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	Star Power Discuss the people who make what we watch.	59

Pubic Hair
	Topic by: kaream Posted: January 27, 2008 - 3:25 AM PST Last Reply: April 8, 2010 - 8:18 AM PDT

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author	topic: Pubic Hair
kaream	post #1  on January 27, 2008 - 3:25 AM PST   I wonder if anyone has any insights into the evolution of fashion in the retaining or removing of pubic hair over the past 35 or so years. I haven't gone back to check, but it seems to me that all of the old Mitchell Brothers / John Holmes /Harry Reems / etc films all sported a full natural bush, whereas today it's very rare to find women, at least, and many men as well, who are not entirely bare. (It boggles my mind that many seem to shave rather than waxing, which makes me cring at the thought of all the itching that must involve.) Or some of the women will leave a fanciful little closely-trimmed patch just in the vicinity of the pubic bone. A couple of years ago a young employee -- late teens -- and I were sorting through a large stack of donated very old Playboys, and I remarked on the profusion of hair back in those days. The young man said, yes, that he thought it was disgusting; that he always makes (his word) all of his girlfriends shave. And I'm told by others of a younger generation than myself that the practice is quite widespread even among housewives and other women who are now approaching middle age. Most foreign, and some American, mainstream films, still generally seem to have actresses retaining at least most of their natural hair, though usually now it tends to be removed along the sides for bikinis or thongs. I'm really just curious about this phenomenon, and what it says about the vagaries of fashion, and the expectations of sexual partners. Does it seem to have been a very gradual transition, starting with side trimming for more revealing wear in public, or was there some point at which a 'meme' of hairlessness swept through both movies and audiences?
hamano	post #2  on January 27, 2008 - 9:27 PM PST   I would say that on one hand there's a cycle of fashion (natural -> styled -> natural -> styled) and on the other hand there's an internationalization of aesthetic standards (Asian/Middle Eastern preference for less body hair). There may also be a post-feminist political angle, where women are abandoning what is convenient (hairiness) to try to please men (hairlessness). IMHO stubble is painful, so I tend to prefer "natural".... I guess that depends on whether you're doing more looking or more doing. Now can we move on to a discussion of dental floss, or maybe cotton candy?
kaream	post #3  on January 28, 2008 - 2:52 AM PST   > On January 27, 2008 - 9:27 PM PST hamano wrote: > --------------------------------- > Now can we move on to a discussion of dental floss, or maybe cotton candy? > --------------------------------- Cotton candy, okay; but we do *not* want to discuss dental floss in this thread. Too icky to contemplate.
Chyekk	post #4  on January 28, 2008 - 1:19 PM PST   > On January 28, 2008 - 2:52 AM PST kaream wrote: > --------------------------------- > > On January 27, 2008 - 9:27 PM PST hamano wrote: > > --------------------------------- > > Now can we move on to a discussion of dental floss, or maybe cotton candy? > > --------------------------------- > > > Cotton candy, okay; but we do *not* want to discuss dental floss in this thread. Too icky to contemplate. > --------------------------------- Cotton candy in the place of pubic hair? How is that less icky than dental floss?
kaream	post #5  on January 28, 2008 - 3:32 PM PST   Well, there's just something about getting it stuck between your teeth. :-(
hamano	post #6  on January 28, 2008 - 4:40 PM PST   Getting what stuck between your teeth? I'm not getting it...
kaream	post #7  on January 28, 2008 - 5:07 PM PST   You mean you really just mentioned 'dental floss, or maybe cotton candy' totally at random, without even thinking of their pretty obvious metaphorical significance in the context of pubic hair?? Wow. Freud indeed.
underdog	post #8  on January 28, 2008 - 5:14 PM PST   > On January 28, 2008 - 4:40 PM PST hamano wrote: > --------------------------------- > Getting what stuck between your teeth? I'm not getting it... > --------------------------------- Or, wait, do you mean these kind of Teeth?
