Au Natural

[Vanillas]

Thanks to all who have commented on my original thread. A common theme seems to be that it is an individual's choice to make and I certainly can't argue with that. I'm wondering, too, if that choice might not be, to a considerable extent, generationally determined. I came of age in the 1960s when beards and long hair were a standard of male grooming. Even today I have a long, hoary beard. I shave it off periodically, usually after someone has, once again, mistaken me for a Civil War veteran. Invariably the reactions of my friends and colleagues fall into one of two camps: 1) Those who are my age nearly all ask me why I did it, implying that, at least in their opinion, I should have kept it; and 2) Younger people, say under 40, nearly all compliment my clean shaven look and ask me why anyone would want to have a beard in the first place.

Men's beards, women's pubic hair. Apples and oranges? Perhaps. But I don't think so. Rather, now that even so-called "soft porn" features full genital shots, it seems that the same standard of socially acceptable grooming that applies to men's faces (IE. clean shaven) has been appropriated by the publishers and producers of erotica - and applied to women's genitals.