I’ve been reading a story about a university student who has begun a thing called JanuHairy in an effort to get women to be more confident about their body hair.

It has an Instagram page, a Facebook presence, as well as being reported on in newspapers and news outlets.

Of course it has got to the stage where body hair, on women, is practically regarded as a fetish, such is its absence on many. One bit of research reveals about half of all UK women under 35 are now removing all pubic hair, and we must have got to the stage now where almost every woman living in western society is removing underarm hair.

Worse, I think, is that women are conforming to their partners’ requests in this regard. I’m all for some compromise in a relationship, but in an era of feminism I found it rather shocking that men sort of demand how women groom.

And 1/3rd of men would reconsider the relationship based on their partner’s pubic hair preferences! :-O Unbelievable!

An exceptionally good article exists on the Guardian website about how porn has driven the need for women to be entirely hairless, and our archives suggest Ella wasn’t a fan of the hairless look or conforming to porn industry expectations.

That same Guardian article links to another in which it’s claimed that pubic hair is making a comeback in porn, and it will be interesting to see how this ‘trend’ (if it is one) develops. I’ve no real strong opinions on pubic hair, having been natural, trimmed and fully bare in my time, but I have been someone who has shaved their legs/armpits since puberty (which wasn’t yesterday) and I suppose I might be seen as buying into the idea of conforming to society’s beauty ideals in that regard.

It is possible to buy pubic, underarm and leg hair for female (and male) avatars in Second Life.

I’m not sure I’ll be joining in with JanuHairy, but I wish those participating well, and perhaps the realisation (particularly amongst men) that we ladies are free to do what we want with our bodies, and it isn’t for them, the porn industry or fashion to dictate to us what we do and don’t do.

Gigi