Where Are the Stories on Male Pubic Hair Trends?

Earlier today, the New York Times published a piece titled “Below the Bikini Line, a Growing Trend.” The subject? Women’s pubic hair — and specifically, a perceived trend towards letting it grow out naturally, rather than trimming or shaving or waxing it away.

This isn’t the first time that the Times has sent its reporters below the belt; it isn’t even the first time the perceived return to full bush. This past December, Amanda Hess penned a piece for the Times’s T Magazine titled “For Women, a New Look Down Under,” which, though not identical to today’s piece, isn’t dramatically different. Not that the Times is alone in this fascination: for over a decade, respectable news outlets have busied themselves with discussions of women’s pubic stylings, from Salon’s 1999 essay “Faster Pussycat, Wax! Wax!” to Narratively’s more recent musings this past summer about “The Hair Down There.” Throughout the ‘00s, it felt like we were on permanent pube watch: women are shaving it off! They’re growing it back! No, wait — they’re still removing it, and now it’s putting pubic lice at risk of extinction!

And through it all, through the seemingly constant monitoring of just what women are doing with their short and curlies, we’ve heard barely a whisper about the pubic antics of men. True, stories of male Brazilian waxes have made it into the papers from time to time, but it always feels like an afterthought — more a novel one off story than the ongoing trend watch that coverage of women’s pubic grooming has become.

So why the gender disparity? If we’re going to conduct a National Pube Watch, why have we chosen to single out one sex? Some might argue that women’s nether regions attract more press attention because, as the sex more conditioned towards grooming, women are just more likely to care about things like Brazilians and bikini waxes; that men don’t get written about because they don’t care enough to ignite a trend worth covering. But that rationale ignores the way that these press stories are complicit in furthering the trends they purport to objectively cover. Perhaps if men’s down there hairdos were covered with the fervor and attention that women’s are, men would feel a bit more compelled to care about whether they’re shaving, waxing, or going au natural. Perhaps if men’s pubic stylings were treated as part of a trend piece, men, too, would feel compelled to worry about whether or not their private parts were in style.

Which brings me to my real point. It’s not so much that I care what men are or aren’t doing with their pubic hair. Quite frankly, I don’t think it’s my business what men are or aren’t removing with razors, lasers, or wax. But I also don’t think it’s my business what women are or aren’t removing from beneath their bikinis — and when female pubic stylings are the subject of so much public discourse, we’re all given the message that this very personal choice is, in fact, something that the public gets to weigh in on. The more we publicly discuss how women are grooming their lady parts, the more we reinforce the message that female bodies are here for public consumption, that women’s personal, private choices aren’t really theirs to make.

So wax, don’t wax; go full Brazilian or full bush. Do whatever feels best for you. But let’s hold off on the trend pieces for the time being — or if you have to write them, try writing about men for a change. Who knows? Maybe it’ll kick off a whole new trend in journalism. Or at least take some of the pressure off of women to have on-trend pubes.