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Honor Cargill-Martin's avatar

It is remarkable how much dangerous power societies have managed to imbue into something so natural and intrinsically amoral!

And what an acknowledgement of weakness - how confident can you claim to be in the strength of the moral order you've created if you really believe that some public hair might send it into a death spiral of decadent degeneration...

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Dr. Rebecca Marks's avatar

On the other hand -- how affirming to know that the natural female body wields such power >:)

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Dr Lucy Morley Williams's avatar

the power of the bush is mighty indeed!

That to me is the fear - that women are in fact fully human too

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Liz Gwedhan's avatar

Really fascinating stuff. Made me think of Effie Gray “He imagined me quite different from what I was” John Ruskin’s idea of the female body being based on Greek statuary. He couldn’t bring himself to touch her as nature made her

.

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Dr. Rebecca Marks's avatar

Ruskin really fumbled the bag on that one didn’t he!

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LoLo's avatar

I love this point, I just learned about their relationship it’s fascinating and definitely something that happens to women today in the world of idealized social media bodies.

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Dr Lucy Morley Williams's avatar

worryingly - growing up with AL porn even more of a disjunct between reality and imagined.

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Liz Gwedhan's avatar

Exactly! And when most young men’s experience of a naked woman is that way - it is sad and shocking that girls feel they have to conform to an unreality.

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Dr Lucy Morley Williams's avatar

this is when AI generated images become even more problematic - the distortion of what is a human body in all it’s glorious forms is undermined.

The tech bros are where we need to direct our attention - those that generate and sell this stuff. It is so unerotic too - but “efficient”

Important not to forget the underlying misogyny

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Tardigrade_Sonata's avatar

Well..slightly real talk though. Ruskin was a brilliant writer, but there’s more historical evidence than for most (like J.M. Barrie) that he might have been a quiet non-offending pedophile. I don’t think it diminishes his other art criticism, but when it comes to the human body…big step back.

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Liz Gwedhan's avatar

first experience

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Dr Lucy Morley Williams's avatar

VIVA LA BUSH

thank you for this

utterly fascinating -

had not thought about the idea that hair was seen as too provocative - the alternative a prepubescent body? that says so much about the fear and perhaps loathing of women as fully human? It is still seen as shocking if a celeb sports underarm hair .... as if this is brave. Bonkers

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Caroline Beuley's avatar

I love this! I have seen Corbet's l'origin du monde in D'Orsay, and it's so interesting to know a bit more of the history behind it--and the other artists who have explored "full bush"!

I actually have a hilarious picture of an entire family taking a selfie with Corbet's painting hahaha

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Dr. Rebecca Marks's avatar

Yes I must go inspect it when I am next in Paris!

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Dr Lucy Morley Williams's avatar

it is true - perhaps this this the first bush they have seen?

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Dr Jess Venner's avatar

Brava! A fantastic article.

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Dr. Rebecca Marks's avatar

Really glad you enjoyed!

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Julien Goodman's avatar

fantastic article!

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Dr. Rebecca Marks's avatar

Thanks Juju!! ❤️

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Brian Wright's avatar

Interesting topic but there's more to it. Why did women go from being hairy and natural during the 1960's to the de-pubed stylistics of 2025. These are not individual decisions or even herd based, but a reaction to epochal shifts we've been forced to experience and respond to. What does it mean with regard to our sexuality and ourselves now that's it all moving from the bedroom to the screen? Onscreen a woman's body is smooth, one surfaced and scentless.The physical, in this case, is chasing after the digital.

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Dr. Rebecca Marks's avatar

Thanks for your comment Brian! You are right that there was much oscillation in the styling of the bush over the course of the 20th century. My understanding that it was related to the advent of video pornography and what did or didn't 'look' better on camera.

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Brian Wright's avatar

I actually think media has had a devasting affect of women and ideals of beauty. Somehow robotic duck lips and pneumatic fake breasts have become idealized and women emulate what is in fact is alien to the species because that's what they see onscreen and demand of the mirror. I live in Europe and young females in beauty ads on TV already have enhanced lips, cheeks, asses and impossible noses. Who can live like that? It's not just unhappy making but turning your body into a receptacle for injectable plastic cannot be good for anyone. Anyway, the bush thing has evolved over the last fifty years and I wonder if it's not all wrapped up in the dehumanzation, or perhaps de-animalization, of us all.

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Dr Lucy Morley Williams's avatar

Interesting, but men who are complicit who are part of the system that supports and generates such material - this is more than complicity - I always become concerned when the focus is detracted from the instigators and the money. This is the herd mentality

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Brian Wright's avatar

I feel like it is some kind of evolutionary shift that has more to do with machine generated imagery than sexual power dynamics. The images of the ideal female and male body over the years have changed into these iconic alien life forms that have little to do with a functional human body and they continue to evolve into non-attainable ideals.

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Dr Lucy Morley Williams's avatar

Have to disagree - the underlying power differential and consequent harm has not been superseded by the AI generated images - and sexual politics does sound almost quaint . There is not a equal playing field Misogyny and the institutional structures remains underlying core problem - and given the state of violence and discrimination in the world still - not something as a female/woman living in this reality can ignore.- it is not just a tech problem for both sexes - it is another means of perpetuating something that is already a constant.

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Brian Wright's avatar

I do see your point...systems create a kind of dynamic stasis and it's easy enough to ride with the staus quo whn it's in your favor...however there are many different power vectors that impact systems and push them in one direction or the other...money, sex, power and their representations are a few and I am putting it vaguely because this is speculative without data...let's talk pornography, online dating, prostitution and only fans type sites...all of which are products of the capitalistic system we live within but each tips the power dynamic one way or the other depending on the players...overall I think women as product are at a disadvantage but other than the alpha elite, the male players are pretty pathetic and equally exploited.

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LoLo's avatar

You connect the historical dots so perfectly!! Could the fear we have of female pubic hair even today be related to a fear of mortality? If the bush reminds us of our animal bodies, if it makes the body REAL and not a sanitized nude, then it also reminds us that we are animals, and therefore infirm and mortal.

The proximity to the female genitalia is also key then, as an organ of procreation and childbirth, it represents the liminal space between life and death.

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Kitty C's avatar

Yes - I love that Courbet's painting is titled 'The Origin of the World' because it acknowledges the power of procreation, the feminine life-force, rather than making it all about sexuality or eroticism...

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Josh's avatar

Thanks for the article, I learned a lot! I truly thought pubic hair removal was a modern thing. I really appreciate the bibliography at the end too: not enough authors provide one.

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David Aimone's avatar

I occasionally do figure study work with large format film, and it is difficult to find women with a bush, which really fits the classic style. Body hair has been replaced with tattoos and piercings, but there is something dignified and strong in shooting figure work with body hair. https://px-files.pixpa.com/831553/1747492226697-2269.jpg

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Morne Botha's avatar

Full bushes are erotically sexy

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Susan Maitland's avatar

To me, full frontal nudes always seemed “less” explicit than those where there was some amount of covering up happening. It’s the same reason why women in porn leave their shoes or jewelry on, or other accessories. The most explicit Playboy pictorials always had some level of clothing strategically in place too. A completely nude body somehow seems less interesting. Less provocative; more clinical maybe?

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Jeff Hayward's avatar

The “birth of Venus” does it creatively

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Grace Miller's avatar

Very interesting article! This new bush craze reminds me of the feminist movement of the 60s/70s “second wave feminism.” The sett aspect is one I hadn’t thought of.

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Michel Perron's avatar

Just a thought. Is it called a Brazilian because of all the deforestation down there?

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Graeme Outerbridge's avatar

The left^^

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