Pubes are everywhere. Nope, I’m not looking in Seth Rogan’s bath – I’m reading the papers. According to the Vagenda’s own pubes correspondent Emer’s ‘Hair, Not The Musical’ follow- up piece in The Guardian, bush pruning is a thing of the past. A campaign, fronted by Cameron Diaz of all people, is trying to convince women to grow their well-tended lawns into great, resplendent meadows. The kind through which strapping Austrian children might frolic. Even porn hipsters American Apparel are in on the act.
That’s all great, because women should never be expected to streamline their vaginas back to prepubescence. Since the fluffier days of the 70s bush, the porn industry has done to fannies what timber corporations are doing to the rainforest (sorry, this plant imagery is really hard to drop). And Cameron Diaz, imma let you finish, but have you ever gone down on another woman?
OK, don’t get me wrong, I love cunnilingus – both the giving and receiving thereof. But in order for it to be fun for both parties, some level of muff maintenance isn’t just preferable, it’s sometimes essential.
I’m a dark-haired Jewess. You know that opening scene in Carrie, where all the girls are hosing down their retro pudenda in the shower? If I wanted to, I could totally grow my bush out like that. In fact, it would save me the stultifying time and effort given over to my “Routine.” Rest assured, I don’t take it all off and I’m way too much of a pain wimp to wax, but I do preen. I don’t do so out of shame. Far from it. I do it out of respect and consideration for the women who are prepared to give me head. Let’s not kid ourselves. A mouthful of fur is a bummer.
Have you ever seen a heavily bearded man down a pint of milk? The dripping, matted mess of fuzz that’s left before he wipes his mouth – that’s not something you want to put your tongue anywhere near, right? And getting a pube stuck in your throat is exactly as disastrous as Larry David makes it out to be in that episode of Curb. Actually, that very thing happened to me the first time I ever went down on a girl and I thought it was the end of my career as a lesbian.
Being faced with a giant bush is a similar level of daunting to being shown a “doer-upper” by Kirstie and Phil.
“Oh, blimey,” you say, running your fingers through your hair and looking at a 70s, avocado coloured bathroom, with a rusty shopping trolley parked in the middle of it for some reason.
“I know what you’re thinking,” says Phil, “But trust me, this place has some real potential.”
Three months later, you’re curled in a foetal position, covered in paint, clutching a wallpaper stripper and praying for death.
Kirstie and Phil aside, a bit of pubic preening makes it a lot easier for a cunnilinguist to see what they’re doing – which ultimately means more pleasure for the receiver. If there’s a lot of panicked thrashing about down there, have you considered that he or she may be lost? It’s the difference between traversing a Brothers Grimm-style forest (sorry, did it again) and taking a gentle stroll through a National Trust maintained garden.
Granted, women should never be told what their fannies ought to look like. Anything from a trim to a Brazilian shouldn’t render your privates some kind of patriarchal sock puppet. The same applies to all body hair. If you want to shave the whole lot off, apart from a single armpit hair that you dye purple and name Sally – then, whatever, man. Trends are fickle. Today, Cameron Diaz is instructing us to have loads of pubes. Maybe next year, Taylor Swift will demand that we shave it all off and wear merkins made of.
All I can do is politely suggest that if you expect head, you should at least have some empathy for the giver.
- EM
I’m really glad you wrote this article! I wax downstairs, not because I feel the societal need, nor because my boyfriend expects a certain level of preening, but because he’s told me – in the gentlest and most apologetic of fashions – that he finds it considerably easier and more enjoyable going down on me when there’s less hair-based resistance. He’s got no problem with doing it when I haven’t prepared the way, but he’s also choked mid-sesh on a rogue hair which was not only painful for him but definitely spoilt the moment for me (which is obvs the worst bit). He couldn’t care less what it looks like but if it’ll make it better for him, it’ll make it better for me . . . so in my opinion, six weeks of pleasure is worth the 20 minutes of pain. (And I don’t rip everything off, far from it, just enough to allow him to see/feel what he’s doing. I’m not a child, I’m a woman, and I’m a woman who knows what she wants).
I can’t be arsed to shave/wax anything else in the winter though, so I will happily parade around with Sasquatch-style legs leading up to a neatly pruned fanny, which I think is perfect proof as to the reasoning behind my choices.
Word!
Righteous and hilarious!
He: You’re very dry tonight, Dear.
She: A bit higher, Darling, you’re licking the carpet.
As a dark haired Jewess of Iraqi origin and therefore prone to the hairy gene (and PCOS) on top of that, my body hair can spiral out of control. I reserve my right to wear a bush (plucked chicken is not attractive to me) but every couple of weeks I trim with a pair of long bladed nail scissors as a way of attempting to be groomed as this is the only area I am not insecure about having hair on. Legs and underarms are shown in public and are taken care of when needed. Face on a regular basis. Arms are left alone out of laziness. This I feel is the best way of compromise for me as I refuse to wax it and will never shave again after 1 disastrous time (infected follicle anybody?) I can’t stand why so many people think that there are only extremes, bare or forest and insist on one or the other. It annoys me to no end. Must pubic maintenance be so extreme?
Besides, Cameron Diaz used to boast of how she held her friend down and shaved her muff so it’s quite a quick turnaround for her. I wouldn’t pay attention to it
Yes, I saw that a year or two ago too, was quite surprised to hear that she changed her tune. Jumping on the bandwagon?
I had an argument with some idiot about it on IMDB. He attempted to justify his claims with ‘men make fun of women with hairy vaginas’ but I soon shot him down. He couldn’t even be bothered to come up with a good answer in the end and just decided on some sarcastic retort
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000139/board/thread/224067139?p=1
Just a quick editorial note: did you mean Seth Rogen, rather than Rogan?
Otherwise, agree with the article!
With a reference to a bearded man drinking milk, my boyfriends bearded, and although I don’t use ‘drinking milk’ as a euphemism for cunnilingus… it made me laugh.
Well I am feeling quite lucky right now. My boyfriend loves going down on me, and insists that I don’t trim my pubic hair. He says that for him it is part of what makes me a proper woman (this is the argument I have in my own head as well), and that it turns him on. Saying that, it doesn’t get crazy long anyway. I never choked anyone for sure.
I have no idea what wonderful combination of events made him the way he is, but I wouldn’t change him for the world. And I had ex’s who were ‘freaked out’ by that whole region, and yet somehow thought they still deserved a free ticket to blowjob town. It’s nice to move up in the world.