Motorcycle Monday: FU

New York Times Reports: "Return to a more natural state."

As editor of My Sexy Spot Blog, I strive to bring the best, most accurate, and most historically relevant stories about our understanding and appreciation (and acceptance) of human sexuality. As many long-time Dear Readers know, I have been following and reporting on what seems to be a grassroots cultural shift back toward a more normal (and in my opinion healthy) acceptance and appreciation of pubic hair.

I've noted it in amateur blogs, in the emerging works of Fine Art photographers, and even in the porn industry.

For so long I've seen hope peeking out like the stray untamed hairs from a bikini line. I'm amazed, and thrilled that finally a publication with a lot wider viewership than this humble DIY blog is finally taking note.

Last december, The New York Times blog ran "On Beauty For Women, a New Look Down Under."

Only once before in our history have we reprinted an article verbatim and in its entirety. We felt this article well worth it.
--Annie O.

On Beauty For Women, a New Look Down Under

by Amanda Hess

After years of razors, wax and lasers reducing pubic hair to the bare minimum — or nothing at all — there’s a return to a more natural state.

Marilyn Monroe’s maid claimed she once walked in on the actress naked and splayed-legged, bottle and toothbrush in hand, meticulously bleaching the hair between her legs a perfectly matching platinum. When Monroe danced onto a breezy New York City subway grate in that billowing ivory dress in “The Seven Year Itch,” she layered two pairs of underwear to ensure that her bountiful crop was obscured from gawkers’ sightlines. And when the studio photographer snapped on-set publicity shots of the scene, they were meticulously airbrushed to smooth out the unmistakable texture visible beneath her pleated skirt.

For women of Monroe’s generation, pubic hair was a game of peekaboo — on full display in the privacy of the bungalow, but carefully hidden from popular view. In recent years, the bombshell bush has essentially disappeared. Wax-wielding estheticians and permanent lasers have whittled it down or erased it entirely. Pornography has served up a new degree of bareness. When the paparazzi shoot pantyless pop stars exiting limousines, their cameras zoom in on a barren landscape.

It wasn’t always this way. For centuries of artistic tradition, the absence of pubic hair was merely an illusion. Renaissance artists depicted the female pelvis in smoothed stone or oil-painted shadow. Although a few artists made bids for erotic realism — notably Gustave Courbet in 1866 with the furry black patch in his painting “L’Origine du Monde”— the taboo persisted. The story goes that the 19th-century art critic John Ruskin was so shocked by the discrepancy between the renderings he’d studied and his wife’s naked body that he annulled the marriage. “Though her face was beautiful,” he wrote, “there were certain circumstances in her person” that left him unable to proceed. When the photographer Alfred Stieglitz exhibited 45 portraits, several of them nudes, of his muse Georgia O’Keeffe in 1921, they caused a sensation.

The explosion of the bikini on 1960s beaches changed everything, bringing with it the “bikini line,” which required a precise shave. The beauty industry graciously homed in on this new terrain, first with razors and depilatory creams, then waxes, electrolysis and lasers. Peruse popular nudes over the past decades and you can practically carbon-date the photo by the area’s dwindling dimensions. In the 1960s, the fashion designer Mary Quant got hers trimmed into a heart. Helmut Newton’s 1981 “Big Nudes” series of photographs featured towering heels and equally imposing pubic hair; by the 1990s, Playboy centerfolds had transitioned from a full growth to a teensy landing strip; by the 21st century, the “Brazilian” was established as the new standard.

Did it go too far? Today, the Helmut Newton nude makes for a more aspirational ideal than an unfortunate celebrity crotch shot. The New York waxing emporium J. Sisters displays a 1990s head shot of Gwyneth Paltrow signed, “You changed my life!!” But these days, Paltrow laughingly told Ellen DeGeneres, “I work a ’70s vibe.” Mert & Marcus photographed Daria Werbowy and Naomi Campbell with full, frank pubic hair in a 2010 Love magazine spread, and they look assertive, real, even rebellious.

Even young porn stars are “bringing the ’80s back,” says Nina Hartley, a doyenne of the scene. Stoya, one of the highest-profile porn actresses of the moment, has also posed for the fashion photographer Steven Klein with grown-out pelvis and armpits. “I’ve had all sorts of pubic hair,” she says. “I’ve been completely bald, I’ve had my entire natural bush grown out, and I usually have an arrangement somewhere in between.” It’s worth noting that this look isn’t completely untamed, of course. Many women still attend to the sides and underneath. But there’s something refreshingly retro, delightfully expressive and confidently grown-up in getting back to nature. And Courbet’s “L’Origine du Monde”? It now resides at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, where — judging by the sale of postcards — it is one of the most popular paintings of all.

