Unwanted hair down there
By Katie Powers
As if worrying about the fleshy cellulite falling out of the back of your swimsuit isn't enough for women lying outside of the pool, Mission Gardens or worse, Kennedy Mall (as people five feet away pass by you on their way to class -- no thanks), we women all have to worry about something else sneaking out the sides of our suits.
It seems to be a standard rule: As the air gets hotter, the hair "down there" diminishes to less and less. Thus marks the beginning of the routine bikini waxing season.
Most men don't have to worry about these down-there hair issues, suavely covering themselves up in their long swim trunks, but for women in three-sizes-fits-all swimsuit bottoms, spreading your legs wider than two feet can result in the embarrassing display of a few stray pubic hairs. A loose pubic hair in the dorm room is gross enough, but if one is visibly attached to someone in public, that would be awkwardly mortifying for most.
Our society's pube-phobia extends beyond just swimwear. Even in lingerie, women have the same troubles.
But the problem with this "problem" is that it has created down-there expectations for women. Since we are expected to get bikini waxes or even submit ourselves to the cruel blades of our razors, some women will go so far as to just get rid of all of it, otherwise known as the increasingly popular Brazilian wax.
The Brazilian was created for those daring enough to wear thong bikinis on the exotic beaches of Brazil, but now more and more women are going bare down there. And not because they are worried about hair coming out of their thong swimsuit or underwear, but because they believe it's sexier. (And probably just because those Brazilian women are all hotties in men's eyes, so other women have to emulate them.)
Here arises the ultimate problem that the bikini waxing season creates: Putting our vaginas in the spotlight puts them open for judgement -- trimmed, wild or bare. If you "let yourself go," you're dirty in society's eyes. If you trim and don't know what else to do, you're wavering between social expectations. Then if you get rid of it all, well, you're buying into false sexiness.
I admit I am not completely liberated from the way society has spun pubes to seem strange and gross, but I do not think being hairless equates to sexiness. Women should not revert back to girlhood because they are grossed out by womanly pubic hair. A hairless vagina is like a porn star -- unnatural and objectified.
So this swim season, if a pube falls out, just brush past it, physically and symbolically. At least you aren't in the spiky itchy aftermath of a Brazilian -- the "tween stage." That was painful enough once around.