A Formative Decade - The 1980's
A topic on another TN group made me think about what really happened in the 1980's, a decade in which many of us experienced puberty, on which others look back with some wistfulness and about which others yawn and ask what the fuss was about.
To get a fuller picture I think we need to put the 1980's in context. It was certainly the decade when mass publications depicting ever-more explicit images of women became very widely available. Under-the-counter magazines showing explicit images had been around for a long time, but it took "almost respectable" magazines like Playboy and Penthouse to bring the debate well into the public domain. It took some time for the first sightings of female pubic hair, but once that watershed had been passed it is fairly safe to say the that the male awareness of detailed female genital anatomy expanded rapidly as the market was swelled by a greater range of more affordable publications with increasingly explicit content. Feminist detractors will often decry the trade as demeaning to women, but I think I cannot be alone in acknowledging that there was certainly an entirely healthy spin-off in the very willing and active participation of women in a good many of those publications - women would pose for wives and girlfriends pages which were an important part of the magazine content. Few would have said it openly at the time, but many women enjoyed the magazines just as much as men did, and gained the confidence to take a pride in their bodies and, possibly, begin to think more longingly of opportunities to show them off.
The effects on the general population were that men became more aware generally of the intricacies of female anatomy and women realised that intrisically there was nothing shameful in displaying their genitalia. It was essentially a democratisation process - if we put to one side the hideous output of the hard-core porn industry, the two-way trade of enjoyment of female nudity can be seen to have many positive and beneficial aspects.
The trend to more explicit genital display by women which Soonergal refers to has its basis in that 1980's trend to democratisation - women would no longer think there was something shameful which their pubic hair was put there to hide, they would take a look, see nothing wrong and think "Why not? What a great adventure, let's get trimming!"
There is clearly a lot more to be said on this. Maybe a couple of examples might help:
Clearly Liberated and Happy
This Smiling Girl clearly thinks there is nothing shameful in this view
Pamela
Hi
A women" s pubes ! What does the triangular patch ( often dark ) invoke?It adds to the female 's mystery ! It's erotic ! It's beautiful ! I love them with their full bush I fully agree with you Pamela when you mentioned the GFs and Wives sections in the magazines it made common people ( read not models or pin ups ) more daring and come up to show themselves ; personally I wasore fascinated with these depictions than seeing say Victoria Primcipal naked !We ( my friends and I ) were used to the beaches of Antibes, Le Cannet , and Cap d'Adge , as far as I recall most were natural , girls from Germany more so as often they also kept their legs natural , the trend towards trimming and smoothness came later with the fashion of micros . Well that my perception ( so I stand to be corrected ) thanks for sharing the pics Pamela I love them !
Jay
Very intriguing commentary Pamela. I do remember the change over in photos from the towel covering or hand covering or crossed legs to a more open picture. It become more liberated seeing the full view versus the "coy" shot. Even though nothing was left to the imagination it became the standard and was quite beautiful to see.
Gradually the mystery was revealed to neophytes and curious boys like me Lol !!!
Thanks for the interesting comments from everyone. I loved Jay's comment about learning from direct observation. It chimes with one thing I really enjoyed when I felt less inhibited about trimming my pubic hair and really began to enjoy showing off my pubis - I had always known that being nude and, even more so, being seen nude, made me feel sexually excited. What was a revelation, even to me, was the extent to which that was manifested in the appearance of my pubis - my labia swelled up more than I could have imagined, and my inner labia would begin to protrude quite significantly and sometimes dangle down between my legs. At first I felt a bit embarrassed by that, but I quickly realised that other people seemed to find the view exciting and after that I never tried to hide it.
Here are some photos taken by fellow members of my photo club in an outdoor session on someone's patio. I had been really daring and trimmed my pubic hair quite short the evening before, and at first I wasn't too sure whether the photographers might think I looked untidy, but I didn't have to worry for long.
And one of the "dangle" effect
Pamela
Pamela, first let me complement you on a very provocative and well thought out article. I am a bit older than you and was ahead of the photo curve, however even back into the early 60's I was on a mission to have my girlfriends shave or at least trim their pubes. Success was quite varied until the shaving scene in Deep Throat, then the tide changed. This was, I believe in the very early '70s when pubic hair and labia were just starting to appear in 'respectable' publications such as Playboy.Thanks for the memories PamelaLee
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