kaream	post #9  on January 28, 2008 - 6:16 PM PST   > On January 28, 2008 - 5:14 PM PST underdog wrote: > --------------------------------- > > On January 28, 2008 - 4:40 PM PST hamano wrote: > > --------------------------------- > > Getting what stuck between your teeth? I'm not getting it... > > --------------------------------- > > Or, wait, do you mean these kind of Teeth? > > --------------------------------- Thanks for that heads-up, Underdog -- I suppose this will be on GC's acquisition list when it comes out? My OP was *supposed* to be a serious question, but this is getting to be a pretty funny thread. Next serious question: I've never watched any hentai -- not really my thing, but maybe I should try it -- so how is pubic hair handled in these? (Oops -- maybe 'handled' wasn't the right word.)
Vanamonde	post #10  on January 29, 2008 - 5:50 AM PST   I believe the War on Public began about the time that it become more accepted to talk about oral sex and leave the lights on during sex. The personal camcorder probably added pressure. And the sex industry had models shave and the fashion caught on. "Moss don't grow on a race track" - I read that once in an ole Hustler or Penthouse, probably from the 70's. i must admit. I do love the look of a well shaved vulva. But having experienced the shave and then the stubble from a vasectomy, I don't care for the maintenance pain involved, myself. But generally, girls, I eventually get to where I just share deep into your eyes as my diluated eyes are like deep pools of black as we conceived the heavens. Was it good for you, too?
hamano	post #11  on January 30, 2008 - 7:33 AM PST   Did you notice that I at least attempt to address these questions seriously? I hope you appreciate that. The advantage of anime is that pubic hair can be drawn or not, depending on personal taste. Usually, it's just ignored, making things easy on the artist. Sometimes it is added to various degrees of verisimilitude. Sometimes they match the hair colors of the characters they're drawn on (pink, blue, whatever). The presence or absence of pubic hair seems to affect the quality of a hentai anime very little. Personally I wish that hentai artists utilized their imaginations more in presenting situations that could only be achieved in anime... artists hardly ever go beyond depicting girls getting ravished by various creatures with tentacles (mollusks, aliens, demons, etc.), and providing women with gravity-defying breasts of enormous size. Aubrey Beardsley showed much more imaginative verve and artistic spunk more than a hundred years ago. Most hentai is just childish schoolboy fantasy in comparison. If there are any titles with characters doin' it with elephants, unicorns or invisible men, please let me know.
Vanamonde	post #12  on January 30, 2008 - 8:03 AM PST   > On January 30, 2008 - 7:33 AM PST hamano wrote: > --------------------------------- > Did you notice that I at least attempt to address these questions seriously? I hope you appreciate that. > Thank you, hamano. I semi-recall at one time, the depiction of public hair, even in animation, was illegal in Japan. Do you or perhaps another knowledge otaku recall when this barrier was broken and by which anime? I love that line from the first Star Trek where the alien hottie tells the Captain, "I would never take advantage of such a sexually immature species". She meant us.
Vanamonde	post #13  on January 30, 2008 - 8:22 AM PST   Oh, btw, I do like the naughty with tentacles, especially in those rare times where the receiver of this gift is not only consenting but very apprepriative. I heard that it begin as a way to get around the legal prohibition of depicting the male organ and then became a fetish of it's own. The gynormous breasts are depressing. First of all any breast that meets or exceeds the size of the owner's head is just not my thang. And I often think of the plight of Amer-Asian women, the offspring of U.S. soldiers who fathered them and left them behind to suffer the prejudge of the community where they were all expect to be sluts and often became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
kaream	post #14  on January 30, 2008 - 11:30 AM PST   > On January 30, 2008 - 7:33 AM PST hamano wrote: > --------------------------------- > Did you notice that I at least attempt to address these questions seriously? I hope you appreciate that. > > The advantage of anime is that pubic hair can be drawn or not, depending on personal taste. Usually, it's just ignored, making things easy on the artist. Sometimes it is added to various degrees of verisimilitude. Sometimes they match the hair colors of the characters they're drawn on (pink, blue, whatever). > > The presence or absence of pubic hair seems to affect the quality of a hentai anime very little. Personally I wish that hentai artists utilized their imaginations more in presenting situations that could only be achieved in anime... artists hardly ever go beyond depicting girls getting ravished by various creatures with tentacles (mollusks, aliens, demons, etc.), and providing women with gravity-defying breasts of enormous size. Aubrey Beardsley showed much more imaginative verve and artistic spunk more than a hundred years ago. Most hentai is just childish schoolboy fantasy in comparison. > > If there are any titles with characters doin' it with elephants, unicorns or invisible men, please let me know. > --------------------------------- Yes, I did notice -- thank you. So out of curiosity I've queued up Mezzo Forte, Bible Black, BB:Revelations, and Marin A-Go-Go, just to see what this stuff is; I didn't want to get involved in any long series, and these seemed to have better than average reviews. Is this a fair list?
