless purely for the increased sensation, but leave it natural because I am too lazy to bother with the upkeep. It is insulting and frankly stupid in the extreme to suggest that one way is ‘cleaner’ than the other. Do these women find their hairy partners disgusting too, or is their disdain reserved for other women?
Some of us don’t want to bleed from our more sensitive areas.
Sorry Cybill, it is not only an American thing. It is a virtually a given for younger women in the UK and here in Australia to have every hair ripped from their pubic/vulva/anus areas, and sadly even older women succumb to this bizarre practice. And surely the Brazilians…after all, it is called a ‘Brazilian’. It is not only misogynistic desires of some men and the porn industry but something even creepier that has been commented on – the almost paedophilic zeal in the cult of the youth.
THANK YOU! I have been thinking all this for ages and it creeps me out to think a lot of younge rmen insist their girlfriends shave it all off. The pubic hair makes a woman, well, a woman. Keep it clean, groom it a bit (if you feel inclined), but shaving it all off just is so much work (the upkeep!), and un-natural.
Damnit denise, I didn’t want to know that!! I love my denial la la la la ….
It’s true, Lady Cybill, unfortunately here in France the ladies
are clean shaven except for a strip or heart or some other
such time consuming thing….and also there are the baldies.
And FORGET about underarm hair and leg hair.
I don’t shave my pits, although I do trim from time to time.
My boyfriend has never, ever, ever been with someone
who doesn’t shave practically everything.
xuxu
http://www.frenchshelter.blogspot.com
A colleague told me a story about how her sister was invited to a swingers party and the invitation clearly stated “No Body Hair”.
I agree 100 % with you Sister Wolf ! In my experience with men and my sexual relationships with them, men who really love women’s body love pubic hair too. In fact, they are excited by it ! Fortunately, I’ve never met a man who doesn’t appreciate it !
Faux Fuchsia, nnooooooooooooooooooooooo, I have not had my lunch yet
Did anybody else see the Louis Theroux documentary on swingers years ago?
That was enough to consolidate my views on that kinda party
Trimming yes, bald turkey crotch no
very few of my male acquaintances object to my bush (they seem to enjoy it). anyone who complains isn’t invited back.
Shaving the intimate areas became a hype not so long ago, it was only the end of the 80’s. Shaving legs is only a couple of decades older. But, it seams like forever.
Marilin Monroe bleached her full bush to be proper blond all over.
You’ve made a major point in “women have yet another reason to feel shame about their bodies”.
I agree with XuXu – the picture of Crystal on her knees is creepy, full frontal – not creepy or disgusting at all. Shave or don’t, whatever – I don’t get the obsession and disgust with body hair, I personally never would shave (I was shaved in a hospital, as a part of the procedure, with a blunt razor, a humiliating experience and I still get angry when I think about it – the itching later when the hair started to grow back drove me crazy) and did not yet encounter a man who would find it “disgusting” – au contraire. Just want to point out that there were quite a few snarky comments about Mo’nique’s hairly legs some time ago – again, I don’t understand why it’s news. Maybe things in Europe changed now, but 20 years ago, when I left for Canada, nobody shaved, and just as well. Is it cleaner? Ha ha, really, you would think that there are birds, bugs and creepy-crawlies nesting in an un-shaved bush!
I love a bush, a jungle, a rain forest! I want to run barefoot through it like summer grass.. I want to knit a hat of it and wear it on my head! I had a girlfriend who had so much pubic hair she look like she was giving birth to Jimi Hendrix… Furry Lady!
Seriously, almost any comment by a man will seem misplaced and unwanted, But an anecdote from my own wretched life: In 1973 I met my brother-in-law-to-be here in Copenhagen and his girlfriend. She asked me why I had decided to settle down in Denmark. And in a clumsy attempt to be charming, I said because of the Danish women. “What’s so special about Danish women?” she asked. “Well..” I stammered. “They seem more natural.. they don’t shave under their arms.”
“I shave under my arms, ” she told me coldly. Ach.. A man can’t win.
Thank you sister, this thread has made me chuckle, bringing back hitherto suppressed memories of a phase in our collective awkward youths when it was all the rage between me and my university mates to play strip poker after a night in the union bar. The boys (OK I suppose they were men, but they seem v young to me now) would then decide on a ‘bush year’ for each girl based on length and grooming of pubic hair – 1964 would denote full and lustrous, 1982 would be trimmed and waxed at the sides etc. There was an unspoken judgment that you didn’t want a pre-1975ish bush. This took place in 1994 in the UK. Happy days! Touch misogynistic maybe, but happy.
