Hair down there, or not, in stories

[SimonDoom]

Over the course of my story-writing, I've received comments from time to time, usually critical, about the female character being shaved or bare down there. I personally like writing stories like that because I think the act of shaving is kinky and sexy and fun to write about. Some readers evidently disagree -- "A real mom keeps her bush!", that sort of thing.

Has anyone else received reader comments on this issue re hair preferences?

I came of age when full bush was the norm, and in my personal life I've seen it every which way, and as far as I'm concerned, it's all good. But trimmed or shaved or waxed seems to be the norm in porn now, and my stories, to the extent they raise the issue at all, tend to reflect that.

I wonder if it's a generational thing, too. I imagine that for younger readers shaved or well-trimmed is the norm, but I don't know. I think there are older readers who pine for the bushier era.

Do your stories address the issue?

Is it a sexy/kinky thing for you?

How are the characters in your stories typically coiffed down there? Why?

What kind of reader reaction, if any, have you received?

Feel free to weigh in on the subject of male shaving, too.

 

[SyleusSnow]

I haven't had any readers comment one way or the other but I know there are strong opinions on the issue.

If I can, I leave it entirely to the reader's imagination. Let them imagine their own preferences. But lately I've noticed a little fur is coming back in mainstream porn videos, after completely bare being the norm for so long. So, I've taken to describing the area as "neatly trimmed" I have to.

 

[NotWise]

Often shaved, but sometimes trimmed, sometimes au naturel, all depending on the character and the story. I don't usually make a big deal out of it, and I don't remember that anyone's bothered to comment.

Any one of those can be exciting, depending on how you write it.

 

[MrPixel]

I haven't had any readers comment one way or the other but I know there are strong opinions on the issue. ...

Strong opinion here. My ladies are always shaved clean, and I make it a point to mention it. My catchphrase is "the fun bits don't need to hide in the shrubbery". It's part of my general motif that my female characters are generally playful, and shaved pubes are part of that play.

You gave me a plot bunny, tho' - complaining about stubble during cunnilingus. Just like in real life.



It suddenly dawns on me I've had this preference since learning that girls were something I wanted to be around. Way back in the last century.

 

[windar]

Typically I don't say. My regular co-author who is female often will mention a landing strip. For stories set in earlier times, whatever was the custom in that time and place (and yeah, that is often known through art and historical writings).

 

[gordo12]

I too grew up in the bush age. On a personal level, I prefer trimmed. Shaved is an acquired taste for me. Some I like, others not so much. It very much depends on how the vagina looks. I'll skip the details

My stories tend to have them trimmed and occasionally shaved. I can't think of any comments that mentioned the issue.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I haven't had any complaints, ditto in real life. I do have a character comment that anyone who gets as far as finding out what pubes you have would be churlish to complain. One character is a bit worried that she's been living on a campsite without the means to trim/shave, and is relieved when it's not an issue.

I tend to mention a neat triangle, dark landing strip, shaved area, unruly curls, a dark line - and for the men generally wiry curls, trimmed blond/dark curls, or sparse hair. I guess by age and personality, I think. I'm not such a fan of shaved pussy myself - it feels a bit flat and invariably scratchy in the mouth - but I wouldn't object if that's what I found!

 

[BiscuitHammer]

Always a fun question to tackle.

The status of depilation in my stories is dependent largely on the time period it's based in. The farther back in time my story happens, the more likely a woman is to be au natural, but of course there are exceptions. Women have denuded their bodies for various reasons throughout history. Slaves in Rome and the ancient world were often shaved bare to display their status.

I know men (and women) who like their women shaved, not because they're pedos, but it's clean and they don't like getting hair in their mouths when they go down. They'll get screamed at a lot anyway, but like I said, people can make this a touchy subject because they're uptightcontrol freaks.

I have a friend who's been shaved since she was a young teen in the early 80s, with her parent's permission. No, she wasn't a competitive swimmer. People STILL tell her she's got a sick fantasy about being a little girl. Astonishing vitriol.

Story characters, right.

Lots of my girls are shaved, many are trimmed. A few remain natural, but they tend to belong to early Gen X or earlier, Boomers or Greatest Gen. By that point, you're usually not wanting to think about their pubes anyway.

I know lots of shaved moms (and shaved them), even in their fifties. Endless commenters and reviewers are experts in what women want for their personal appearance, just like we have skillions of incest participants who can tell us what is and isn't proper in a cosanguinity story. Geniuses all.

