Pubic hair
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Although fine vellus hair is present in the area in childhood, the term pubic hair is generally restricted to the heavier, longer hair that develops with puberty as an effect of rising levels of androgens. Pubic hair is therefore part of the androgenic hair.
Pubic hair in art
In ancient Egyptian art, female pubic hair is straightforwardly indicated in the form of painted black triangles. In classical European art, it was very rarely depicted, and male pubic hair was often, but not always, omitted. Sometimes it was portrayed in stylized form. The same was true in much Indian art, and in other Eastern portrayals of the nude. In 16th century southern Europe Michelangelo felt able to show the male David with stylized pubic hair, but female bodies remained hairless below the head. Nevertheless, Michelangelo’s male nudes on the Sistine chapel ceiling display no pubic hair. In renaissance northern Europe, pubic hair was more likely to be portrayed than in the south, more usually male, but occasionally female.
By the 17th century, suggestions of female pubic hair appear in pornographic engravings, such as those by Agostino Carracci. By the late 18th century female pubic hair is openly portrayed in Japanese shunga (erotica), especially in the ukiyo-e tradition. Hokusai's picture The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife, depicting a woman having an erotic fantasy, is a well-known example. Despite this Fine art paintings and sculpture created before the 20th century in the Western tradition usually depicted women without pubic hair or a visible vulva.
It has been argued that John Ruskin, the famous author, artist, and art critic, was apparently accustomed only to the hairless nudes portrayed unrealistically in art, never having seen a naked woman before his wedding night. He was allegedly so shocked by his discovery of his wife Effie's pubic hair that he rejected her, and the marriage was later legally annulled. He is supposed to have thought his wife was freakish and deformed. This theory originated with Ruskin's biographer, Mary Luytens. It is much-repeated. For example Gene Weingarten in his book I'm with Stupid (2004) writes that "Ruskin had it [the marriage] annulled because he was horrified to behold upon his bride a thatch of hair, rough and wild, similar to a man's. He thought her a monster." However, there is no proof for this, and some disagree. Peter Fuller in his book Theoria: Art and the Absence of Grace writes, "It has been said that he was frightened on the wedding night by the sight of his wife's pubic hair; more probably, he was perturbed by her menstrual blood." Ruskin's biographers Tim Hilton and John Batchelor also believe that menstruation is the more likely explanation.
Francisco Goya's The Nude Maja has been considered as probably the first European painting to show woman's pubic hair, though others had hinted at it. (Lucas Cranach's 'The Nymph of the Spring' c.1537, Washington National Gallery, has distinct pubic hair.) The painting was considered quite pornographic at the time.
Gustave Courbet's L’Origine du monde (The Origin of the World, 1866), was considered scandalous because it showed the exposed female genitals in their totality with thick hair.
Examples of male pubic hair in contemporary art are harder to find.
In Japanese drawings pubic hair is often---such as in hentai---omitted, since for a long time the display of pubic hair was not legal. The interpretation of the law has since changed.
Ironically, it is also in Japan where pubic hair is seen as something highly attractive. However, in many Middle Eastern and eastern European cultures, pubic hair is considered unclean, and for matters of both religion and/or good hygiene, women in those cultures have removed their pubic hair for centuries. Some examples of regions where this is typical are ancient Persia, Turkey, Albania and ethnic-Albanian portions of Kosovo, and in many other cultures throughout the Mediterranean.
See also