I still wax mine because I’m a neat freak and I don’t like it to stick out the side of my knickers, but I’d never go bald. Five o’clock shadow!
^ muahahahah, dexter, you made my day!
seriously, i don’t get these outcries over something as natural as a bush. so, beautiful crystal renn hasn’t brazilianized her cupcake. does that make her the anti-christ? all the ny-mag commenters who thing pubic hair is gross or dirty need their heads examined.
sometimes i go bald, sometimes i trim, sometimes i leave the pubes au naturel. no one has ever complained. i def. won’t let other people’s being uncomfortable with their own bodies decide what i do about my private parts, thank you very much.
THANK YOU. I know that I’m living against the current – pretty much doing, dressing, reading, acting as I please, and I’m 40 (I understand that the plucked chicken thing is especially prevalent with the younger set) but – come on people. It’s freaking body hair, not a Sign of the Devil. Having it is normal!
Thank you also for finding the “eeew, I’m cleaner than you” mindset annoying. I’ve heard or read of a number of younger women who see this as a “cleanliness” issue or “I’m not puritanical, I’m just tidy.” Well, I am also tidy, courtesy of 1-2 showers per day (depending on exercise schedule).
Back to drinking tea in my pantsuit with my comfortable shoes. Misogyny be damned!
This is actually such a difficult area for me…I am really all for letting women do whatever they want, and I really do applaud those who completely stay au nautrel (pubic area, legs, underarms), but I personally inwardly shiver when I first see it. I’m obsessed with shaving my legs and underarms.
However, after looking at it for a while….those feelings subside. I hate that those initial feelings are most likely there because of my fellow gen-y’ers who think that natural body hair is unnatural and nasty. The Renn picture…..she’s a bit full for MY taste, but I agree with the posters up above, I was WAY more weirded out by the picture of her in the dress, panties at her ankles, ready for some doggy-style lovin’.
I usually don’t understand gratuitous nudity in a fashion photo shoot, but she looks beautiful in the red jacket and purple suit pictures, IMO. I’m sure that my fiance would say “She’s hot!” not “Ew, look at that bush!” Thank God for that.
What ever happened to the 70’s aesthetic of the fur bikini bottom?
personally, though, I’d rather have pubic hair and not fall in the category of “neat” than to have to wax or shave down there and be constantly scratching my crotch when it grows back in.
Seriously? How classless is it to watch a woman sit there and scratch their crotch?
bush is back! (or so my husband says)
wow. this is a subject i fee strongly on. But y’all said it all already.
glad to hear i am not the only bush woman.
I really don’t give a shit what a woman does with her bush, as long as it’s what she wants to do with it and not some socially dictated idea of what sexy is supposed to be based on the tastes of a bunch of weirdo perverts who only like women to not look like real live women.
Hooray for hair! Hooray for flat jiggly bottoms! Hooray for nipples that don’t point to the sky! Hooray for literacy!
Personally, I think it’s nasty, but I’m a heterosexual woman, so other women’s vaginas are sort of off my radar.
I don’t know why not maintaining your nether-regions makes people feel so political, like you’re on the front lines of dissent because you have a hairy twat.
Also, women who shave are not ‘terrified’ of pubic hair and their partners are not child molesters in training. It’s a personal preference, just like letting your lady garden grow out of control because you think that makes you a strong woman.
I agree with you for the most part, Mutterhals, however I know a lot of women who shave their pubic hair because they think that hair is gross. That they aren’t attractive if they have it. Or that they will be ridiculed for having it. Shit, when I was in HIGH SCHOOL I was made fun of for having a hairy, erm, lady garden. Here in Southern California, porn star chic and playboy bunnies rule. And you won’t find a single pubic hair among them.
Lady garden. I like that.
Bufff…. I trimm in summer and forget about it in winter… who the fuck cares of how it looks like? Men? come on… as soon as the legs r open they forget even their names. As if they would complain too much.
Maybe I´m wrong, but Brazilian style does not mean bald, means line on hair in the middle. At least here. Anyway, shaving or not should be a personal option not open to discuss from some so-called “fashionist” idiots that have nothing better to do than to criticize a woman because of her body hair preferences.
