“You have to love the hair in order to love the vagina,” Eve Ensler writes in The Vagina Monologues. “You can’t pick the parts you want.” But enough about love. We do pick the parts. We shape, shave, sugar, wax, laser the hair. We surgically slice and snip the labia. We tighten one hole, brighten the other.
Which is all to say: I’m researching an article about modern pubic hair norms and expectations, and I want to hear from you! I put together an anonymous poll that you can take here. If you’re willing to bare all — Brazilian waxes, shaving your butthole, the pube style you prefer on your partners — please consider contributing to the research. It would be a huge help. (While the piece will mainly focus on women and femmes and the people who sleep with them, anyone of any gender or sexual orientation is encouraged to take the survey.) Again, it’s anonymous. Answer freely, forward to a friend, etc. I’m hoping participation is as robust as the bush on Gustave Courbet’s L’Origine du monde model.
tell me why I was SO thrilled to fill out this poll…
I got VERY excited to answer that poll! And comment wheeee I have so many feelings about this!
I’m 45 and I think it has just gotten worse and worse for this (gestures vaguely around) - ‘image over EVERYTHING’ ie sensation, pleasure, intimacy, safety....
Oh consumerism and patriarchy.. Disguised as ‘no I LIKE this’ .. me too, when I have had a partner who wanted my hair a certain way.. I changed it.
I remember years ago finding the 60s copy of ‘the joy of sex’ in my parents bookshelf and marveling at the pics of pubic hair that it celebrated- on women! Celebrated!!!
I remember the first time I realized I am also supposed to hate my large labia. I didn’t know! Ohhh this voluntary snip and trim is for pleasure right?
With Love, large labia full bush ❤️