A good guy friend of mine recently inherited a large box of high-class, vintage porn magazines dating back to 1983.
There were a good 50 issues of Penthouse, which I'd never personally encountered before.
My Saturday morning consisted of eating Cinnamon Toast Crunch at his house and critically examining close-up shots of the vulva and vaginal area.
My friend and I came to the conclusion that women must not have been big on shaving their pubic hair back then.
This spurred a lot of questions in my mind, having reached adolescence when shaving was the social norm.
When did women start shaving? Why? Was it at the suggestion of their lovers or was it an independent choice? Is it safe or healthy to shave it all off?
What the hell is the purpose of pubic hair, anyway? Do typical guys prefer that immaculate little strip of hair most porn stars have?
I took it upon myself to do some research about the purpose of pubic hair and polling style preferences amongst straight male friends.
It turns out that it's still unclear as to why we have pubic hair, but there are a few theories.
One of the possible answers is pheromones. You know, the odorless scent that your body produces to attract others?
You can purchase it in bottle form in an attempt to lure others, although it's possible that it's a hoax.
Anyhow, pheromones naturally get trapped in pubic hair when apocrine glands secrete around the genitals and under your arms and combine with natural bacteria. Yum.
So hypothetically it seems possible that when you shave off your pubic hair, you're unconsciously making yourself less sexually attractive to others by ridding yourself of pheromones.
Another theory is that women's pubic hair is like the tiny hairs you have in your nostrils, which protect from outside germs and dirt.
The flaw in this theory is that if this were the case, wouldn't men have hair on the head of their penis surrounding their urethras?
What about warmth? Perhaps. But don't we have our cute little panties from Victoria's Secret for that?
And if we needed it for warmth, wouldn't we still be hairy all over and ape-ish like in the caveman days?
I don't know about the rest of you, but I've never suffered from cold genitals before.
In any case, we have pubic hair. Maybe it's necessary and maybe it isn't. So, what to do with it? Go bald as a cue ball? Go au naturel?
It is of course your decision. But most of us girls would be lying if we claimed we didn't value the opinion of the ones who, er, come into contact with it the most.
After polling about 20 people, the results were surprising.
Considering most female porn stars are completely shaved or have those teensy-weensy little strips of fuzz, I was expecting most college-aged people to share that preference.
However, only three people claimed to prefer a completely bald vulva region.
None mentioned the fuzzy little strip so popular in the adult film genre. The remaining majority voted for the trimmed look.
One individual summed it up best, "Trimmed. While I don't mind anything per se, I like to know that I'm not having sex with a Barbie doll. That being said, no need for overgrown forests and all."
Eloquently put, and it appears we can stop with the Brazilian waxes now.
Email any questions or comments to sex columnist Katie Grace at baringitall4uc@hotmail.com.
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