During my first semester of college, while killing time between classes, I found myself listening in on a classmate and his friends as they loudly engaged in a “Would you rather?” about girls.
My classmate posed a question along the lines of, “If you had to choose between a girl who doesn’t shave her armpits and a girl who doesn’t shave her legs, who would you pick?”
I don’t remember each individual response, but when the guys asked my classmate the same thing, he said, “Armpits. Because if she doesn’t shave her legs, she probably has a hairy vagina.” The group of boys — and boys they were, judging by their open disgust at some hair — nodded in agreement. “True, yeah man. Ew.”
Even though I was eavesdropping, I laughed out loud at his logic because, having been a girl for 22 years, I can’t even begin to explain what a misconception that assumption was.
I mean, come on. Ladies, how many times have you had a groomed va-jay-jay and, for whatever reason, omitted leg shaving from your shower routine?
And because I’m all about being inclusive, manscaping men, how often after a fresh manscape have your legs been full-on Chewbacca? For a ton of you, the answer is probably always. But I digress.
Although that particular moment of bro talk I overheard has had no significant impact on my day-to-day life, it was the first thing that popped in my head when I saw the words “Pubic hair is back” in a November headline in the Telegraph.
The article talks about, you guessed it, pubes being back on trend — for women, that is. The article cites a study by UKMedix that says 51 percent of about 2,000 women surveyed keep their lady bits au naturale. The main reasons listed were, women said, they could no longer be bothered to keep up the grooming — 45 percent — and women’s partners preferring the natural look — 62 percent.
The survey results prompted the media to let women know that by societal standards, it was once again acceptable to let their downstairs do its own thing. And there was a large response.
From “pubes are pretty” to “bald is beautiful,” it seems everyone who knows what a vagina is has had something to say about what the grooming standard should be. And everyone seems adamant that whatever he or she thinks is the only accurate viewpoint.
Well, ladies, I’m here to tell you that regardless of trends, it has always been OK to make your own decisions about your body.
Do you think men let the media dictate the state of their pubes? From a very unscientific stance, I can tell you that guys who manscape don’t do it because some survey said it’s the way their package should look.
Just ask the dudes in your life if they manscape and why. I’ll bet you’re not surprised by the responses.
Some manscape because they’ve been asked. Some don’t touch the hair because it freaks them out. Some will admit to being waxed because they lost a bet.
People will always have their reasons for doing things, just as people will have reasons for liking what they like — but you shouldn’t feel pressured to conform to hairiness or hairlessness.
As someone who likes to try new things, I can attest to the pros and cons of a variety of grooming styles. And you know what? There are about as many pros as there are cons to all sides, depending on who you ask.
The best way to be comfortable with your body is to know what you like and why.
So, go out there and get that hair waxed into the star you are. Let that bush grow ‘til it sticks out of your bikini bottoms. Let your partner shave you bald.
Know your body. Know your taste, and, as I would tell my BFF, just do you.
Marjorie Nunez is a UF journalism senior. Her column appears on Fridays. A version of this column ran on page 6 on 1/10/2014 under the headline "Hairy situation: Don’t be bullied by trends"