Here's the original link to the full article.

Surf's Up!

How about a little nostalgia for summer?

American Apparel Got Real For Valentine's

Known for its "provocative" ads, clothing retailer American Apparel sent shockwaves rippling across lower Manhattan last month when its Houston Street store displayed lingerie-clad mannequins with nipples and faux pubic fur.

District Visual Manager Dee Myles stated that the display is meant to bring "rawness and sexiness" to the upcoming Valentine's day holiday, and to "spark up curiosity and conversation about what we deem beautiful."

American Apparel issued this statement to the media:

“American Apparel is a company that celebrates natural beauty, and the Lower East Side Valentine’s Day window continues that celebration. We created it to invite passerby’s to explore the idea of what is ‘sexy’ and consider their comfort with the natural female form. This is the same idea behind our advertisements which avoid many of the photoshopped and airbrushed standards of the fashion industry.”

A few detractors have claimed that the marketing move was done more to sell lingerie than to promote pro-woman body acceptance in its natural state. To which I say: duh! 

If a retail giant like Home Depot runs an ad showing a happy family in their backyard having a BBQ over Memorial Day, it's because Home Depot wants to sell you a lawnmower or a new shiny barbecue. Whether or not you have a family picnic is up to you. 

Of course American Apparel wants to sell bras and panties. That's there for-profit business. And, as someone once said: the business of business is business. Ads, by their very definition, are human designs calculated, created, and put to the public eye to arouse interest and spark an emotional response.

There's another old saying: sex sells. 

That's not news--so why can anyone in the 21st Century be surprised, or even remotely offended by American Apparel trying to tap the fact that "sex sells?"

Other major retailers have been pushing air-brushed women with spray tans and plastic boobs.

If American Apparel displays mannequins with untrimmed bushes to sell "sexy," I say: right on!

As long as sex sells sells and people buy sexy, I think it's great to finally be seeing "sexy" as closer to natural than to fake. I personally think it's lovely to see--FINALLY--a mainstream American advertisement that looks like me. Brown hair. glasses, and bush.

(and nipples)

For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her

After last summer, it's hard to imagine that anyone with an internet connection hasn't seen the bare breasts of model Emily Ratajkowski, who made a "big impression" in the Blurred Lines video.

What could possibly be better than seeing her glorious mammaries boundlessly bouncing as she danced, shimmied, and shook what her mamma gave her in on a computer screen? How about seeing them in person?

For reasons not entirely clear--other than for the greater good of humanity--Ms. Ratajkowski is driving across America, in a classic Datsun. You guessed it: in all her topless glory.

Maybe it's just a rumor. But you know, never hurts to dream...

Hot Lift Operator

Gotta love the hot girls who take a semester off from college so they can work the ski season. Running a lift can be pretty boring, and there are lots of ways to make it a little more exciting.

Motorcycle Monday: Biker Chicks, Back in the Day

Lucky guy. 

Motorcycle Monday: Ride Topless

Chicks who ride their own bike = awesome. Chicks who ride their own bikes topless = ultimate badass.

Ride to the Top

The gondola ride took more than 15 minutes, giving us plenty of time for a little fun. I suggested she pose nude for the camera. To my surprise, and delight, she said ok!

Confidence

There is nothing sexier than a woman confident in her own skin.

Riding Ski Lift, Naked

Perhaps a dare?

Two Hotties ride

Go Rinding In the Car Car

Let's go rindin' in the the car car... let's going riding...

I'd like to ride along with this lovely couple.

Cold Snowy Night, Outside the Bar

Nude In Public Restroom

Gabby on the Beach

Three wonderful photos by Justin Friesen. Love the glasses, and especially love the crushed PBR. Such memories of Summer at Sauvie's.

Drying Off On the Beach

This may be one of my favorite images of All Time.

Facing the Parking Lot

Reading Nude on the Beach

I absolutely love taking a book to the beach. There is nothing more relaxing than reading on the beach, in the buff.

At the Hot Springs, Nude

If you ever go to a hot springs, please, don't pack a swimsuit. That only makes it weird for the rest of us. Just be natural, and enjoy. Hot springs are perhaps the very last place we can be publicly nude and accepted.