Wife On Bed, Ready

Talk about a "come hither" look.

Bettie, Heads or Tails.

Two equal but opposite views of the great Bettie Page. Like flipping a coin, heads or tails. Either side wins.

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.

Valentine's Day Surprise

Here's another great image that demonstrates that the idea of grooming one's pubic patch into a heart for Valentine's is a classic move. Add some sexy see-through lingerie and that's a recipe for sexy success.

Bell Bottom Blues

Bettie In Bed

It's been a while since we posted a sexy image of the "infamous" Bettie Page. I use irony quotes because infamous is so pejorative. Bettie was a pioneer.

Surf's Up!

How about a little nostalgia for summer?

Motorcycle Monday: Chopper Pinup

A pinup from the old magazine Chopper. Killer ironhead sportster chopped old school. I'm actually really glad builders are turning back to Sportsters with a lot of love. Sportsters didn't always get a lot of respect in the big bike, fat tire, and billet era. Now skinny bikes are back. And I say hipster or not, it's for the better. Choppers forever.

Bumming A Lift

Living in the small ski town, like Vail, Breckenridge or Aspen before they were the mega resorts they are today. Bumming rides to the ski lifts. Guys in jeeps wearing down vests stopping.  I would have loved to be part of skiing back int he day.

Hottie Ski Girl

What does she wear under her neon spandex ski suit? 

Nothing, actually.

Flapper Style

Sexy Ski Sweater

Motorcycle Monday: Hippie and Chopper

A chopper, a hippie chick... what could possibly be better? How about a slow-drifting creek to skinny dip in on a hot summer day. Yeah. Perfect. Let me get my camera.

Ski Bunnies

Who wants to stay at this ski cabin?

early Selfie

Just because everyone seems to have a digital camera, people assume the selfie is a recent phenomenon.

It might be in scale, but certainly not in concept.

  

Vintage Threesome on Vacation

From the tanlines, I'm going to guess that the couple is from a colder, cloudier climate. Perhaps they are on vacation in winter to get a little sun. Perhaps, say, an English couple in the south of Italy, or a Canadian couple in Mexico.

Their first few days, she has been at the beach and by the pool, soaking up sun. He's worn pants and short sleeves. Perhaps he's here for business, or taking in other sights. 

They have a simple, affordable room, with a view of the ocean. A bed. 

She has met a young man. Maybe a bellhop, the pool boy, or just a local. 

The couple has talked about it for over a year now, and they thought perhaps the vacation was the chance to finally fulfill the fantasy. They wouldn't meet anyone they knew, and they'd leave. Short, sweet, simple. 

And so, when they invited the young man to join them, he easily agreed. He'd seen many couples through the season, and watched many wives in their 20s and 30s strip down to bikinis, and slick their bodies with tanning oils, and stretch out on the pool chairs. How many had he seen and lusted for? Maybe a hundred. And he hoped that even though the chances were small that one couple would ask him, there was always the chance, and statistically, it could happen.

At last it did. 

X-country Skiing

A cabin and x-country skis and a friend. Everything that's needed for a great day in the mountains.

Motorcycle Monday: Biker Chicks, Back in the Day

Lucky guy. 

Return of Motorcycle Monday

As some of you regular Dear Readers know, last summer we kicked off a weekly feature we called "Motorcycle Monday." As the spring weather warmed, all who love life on two wheels felt the stir of riding season. I'm speaking of us in the North--the Pacific Northwest indies sogged in the rain, the midwesterners locked in by ice in the North Woods and the UP. Our pals hunkering in garages through the bitter cold of winter on the Great Plains, and of course all the folks holed up in Upstate, and  elsewhere throughout New England. 

When the winds whip cold, when the pavement ices over, when snow piles up to the windows, for a motocyclist, all we can do is dream of warmer times and open roads. So, in that spirit, we resume Motorcycle Monday.

And why not start with the best of the best.  What could possibly be better than a vintage bike and the great Bettie Page. 

Roller Skate!

There's something so sexy about a vintage girl in roller skates. Before my time, but maybe I was born too late...