Originally published by Ladybud Magazine

Lately, I have been really interested in hearing about other people’s pubic hair. I found myself waxing while watching The L Word one night when I realized for the amount of lesbian sex the cast has, you rarely see any bush. The irony of watching a show revolving around vagina while I was trimming mine was not lost on me. We are obsessed with the hair. We believe we must obsess on it.

It has become something of a touchy subject in the context of feminism and sexual repression.

Girl?! What are you hiding in that big pink furry box?

So I have been asking everyone I see about it. I get the same answers from men– aside from maybe a little pubic hair caught in the back of the throat, they don’t really care about going down on a hairy vagina as long as it’s clean.

I guess in that sense the same could, and is, said about sucking dick. All anyone really cares about is if it is clean.

So shouldn’t the trimming of pubic hair really just be a personal preference thing? Unfortunately, it’s much more complicated than that.

Caitlin Moran writes extensively about her battles with pubic hair in How To Be A Woman. The crux of the discussion is that having a hairy pussy in a world of bald vaginas requires so much upkeep that whole schedules are planned around it.

On Monday if you discover you may be going to a party Friday night where you have the potential for sex, you definitely wax by Tuesday to factor in recovery time but make sure none of the hair has grown back. The timing, she argues, is a fine-tuned science that women with hair fall into (she also includes eyebrows and legs in this category as well).

Some women obsessively remove or bleach every hair not on their head with laser accuracy, they always have tweezers in their purse just in case they have a stray. Some women are actively angry (and for good reason) about the standard this has created, they leave all the hair in place because that is how they naturally are and they don’t allow themselves to be consumed with the superficial act of hair removal.

What is it about pubic hair that we are compelled to tie so much of our identity to it? People have strong opinions about the muff, although it is as natural underarm hair, the hair on your scalp and on your arms. Somehow, the wrapping of the big pink furry box has always been something of a controversy.

Vintage porn usually is rife with untrimmed vagina hair, and nobody seemed to mind. But these days, all you see is bald pussies, to the point where people tend to be completely disgusted by any hair whatsoever. You could argue that is thanks to porn. A compelling argument against a hairless existence is that women who wax away all the hair have the anatomy of a child.

Say that to a woman who waxes it all off and she will quickly correct you that she is, in fact, an adult who just likes to be “clean.” Ladies who don’t trim at all will also have a visceral reaction when their hygiene is called into question, because they are after, all, adults who are clean with their hair au natural.

Hair is not a matter of cleanliness, only cleanliness is. Hair grows there for protection, it’s evolutionary. However, if that is what you want to do, go for it. But if it makes you feel better to remove some or all of it, why not?

If this is really an issue of cleanliness, let’s just all agree to take showers and agree to disagree on the issue of hair maintenance, that’s just a personal preference.

But how can we make it easier for the hairless and hairy vaginas to coexist in the same paradigm of sexual freedom and good sex? Stop thinking too hard about it, just be happy you have one, cause they are pretty awesome.