It doesn’t bother me either way – to bush or not to bush is entirely personal. I myself get a Brazilian and I don’t even have a partner to see it, I just prefer not having pesky hair poking out the sides of my lovely lingerie.
But I don’t find her hair offensive at all. Good on her I say!
Yeah, I’ve always though it was kind of sick that men could be attracted to a crotch that looks like it belongs on a ten-year-old. And while I can see the appeal of waxing (being able to see what all’s down there, not having to worry about hairs peeking out of the bathing suit), I think it should be each woman’s choice and not some sort of societal requirement for attractiveness.
It used to be that I only worried that I was too fat to be attractive, or that my boobs were unfashionably large, or that I didn’t have a sexy face, or that my hair wasn’t a very exciting color. Now I have to worry that some man is going to run screaming from the room when he sees me naked because I don’t have the time, money, or pain tolerance to get a Brazilian two or three times a month? That’s ridiculous.
My rule is that I’ll wax if I want, and I won’t if I don’t. But if I ever run up against a guy who demands waxing…well, I will if he will. No double standards.
Oh, and BAHAHAHAHA! I just scrolled up and read dexter vandango’s comment. Unfortunately, this resulted in me bursting into red-faced laughter in the middle of the office, and all my coworkers coming over to see what I was reading that was so funny.
I do not think men who like hair free pum pum are child molesters in the making, I just do not want mine to look like a child’s, a plucked chicken or Clint Eastwood’s chin
I cannot imagine having a conversation with my 10 year old daughter about why I am in the bathroom shaving away, especially as she is just starting to grow.
I do not want to be the one who sows the seed in her head that she needs to shave
Hairless pum pum is a straight down reference to porn stars mainly, not peado pete, and I personally cannot be bothered with the upkeep or psychological connotations of a shaved lady garden.
It is not a political choice, more common sense and lack of brainwashing
It does not grow out of control, like some pussy yeti, I mean who has enough hair for that to happen anyway?
If you get a pube moustache on either side of your knickers, trim them ino submission before you go swimming or on a date, otherwise, who cares?
There are no psychological connotations to shaving. It feels better when you have sex and in my opinion it looks a hell of a lot better. That’s it. It’s more comfortable and hey, I like how my lady parts look and I don’t want them hiding under mounds of hair. But apparently I’ve been brainwashed by the dreaded patriarchy, dun dun dun. And generally I don’t let ten year olds in the bathroom while I’m doing anything, so that doesn’t pose much of a problem to me.
This takes me back to when those Early Madonna nudes were published (and then republished IIRC); the outcry over her non-(heavily, anyway) shaved appearance included lots of words like “revolting.” Sad.
I hope the pendulum is swinging back — it’d be nice to have LESS upkeep be in fashion for another brief shining moment. All the fashion mags would have to dig up archival stories about ways to increase nether-region growth, how pubic hair carries pheromones, why a little mystery is erotic….Good times!
[And while I agree body shame sucks, it amuses me to think of all the naturally and artificially scant running out to buy merkins lest they be considered “inferior.”]
So, say you ever have children, maybe you have some now, I find it hard to believe that you would never let them in the bathroom whilst you are in there, it is just not possible.
Especially with girls, a bathroom with no lock and a open healthy relationship
I have been in the parenting game for a while now, privacy is a thing of the past
You think it looks better, that is your truth, I am not disputing that, obviously the millions of women who shave think it looks better.
I do not, I think it looks odd and puckered
Of course it has psychological connotations, how could it not?
You like the way it looks and feels, but when did that occur to you?
did you shave them off as soon as you grew them?
What triggered you to shave?
How did you know sex would feel better with them gone?
Who told you?
Psychologically, you feel better with no hair, I am the opposite.
No, physically I feel better with no hair on my crotch. Psychologically, I think it’s silly that something as inconsequential pubic hair is elevated to such a level that women like you can smugly assert your dominance over women like me because I don’t share your opinion.
I do have a step daughter and we taught her better than to bust in on people while they’re in the bathroom. But lets say she comes to me and asks about shaving. I would tell her to do whatever she damn well pleased, regardless of what I did. I would tell her that it doesn’t matter either way, that it’s a personal preference, and to not let anyone make her feel bad about her choice, which is what you are attempting to do to me.
I hate what porn has done to society.
I like to think of myself as a pretty cool chick… I don’t like to make a big fuss about gross things that dudes are into. I used to watch porn with boyfriends to impress them and shit but I really hate it and am OK with that. Maybe that makes me a prude but I really think that porn, and the idea of porn is so fucking gross. I hate that women get these ridiculous boob jobs and vagina reconstruction and wax and dye and blah blah blah.
