potentially dragging the scene to a destructive place.
For me, humiliation is a broad-brush full-bore way for me to feel the worst of how I feel about myself, give it away to someone, and have them hold it.
Once someone else holds it up for me, mirrors it back, shows me the depth of my own feelings, my self-deprecation, I can see it for what it is.
And then they let it go.
And then, they come back, and love me for who I truly am.
And then, sometimes just for a second, but usually for much
longer, I feel immensely powerful. Present. Whole.
Add to this mix the humiliation of years of racism, oppression, the struggle for identity. Add to this living in a country built by your ancestors and one where, in your parents’ memory, your ancestors were living in segregation.
Imagine, instead of covering up that scar, that wound, pulling it open, letting that suppurating pain see the light of day, bare, open and painful, but able to breathe, to heal, and so find peace in surviving it.
I go there because I am that much more powerful for taking that which I cannot control and shaping it into something I can control, and learning from this.
And the next time someone mutters an epithet under their breath, or I’m followed in a store by security, or get “That Look” when walking into a restaurant, I can take a deep breath, focus my energies, and do battle with that monster as I see fit.
Because I have tamed the dragon, and now we play.
Remembering Pubic Hair
Paul Krassner
Okay, call me old-fashioned, but I still like pubic hair. Internet porn sites now present several choices—completely shaved, vertical landing strips that look like exclamation points, heart shaped, the Charlie Chaplin with just a little patch above the clitoris, and a tiny triangle that serves as an arrow pointing to the clit—yet, for pubic follicles one has to search the Web for “hairy” sites that are considered as “specialty,” “kinky” or “fetish.”
Retired porn stars have commented on this phenomenon. Gina Rome, retired after six years, shaved every day. “It was part of getting ready for work.” When she switched from acting to film editing, she stopped shaving and let her pubic hair grow out. “Shaving was work. I don’t have to do it anymore, so I don’t.” And Kelly Nichols says, “I was a Penthouse model in the early 1980s, and I posed with a full bush. No one in adult entertainment shaved back then. Now everybody does.”
Although Martha Stewart is back on TV, you can be sure that she’ll never give any suggestions on what to do about those big red razor bumps that result from shaving your vagina, so here’s a helpful hint I’d like to pass along—they can be largely eliminated with, of all things, Visine eyedrops.
The porn industry has played an important part in shaping pubic styles. Jordan Stein writes in an article titled “Has Porn Gone Mainstream?”: “Consider the near icon status the female porn star has achieved. She is so mainstream that even good girls are imitating her various styles of undress, disappearing hair and all. Porn chic? You bet.”
However, Julia Baird writes in Celebrity Porn : “The idea that the fashion industry can strip, then exhibit women in the name of ‘porn chic’ is a bit silly, frankly. But, ‘flesh is the new fabric’ could be the new catchcry. Americans call their bush George W. It’s fashionable—the curious fact is that it is fueled by the porn aesthetic that celebrities love to love.”
Among Hollywood actresses, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kirstie Alley have both admitted favoring Brazilian wax jobs, where most of their pubic hair is removed, leaving a small tuft that remains hidden under a thong bikini. Sarah Jessica Parker’s character, Carrie Bradshaw, had her pubic hair removed during the third season of “Sex and the City.” Presumably, it’s now in the Smithsonian Museum along with Archie Bunker’s chair and the Fonz’s jacket.
On ABC’s
For me, humiliation is a broad-brush full-bore way for me to feel the worst of how I feel about myself, give it away to someone, and have them hold it.
Once someone else holds it up for me, mirrors it back, shows me the depth of my own feelings, my self-deprecation, I can see it for what it is.
And then they let it go.
And then, they come back, and love me for who I truly am.
And then, sometimes just for a second, but usually for much
longer, I feel immensely powerful. Present. Whole.
Add to this mix the humiliation of years of racism, oppression, the struggle for identity. Add to this living in a country built by your ancestors and one where, in your parents’ memory, your ancestors were living in segregation.
Imagine, instead of covering up that scar, that wound, pulling it open, letting that suppurating pain see the light of day, bare, open and painful, but able to breathe, to heal, and so find peace in surviving it.
I go there because I am that much more powerful for taking that which I cannot control and shaping it into something I can control, and learning from this.
And the next time someone mutters an epithet under their breath, or I’m followed in a store by security, or get “That Look” when walking into a restaurant, I can take a deep breath, focus my energies, and do battle with that monster as I see fit.
Because I have tamed the dragon, and now we play.
Remembering Pubic Hair
Paul Krassner
Okay, call me old-fashioned, but I still like pubic hair. Internet porn sites now present several choices—completely shaved, vertical landing strips that look like exclamation points, heart shaped, the Charlie Chaplin with just a little patch above the clitoris, and a tiny triangle that serves as an arrow pointing to the clit—yet, for pubic follicles one has to search the Web for “hairy” sites that are considered as “specialty,” “kinky” or “fetish.”
Retired porn stars have commented on this phenomenon. Gina Rome, retired after six years, shaved every day. “It was part of getting ready for work.” When she switched from acting to film editing, she stopped shaving and let her pubic hair grow out. “Shaving was work. I don’t have to do it anymore, so I don’t.” And Kelly Nichols says, “I was a Penthouse model in the early 1980s, and I posed with a full bush. No one in adult entertainment shaved back then. Now everybody does.”
Although Martha Stewart is back on TV, you can be sure that she’ll never give any suggestions on what to do about those big red razor bumps that result from shaving your vagina, so here’s a helpful hint I’d like to pass along—they can be largely eliminated with, of all things, Visine eyedrops.
The porn industry has played an important part in shaping pubic styles. Jordan Stein writes in an article titled “Has Porn Gone Mainstream?”: “Consider the near icon status the female porn star has achieved. She is so mainstream that even good girls are imitating her various styles of undress, disappearing hair and all. Porn chic? You bet.”
However, Julia Baird writes in Celebrity Porn : “The idea that the fashion industry can strip, then exhibit women in the name of ‘porn chic’ is a bit silly, frankly. But, ‘flesh is the new fabric’ could be the new catchcry. Americans call their bush George W. It’s fashionable—the curious fact is that it is fueled by the porn aesthetic that celebrities love to love.”
Among Hollywood actresses, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kirstie Alley have both admitted favoring Brazilian wax jobs, where most of their pubic hair is removed, leaving a small tuft that remains hidden under a thong bikini. Sarah Jessica Parker’s character, Carrie Bradshaw, had her pubic hair removed during the third season of “Sex and the City.” Presumably, it’s now in the Smithsonian Museum along with Archie Bunker’s chair and the Fonz’s jacket.
On ABC’s
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