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.

You know, in some languages head hair and body hair ae two different words and this sort of thing is avoided.

but nobody that I know of yanks it out with wax.

(that said, I like the heart one.)

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!

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...

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.

... but I think I am as disappointed that there is this product as I am that the shapes they offer are so uninspired.

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.

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..

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.)

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!

Yeah, I do think it's stupid and I do think it's (yet another) example of the "pornification" of everything...the way images from pornography manage to get into the public consciousness so sneakily that we start seeing porn images (i.e., skinny women with huge breast implants, shaved pubic areas) as the "new normal". What is bad about this is that eventually it ends up affecting women, especially young women (i.e., your daughters)in how they feel about their own bodies.

I grew up (and so did my mom and grandmother, etc.) in a culture that insisted that adult women should not have ANY hair whatsoever on their legs, as if real adult women have naturally hairless legs, when in fact this is utterly untrue. Hairy legs are every bit as much a sign of female adulthood as public hair or underarm hair, etc. Yet I have entirely accepted this my whole life (while intellectually understanding how stupid it is), and find even the tiniest bit of leg hair to be gross and intolerable. This means that I have to spend a considerable amount of money and undergo pain and risk of bleeding when I slash at my legs every few days with a razor. I know it's stupid and yet I can't not do it, because I have been inculturated to find leg hair on women to be gross. (Ditto underarm hair.)

Isn't this bad enough? Do we want our daughters to feel this way about their public hair as well? What a terrible burden to have to have, to feel that public hair is the new "gross out", that it's somehow ugly or unfeminine (when in fact, it's the most feminine, adult, sexually mature indicator there is!). Worse than removing leg or underarm hair, because it's a more sensitive area, more painful, and not normally seen in public anyhow.

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. For that reason, I am against it.

Hopefully, it is just a fad. Hair, after all, always grows back.