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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
I have to say I love the print ad - because I have 2 hairless cats. Admittedly, not as freaky as the ones in the ad.
Sphnyx Pride!
Yet more tenchant social analysis from RT.
Of course it didn't occur to you to mention that the stuff actually works, did it? And oh my god, it's such a SHOCK that a company might try to revitilize its sales by a silly gimmick that makes fun of an idiotic trend in personal hygiene.
That's what I love about the staff at Broadsheet - no sense of humor. (Except when it comes to people they don't like.)
Some people like grooming their pubes, some people don't. Some people think it would be neat to have heart-shaped pubes, some people think that's stupid. It's not a porn-fueled conspiracy, it's just additional choices for your grooming leisure. Maybe porn started it, to get a better view of the action, just as porn has fueled many innovations in cinematography and technology. But the thing is, we don't even need pubes anymore - we wear underwear. I don't hear anyone lamenting that men who shave their faces look just like little boys. Was face-shaving some pedophilic Roman conspiracy? Or did it have something with, oh, maybe cleanliness around the mouth? Every now and then I please my man by growing out my thatch; he loves hair, even though he watches a ton o'porn. I shave for hygenic reasons, and because without a thick layer of hair between my labia and the "action," ... *hey I can feel more down there!* :-o I keep mine in basically a 5-o'clock shadow, because shaving to the skin gives me razor burn. Even if I did shave to the skin, my vagina looks nothing like a little girl's. A man can wear his beard any damn way he likes, and nobody says he's a victim of the patriarchy. It's all a matter of personal preference, there are a variety of reasons to shave or not to shave, and it is nobody else's business or place to judge anyone for shaving or not shaving. You know what I think is ridiculous? Women shaving their entire god damn legs. That's half your body, ladies. That's ridiculous. Your legs don't even sweat or emit bacteria like your underarms or vaginal area, so what is the point? So you'll look like a little girl? lol
Of course, if men started shaving hearts and lightning bolts into their beards, I would expect to see an article or two making fun of them. Personally, I'm going to have to hold out for the dollar-sign pattern, Nads! Or maybe a skull..
Isn't it possible that Brazil is the culprit? Or maybe the depilatory industry? You can go down on a hairy one, or you can go down on a clean one, but we all know in which case you're gonna wanna floss.
... but I think I am as disappointed that there is this product as I am that the shapes they offer are so uninspired.
Are you against having the hair on your head trimmed? I'm not sure I understand how shaping, shaving, trimming or sculpting pubic hair is any different than exploring an identity through a hair style choice: something tells me that the most strident voices here against this practice, particularly those who are affraid for their daughters body image is at stake, would feel discomfort at their daughter's decision to color her hair, get it trimmed, shaved or sculpted - as long as it was her choice. This is indignation for the sake of it - badly thought through, and more akin to a puritan's disdain for his neighbor's pleasure (while s/he, of course, has none): if you want your pubic hair to grow long and thick - let it grow, but leave others the choice to do as they seem fit.
should read:
something tells me that the most strident voices here against this practice, particularly those who are affraid their daughter's body image is at stake, would feel no discomfort at their daughter's decision...
Oddly enough, I am most disturbed by how fake the cats and their hairy designs look. I can't get those green eyes out of my mind!
but nobody that I know of yanks it out with wax.
(that said, I like the heart one.)
You know, in some languages head hair and body hair ae two different words and this sort of thing is avoided.
I'm still recovering from wandering around a CVS the other day and discovering (insert 'don't get out much' joke of choice here) that there are apparently people in our society who can not be seen in piblic without fake press-on toenails.
Toenails?
As for the 'heart shaped' thing. I may have been a trifle put off at the time but I distinctly remember my Swiss (hair dresser - totally straight) 'other' at the time talking about trimming pubic hair into hearts being a fad in Chicago - this was 1974.
"It's taking another entirely normal female characteristic and turning it into a kind of defect that must be "managed", at great cost and time and inconvenience."
I am "against it" too and exactly, because of our daughters. God Bless America and the freedom to self-decorate, it's all jake with me. Except it's not. Consider "exposing your child to music" (symphonies, world, rock, rap, folk, soul, jazz, country, gospel, Gregorian chant, you name it...plus, if you can afford it--lessons). Then your child grows up and chooses your least favorite of all of these. You might not be happy (only wind-up parents are delighted with everything), but you would know you'd given your child a true sense of the richness and variety that's out there.
What bothers me about trends such as shaved vulvas, which seem to me to be derived from Hollywood and porn-ified images of women rather than an earthier sexuality, is that they're beginning to be as ubiquitous as 11 year-olds giving blowjobs to fit in at junior high. I believe the sheer weight of expectations hypnotizes ever-younger females into self-loathing, often so deeply internalized that it can feel like bliss. I "voluntarily" shave my legs and armpits, because I need to earn a living and don't have the moxie right now to fight off the hostility. So I conform, but I carry the worm of resentment. Seeing a 4-year-old anorexic who can't talk about anything except "I won't eat that, it'll make me fat" chilled me to my bones.
Hope it's acceptable to open up the topic. To me, it's all the same. There are two requirements-for-"acceptable/attractive" female appearance about which I've stopped compromising: because of a painful disk I wear only the most comfortable, flat, cushioned, foot-friendly shoes. So at business meetings I'll be suited like everyone else, but it stops at the ankles.
And, free at last, my hair, which has been white since my early 30s. (And for years dyed blonde, red, brown, and a color that does not appear in nature.) Every 3-4 weeks, a miserable task that stank, made my arms ache, and cost a lot. The penny dropped when I began to realize that when I'd look in the mirror and see the widening white roots I'd have a fear reaction. God! I have to cover this up. Quick! I would time social events around having freshly-colored hair, so the illusion would be preserved for one more month, if no one looked closely.
For my 55th birthday my Gift to Self was giving that up. It's now half grown out so it's obvious I've made a choice. For the first few months I'd get anxious or disapproving glances from other women carrying the subtext: "Aren't you neglecting yourself?" or even disapproval, as though my expanding white hair was an offense to hygiene. In that period, I found myself drabbing out to men, becoming less visible, looked at and smiled at less often.
In this stage, the white's won and it's cut attractively. A simple $11 trim once a month that takes 30 minutes. It's a pure blast of white and it shines. I find I'm getting looked at again. Some people look startled and some approving.
Here's an irony: I wear more makeup than I used to, because I have a young-ish face. And I am getting noticed because my hair's a surprise. So am I free of all this stuff? No.
I still wish we could think about the messages we (we, the culture, we the consumers, we the entertained, we the media) are giving children. I think they're folding under the weight...and we could help them instead, by getting them engaged in much, much larger stories. It's "creative" to think of something different to carve into your pubic hair?
...I guess.
I'd rather teach a child to carve a sculpture than starve herself or shave or dye or pluck or wax or tan or spray or spackle or highlight or pay a surgeon to break her nose or cut open her chest and stick bags of water under her breasts or dye her gray hair in shame when that day comes.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
