Hairy vs. Shaved: The Great Debate
Two weeks ago, the major-party presidential nominees faced off in a debate, with VP candidates poised to do the same next week.
As a reprieve from political bickering, forget red versus blue for a moment and delve instead into a much sexier brand of point/counterpoint. Let’s just call it a porn-idential debate. Adult Empire bloggers Nicole Chappelle and Dallas chime in on that most vexing of porn conundrums: hairy versus shaved. What’s the better look in porn?
Hairy
by Nicole Chappelle
It’s election year and while some may not be in the mood for a debate, dammit I am! Listen, I get it. Porn is a place for fantasy and it lives in our heads. In our heads we drive fancy luxury cars, we live in huge mansions on the hills by water, and our partners fuck like they were created solely to please us, doing exactly what we like when and how we like it. But that’s not reality for 99% of us and if you sit back and reflect, you probably like your life the way it is. Sure, shit could always be better, but for the most part we’re pleased when we go to bed at night. Well that’s how sex works and that’s why I’m all about the hairy life! Allow me to further break it down . . .
Pornstars shave because it makes work life easier. Viewers want to see as much as they can and that is the driving force behind female stars waxing their bodies and male stars shaving up to and including their ball sacks. It pleases the customer and keeps them coming back and spending money on the product. The business model makes sense and dollars, so you can’t argue that point. But porn is more than studios shoving unattainable sex that they think we want in our faces. While seeing the p go in the v is crucial for many of us, we also want something relatable, something the feels real, something we can imagine for ourselves. Adult entertainment enhances our fantasies and brings them to life, but they’re still ours. Art imitates life.
If we’re being completely honest with ourselves, rarely are men thinking of shaving their dick and balls and rarely are women complaining about it. As a woman, I know shaving is a large part of some of our routines, but not because of sex. Add the fact that there are plenty of people out there who have no problem going down on and fucking the hell out of a solid old school bush that looks like it came right out of the 70s and you have yourself a proven real life winning formula. Our own experiences (and population increases) tell us we’re all about hairy sex.
You may be sitting there thinking “sure, I love fucking hairy pussy, or fondling hairy balls, but that doesn’t mean I get off to it.” To that, my friends, I direct you towards studios that have been doing it successfully for years like ATKingdom, abbywinters, and AMK Empire for starters. AMK and ATK often make hair the theme and focus of their movies, highlighting the sex appeal and playfulness that accompany it, and they’re some of the best in the business. Abbywinters’ hairy movies are some of my personal favorites because they make natural amateur young women the central focus of their movies and the hair follows along in sync, not only proving that fully shaved genitals aren’t the norm but also proving we get off to watching it.
When thinking of all the classic stars, men and women, with a timeless epic bush, the modern stars and studios who have followed in presenting us with something most can literally look down and see and find visual attractive, and the relatable aspects of porn, the choice is obviously hairy. We grow it as we grow up and everyone here are grownups doing grown up things. Hair is a gift from the porn gods.
Shaved
by Dallas
“If you build on top of a hill, you lose the hill.” (Frank Lloyd Wright)
(Note that I approach this talk with tongue firmly in cheek, with the perspective of a porn viewer in mind, rather than debating hairy versus shaved as an issue of health or hygiene.)
Hairy is natural, and natural is good, right? We nod in approval when we see phrases like “organic” and “natural” on food labels. When someone possesses a remarkable skill, we describe them as a “natural.” In porn, people make a living doing what comes “naturally.” Ergo, the default position in the “shaved versus hairy” debate might seem to be the latter, if only by simple logic.
But logic has never been a good guide in the bedroom. Much of our sexual behavior frazzles even the most basic strictures of logic. What would an alien observer make of our habits of ejaculating on faces, backs, breasts, and bellies – often almost anywhere but in the putatively “natural” spot, the vagina?
Logic isn’t our best guide here.
Our very nature as humans is to modify and enhance the natural world. We don’t live in caves, after all, but instead build exquisite, elaborate structures with every modern convenience. We don’t stroll around naked but instead make dramatic statements about personalities with sartorial choices big and small. To shave one’s pubic hair is to make a small but notable change to the natural order. It is a statement, of both style and personality. In that sense, it reflects some of our most basic humanity.
It’s also a compelling visual in porn contexts.
For cisgendered male stars, the shaved looked helps emphasize the penis and create an impression of greater size. Good news for average-sized gents trying to work with what they have, and great news for viewers of porn looking for the most visually impressive erotica. In performers of all genders, the shaved look provides a more explicit, intimate visual, and isn’t that kind of vivid thrill exactly why we watch porn in the first place? As Frank Lloyd Wright said, “If you build on top of a hill, you lose the hill.” A hairy bush is building atop the hill.
I must also confess some of my own biases on the topic. For my own part, Playboy Magazine played a fundamental role in shaping my attitudes and preferences regarding adult entertainment. Though I came of age very late in the era of Playboy’s cultural dominance, I was always influenced and enthralled by the women who graced its signature centerfolds.
In the early years of Playboy, models never appeared in full-frontal photospreads. Only after a tit-for-tat with rival magazines like Hustler and Penthouse in the 1970s did Playboy finally begin to show fully nude photos. For several decades, the full “bush” was the standard styling for pubic hair. Then, in the early 2000s, starting with Playmate Dalene Curtis, the vogue shifted heavily toward fully shaven. Playboy fans can see virtues in both, but the shaved era, coming as it did during my formative years, did a great deal more in setting my own perceptions of erotic images.
So, in the great “hairy or shaved” debate, I come down on the side of “shaved.”
But only by a whisker.