I like to mix it up. For whatever reason, readers find it a personality trait they can hold on to with a character. Whatever hooks them, I guess.

 

[jehoram]

I've sometimes wondered if being shaved is considered an invitation to have somebody perform oral sex on them. So if you see a woman with shaved pubes, there's this undercurrent of "Will she allow me to eat her out?" or "Is that guy staring at my cunt because he wants to eat me out?" I think this is because some people have a definite preference for bald pubes when either giving or receiving oral.

When a guy shaves, there's this same thing going on, and you have the added advantage of your cock appearing to be bigger, which for some guys is important. It's a little dodgier with women, because there's far more variation on what constitutes a great-looking pussy... more inner labia showing, for example, could be a turn-on or a turn-off depending on the view.

Bushes, on the other hand, don't convey that "come and get me" message. Instead, they say, "This is what I am, live with it."

The female characters in my stories represent all ends of the spectrum, although the younger ones are more likely to be shaved. The men all fall into the "trimmed" category, which is my personal preference.

 

[HeyAll]

Sometimes I'll get comments on it.

For me, I like mixing it up. Sometimes there's hair, sometimes not. Keeps writing interesting. Just like sometimes the woman has flat breasts, sometimes large, sometimes medium.

 

[TadOverdon]

I don't always mention it. Hairless or close-cropped is apparently what most guys are looking for now, at least the guys whose tastes drive the porn business, so I usually default to that.

A lot of younger people seem to expect it. Check out the reviews for personal grooming products on Amazon.

 

[SimonDoom]

I've sometimes wondered if being shaved is considered an invitation to have somebody perform oral sex on them. .

My theory is that the trend toward shaved pubes has nothing to do with pedo fantasies and instead was spurred on by the porn industry and the emphasis on display and performance.

Shaving makes everything more visible. It's understandable that one would want to do that in porno videos. We have become a more exhibitionist and openly sexual culture and I think shaved pubes are part of that.

And, just based on my own personal experience, it does make going down more pleasurable. I've had female partners, as well, remark that some degree of male shaving makes things easier and more enjoyable for them.

There's been a general, and perhaps not entirely healthy, trend toward "idealization" of human bodies. Actors and celebrities are more buffed and leaner than they used to be. Women have shaved pubes, and men have shaved chests. I think it's part of the same phenomenon. People follow media trends and examples. That's probably part of it, too.

I have friends and acquaintances who have very negative feelings about shaved pubes because of the alleged pedo associations, but I don't agree that for most that's what's going on.

 

[TadOverdon]

Anybody who can look at Isiah Maxwell and think "pedo fantasy" is probably beyond the help of eyeglasses.

 

[stickygirl]

Any guy that got squicked out by hair or lack of it should get a well deserved kick in the bollocks. Some writers may have a kink for it and maybe their readers share their opinion, but why mention it at all and leave for the reader to decide? The exception could be a requirement for being shaved - maybe she is a stripper or has an ongoing problem with crabs? There should be more crabs in stories - there's sure to be a kink for that too.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Being a product of the Bob Guccione Penthouse generation, au naturel, neatly trimmed, is pretty much my default description of the female delta. But comments? None at all.

 

[SimonDoom]

A sample of comments from three different stories I wrote:

1.
"He SHAVED his mother's pussy. A shaved pussy is a turn off. So is a "landing strip. What is going to land on it? Mosquitoes? Flies?

WHAT HE HELL IS THIS DOING IN THE HAIRY PUSSY CATAGORY??????"


Keep in mind, the title of the story to which this comment was made is "Shaving My Mom." "Hairy Pussy" was a tag, not a category.


2.
"FANTASTIC up to where he shaved her pussy
Pussies NEED HAIR, just like a beautiful picture needs a frame to draw the eyes to the picture itself. For many other reasons, too:

The enhancing tresses assure me that I'm fucking a WOMAN, not what looks like a prepubescent teen.

If she is properly stimulated, her juices are absorbed and contained, giving the tongue the most flavor to savor.

I love to kiss, and lick down a treasure trail, lightly pulling her hairs with my lips, giving her more stimulation and anticipation as I near her treasure and the delicious juice awaiting MY enjoyment as I give her enjoyment.

Each woman has her own unique appearance which is created, primarily, by the color, density, and expanse of her curls, but a shaved cunt is just meh.

I've heard some guys say they don't like her hair in their mouth. A minor inconvenience, when weighed against the many pluses. Besides, regular brushing reduces the number of stray strands to a minimum."