Bring back the bush!
I am not trying to make you feel bad about your choice, you think it is nasty to have hair, I do not.
I have no desire to be dominant over you, nor do I think I am better than you, I just like debating with you
a) because we are so different
b) it’s fun
c) it is more entertaining than work
Calling me smug is rich when you come back with your amazing parenting skills remark.
I am not sure if you are missing the point of what I said before on purpose, I think you are, because you are clever enough to know what I meant, my children are allowed into my private life because they need guidance on what happens to girls as they change into women, for the transition into world of women that most men could not explain to their daughters
If my daughter decided to shave, I would be dissapointed, but I would not try and force her to change, I would enquire into where she got the idea to do it and why
The shaving act itself may be inconsequential to you but the reasons it is done are not. My opinion, like an asshole, everybody has one
PS are you still angry beacuse I called you a moron? That was mean of me, what I meant to say was moronic statements.
I think Gnarlitude is a moron though.
For the record, I do not think you are a moron
No, I’m always angry.
Judging from these comments bushes haven’t gone anywhere. I think we are under the impression that they have because of the media. The media is full of lies and garbage made to make us feel inferior in hopes we will conform.
Anyway, when I was little I showered with my mom and asked why she had a beard. She told that story for years and years later.
I have had none and didn’t mind the feeling but hated looking at it. It was like cutting my hair short and wanting it to grow back. My boyfriend at the time had sexual hang ups and thought I should shave. This didn’t solve his issues. He also had a massive amount of pubic hair so basically he was being an asshole.
I say be happy with whatever goes on down there between your legs. However to look at a woman’s natural state and say “eww” indicates a problem with reality.
Also when I was a little kid, pubic hair was everywhere in porn. That was when porn was good.
I can get with porn, in fact, I get with it many times a week, but then again the porn I’m watching doesn’t have: fake boobs, bare vaginas, or blonde hair. But that’s another story for another day.
I’m beyond done with our society’s perception of what a vagina is supposed to look like. Infantilizing women is not my cup of tea, and I’m concerned that there isn’t a popular discourse on how a bare vagina mimics a child’s. Seriously, that’s a problem. Pubic hair is fun and sexy, and the women who think they’re in a Sex and the City episode need to stop busing their anti-hair agenda on me.
Lastly, if you can’t find a guy who loves himself a bush, keep walking. You need a guy who will braid that shit!
“The hair is a sign of adulthood — it’s what separates a woman’s body from a child’s.” — Thank you!
Shoe Girl- There is a whole world of Big Bush porn out there waiting for you…
I say waxing is bullshit! You have to wait three weeks for the hair to grow and who has that kind of time?
Laser hair removal is the answer- save up a year’s worth of waxing appointments for 4-5 treatments.
Just because you shave your “privates” does not mean you are bowing to male oppression, maybe you just want to do it for yourself.
I have waxed down there before and I watch porn on occassion. I have conflicts with both but these are choices people make. I don’t understand why this topic is being exhausted, not here but on the Cut blog and other sources, shouldn’t we be talking about plus size models as a gimmick instead. Or perhaps why another woman thinks it is fair to decide how another woman “grooms” her body. such a waste or words…..
I remember that somewhere Henry Miller was waxing (ha ha) rhapsodic about someone’s bush and called it her “sporran” — that always cracked me up. I can just see little tassels and things amidst the fur.
I grew up in the era (and in the south, too, to complicate things) when only strippers, hookers, etc., shaved the crotch, so the snatched-clean snatch looks alien and unformed and slightly strange-life-formy to me, Plus, I had to have some rather alarming and complicated abdominal surgery a few years ago and had to undergo the forced shave while I was partially sedated, and with a whole damn ROOM full of people looking on – and don’t tell me that shit about how they don’t look,they’re too busy to look and they’ve seen ’em all anyway – they do TOO look. (People always compare their stuff to your stuff when they get a chance.) Anyway, it turned me against the idea. I embrace all my hairs with great fervor. And anyhow, they’ll all be gray any day now.
In the meantime, we did some counting with girls here and realized that we know more man that religiously shave their balls (even if sexless for a longer time)(don’t ask how/why do we know this) than women who shave.
One girl here was brave enough to admit that once her pubic hair grew so long that she had split-hair-ends.