NLee	post #15  on January 30, 2008 - 12:39 PM PST   > On January 30, 2008 - 11:30 AM PST kaream wrote: > --------------------------------- > So out of curiosity I've queued up Mezzo Forte, Bible Black, BB:Revelations, and Marin A-Go-Go, just to see what this stuff is; I didn't want to get involved in any long series, and these seemed to have better than average reviews. Is this a fair list? > --------------------------------- Great choices. You avoided all the crappy titles than make up 90% of the hentai market. If you are interested for more, check out my "Seal of Approval for quality hentai" list (from my profile page). BTW, I also have a "Stinky list of Crappy hentai" - just in case that's your cup of tea.
hamano	post #16  on January 30, 2008 - 4:26 PM PST   I'd add Kite to your list, either the "UNCUT" edition or the "Director's Cut" edition. Twin Angels was a pretty good hentai spoof of the magic girls genre, if you enjoyed mainstream titles like Sailor Moon or Devil Hunter Yohko.
kaream	post #17  on January 31, 2008 - 1:04 AM PST   BTW, a great photo of a contemporary merkin here. Fashion comes and goes.
kaream	post #18  on January 31, 2008 - 2:11 AM PST   And, of course, shunga (be sure to turn off Safe Search), discussed here; and a more general discussion of Japanese pornography, or specifically hentai. Note tentacle rape depicted at least as early as 1820.
hamano	post #19  on January 31, 2008 - 10:05 AM PST   > On January 31, 2008 - 2:11 AM PST kaream wrote: > --------------------------------- > Note tentacle rape depicted at least as early as 1820. Now now... it's not "rape" if it's consensual. Besides this is a "dream".... and who knows, maybe this is a case of Octoploitation.
kaream	post #20  on January 31, 2008 - 1:07 PM PST   > On January 31, 2008 - 10:05 AM PST hamano wrote: > --------------------------------- > > On January 31, 2008 - 2:11 AM PST kaream wrote: > > --------------------------------- > > Note tentacle rape depicted at least as early as 1820. > > Now now... it's not "rape" if it's consensual. Besides this is a "dream" > --------------------------------- Hmm.. I know next to nothing about Japanese mores, either present or past, but in much of the world the concept of rape as involving consent or not is a relatively modern construct; in the not too distant past rape tended to be defined by its illegitimacy in terms of the woman's husband, father, or other family males. In Rashomon the essential crime is committed against the young husband rather than his ravished bride; in Dodes'ka-den the rapist tries to assure the awakened woman that 'It's normal'. What's really depicted here in The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife is a male fantasy of a supposed female fantasy (dream). It's interesting too that the larger beast is actually engaged in cunnilingus with its 'mouth' rather than full insertion with a tentacle (although one is groping), while the smaller is 'kissing' the woman's mouth while caressing her nipple. One thing this shows us is that the tentacled beast as ravisher is not at all a modern invention in Japanese art and thought, as represented in recent hentai. I strongly doubt that Hokusai made up this image out of thin air without there having already been some mythological basis going back to at least the early Edo period if not far longer. I don't suppose anyone is able to decipher the lengthy text in script? It would be fascinating to know what it says.

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