Though the Looking Glass

“THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS” (II)

While “Lewis Carroll’s Secret” about his penchant for taking pictures of nude little girls – he must have preferred those hairless little knobbies or “little bottoms” as Minette Marin of the “London Times” famously called them – is common knowledge, the apocropyhal story about his real-life counterpart, Charles Dodgson, is perhaps not so well known. On the night of his wedding Dodgson was apparently so appalled at the sight of his bride’s pubic hair that the marriage was never consumated. The two episodes – pictures of nude little girls and the horror at the sight of an adult female’s pubic hair – do sort of fit together, don’t they. The theoretically interesting aspect, of course, is the role of female pubic hair in the psyche of the male and, even more so, in that of the female.

For the male the question is pretty staightforward – most, if not all, take a modified Charles Dodgson view (i.e., the less pubic hair, the better). But how does the female regard her own pubic hair? Is it seen as a liability in her struggle for physical beauty? Are the two concepts themselves, beauty and pubic hair, mutually exclusive?

There can be little doubt, after the invention of panties, that the pubic hair of the female has ceased to serve any pragmatic function such as blocking the up-and-in flight of winged insects. It’s function can only be psychological. But what role does it play? And why?

In his account of his exhaustive (and exhausting) love life, Frank Harris (“My Life and Loves”) relates the story of one of his lovers immediatly prior to copulation. She apologized for the profusion of her pubic hair! Now this is important. Unfortunately, Harris never specified the dimensions or depth of her pubic swatch but the point is clear. Females are, at best, ambivalent about their pubic hair. They are of two minds, perhaps even three.

Finding it totally repugnant, some females take matters directly into their own hands, so to speak, and shave it all off, including armpit hair which, also being the product of puberty, qualifies as pubic hair. (Polish joke here: Question – How do you identify a plane from the Polish National Airlines as it flies by overhead? Answer – You can identify it by the hair under its wings!) Others, one supposes, let nature take its course and permit full-flowering foliage. But is it just a matter of landscaping or do things go deeper?

I must leave you with that question since I don’t have the answer. But something tells me the question of pubic hair goes to the heart of the female psyche. Personally, I tend to go for the blond or auburn “catapillar” which, on reflection, might be little more than a weak compromise position rather than one founded on unshakeable principle.

All reflections from female commenters on their pubic hair will be given my full attention.

A pleasure as always.

Cheerio!