I admire the commenter's ardor and expansiveness on the subject.

3.
"dumped
on the shave job. I hate hairless child pussys..."



Succinctly stated.

 

[electric1]

Girl fur is sexy, so if a woman's body is part of a story's erotic appeal, I want some fur. YMMV.

 

[Dingo_Triplesix]

I read some sociological remarks about the topic. They said that young people nowadays are more frightened by their own upcoming sexuality than their parents generation was. The stated reason was the generally increased overall insecurity of the world today, so you at least try to get those aspects under control which you can control. Body hair is an easy target.
So the desire to get rid of all the body hair basically is a try to stay young and to avoid all those confusing physical/sexual stuff (like hair, smell...). Of course this is supported by the industry, also the porn industry. In the longer run I also think there will be the usual fashion cycles.

Concerning LIT storys: I never had a comment about it. I think this only is likely when you make the sujet to one of the main topics in a story. I never wrote about the act of shaving. Maybe that´s why you got those comments, Simon.

My heroines wear all kinds of hair or not, depending on their age, social position and personal development. So it´s an attribute to their personality, similar to clothing or hairstyle etc.

 

[lovecraft68]

People got something to say about everything. They have their preference and try to push it at the authors.

Like Simon, I grew up at a time when bush was the norm, and also see that these days its either smooth, trimmed the 'landing strip' and I've seen it shaved into a cute heart shape.

Its one of those things that I try to mix in, but when dealing with younger women will have them waxed older woman with something down there.

I pay no mind to any comments that as I stated at the start are just personal preference. I'd like to think there's an actual story there and if that's all you got to say, well screw you then.

 

[Bramblethorn]

My characters are mostly unshaven, because that's what I'm mostly used to, but it's not something I mention much. Occasionally in an "I ran my fingers through her curls" sort of way, that's about it.

Even that, though, has gotten me an occasional "nice to see a female character with hair" comment.

 

[TadOverdon]

I read some sociological remarks about the topic. They said that young people nowadays are more frightened by their own upcoming sexuality than their parents generation was.

Yeah, that doesn't work. Although I'm not surprised that it satisfies some sociologists.

As another poster noted uptopic, mass media displaying closely trimmed or hairless pudendums as sexually attractive on adult women tracks at least back as far as Penthouse magazine in the U.S. and therefore to the 1970s when its influence was greatest. We're talking the famously sexually liberated and active Boomer bunch, here.

It has been encouraged and has gained wider acceptance ever since then. Again, as pointed out by another poster, the wide availability and competitive market for hardcore porn has likely contributed to this because the clear display of the genitals is simplified.

I mentioned personal grooming products on Amazon uptopic. Marketing for all kinds of razors, trimmers and associated salves has gone entirely mainstream in the last five or ten years, even more so than for feminine "personal massage" devices. If you look at the advertising presentation of this stuff, enhanced sexual attractive is one of the things they're selling, however obliquely. In no way does this represent hesitance about sexuality; it's just another expression of the hormonal predisposition toward sexual obsessiveness of the young.

Spend enough time around middle school kids in social gangs and the sociologists might revise their notions of how fearful they are of their "upcoming sexuality." Christ on a pogo stick.

 

[Rustyoznail]

I make the occasional comment if it's relevant to the story. One of my characters was a competitive swimmer, so she was shaved. An older male character commented on his much younger partner's lack of hair as it wasn't something he ever saw in real life.

My male characters are usually hairy, but for the record, a lady I do a bit of editing for prefers her partners to be clean shaven. She hates pubic hair tickling her nose...

 

[TadOverdon]

Yeah, lately if I mention a guy's grooming at all it's "clipped short," or something. And I only recall mentioning it in the context of a woman going down on a man.

 

[ElectricBlue]

As another poster noted uptopic, mass media displaying closely trimmed or hairless pudendums as sexually attractive on adult women tracks at least back as far as Penthouse magazine in the U.S. and therefore to the 1970s when its influence was greatest. We're talking the famously sexually liberated and active Boomer bunch, here.

For the record, the first Playboy Centrefold with a completely bare pudendum was September 2001. Later than you might think.

Penthouse celebrated hair all through the eighties, but I'd stopped buying by the time the first Penthouse bare belly came out, so I have no idea when that was. Very late nineties, as a guess.

 

[TadOverdon]

I don't think the spouse ever mentions Playboy at all. I'll ask about that. My first-hand recollections postdate the Golden Age of Porn by more than a few years.