Pubic Hair (on Vicar of Dibley)

[osprey]

My apologies first off if this should offend anyone in any way. On the Vicar of Dibley yesterday, Alice had suggested burning pubic hair instead of coal as it was more easily accessible and served no use. After laughing as the rest of us watching did I began to think what use is pubic hair. Does it have a use?

[dot.hawkes]

It gives Brazilian a whole new meaning.

[maggie01]

Haven't a clue but I don't usually watch that but it was very funny especially when they were all proposing to the vicar.
Sorry went off subject there.

[chrissiekins]

I think like nose-hair and ear hair, it's there to keep your more 'sensitive' parts protected from certain foreign bodies. (though quite how it stands up against sleazy greek waiters remains to be seen...) :)

[dot.hawkes]

I am in love with Guy of Gisborne anyway and so I watched it, very funny too.

[Quizmonster]

Various theories have been suggested as to why we have pubic hair. One is that it provides a sort of �cushion' during intercourse, another has it that hair there as well as in our armpits provided something for young to cling to - which sounds rather painful! - and finally that it acts as a �holding-area' for glandular secretions. These involve pheromones which attract the opposite sex by smell and act as an aphrodisiac.
Click here for a web-page which supports that.

[chrissiekins]

...I love the targeted advertising down the right hand side of this thread. Vicar T shirts *and* permanent hair removal. Very funny :oD

[Octavius]

The idea of it being protective is pretty much outdated as we have been �clothed� for some time so surely we would have evolved to a point where we didn�t need it for warmth. And if it is to be protective against �foreign invasions� such as nose hair, surely male hair is in the wrong place..? Similarly if it were for �generating heat� wouldn�t we have thick black hair all over like apes, rather than thin pale hair all over with thicker darker patches in certain areas?

The prheremone idea certainly would be the most logical, but that doesn�t explain how some men become so highly charged when they see women without.

It is one of those eternal mysteries of the human body, along with men�s nipples and the appendix.

[chrissiekins]

Perhaps then it is a multitude of all the above? After all, physical evolution takes millions of years - you can't argue that we should be completely bald now that we wear clothes (a practice only active for a few thousand years). Doesn't it stand to reason that we have indeed become less hairy now that our environment doesn't require it, but nevertheless the hair which surrounds our 'orifices' (the primary means by which infection penetrates our systems)? Perhaps there are other reasons too, but I wouldn't rule this one out yet..

[Pippa68]

Hmmmm.

We have become less hairy over the years since neanderthals ~ however our pubic hair still remains in abundance!

I support the pheromone theory. Some people may find no hair a turn-on, but I have been told by quite a few guys that a neatly trimmed area is exquisite :o)

[Octavius]

Indeed, a woman with bushtucker skills that extend to imaginative, yet practical topiary arrangements, is rather nore attractive than a bald spot (in m.o) but whilst chrissiekins argues that evolution cannot posshbly mean we still need warmth and coverage in certain areas, I was just surmising that in todays envrionmental ecological technocoligal and topiaroligical(??) age surely pubic hair in the Neveregions must be there for the main purpose of attractivity.

[Quizmonster]

There is no mystery as to why men have nipples. Until about the 14th week of human gestation, when the various hormones kick into action, the foetus is not gender-related. However, by that time, the tissue that will become nipples has already started forming. As a result, men as well as women have them.
And, despite our having been clothed "for some time", that time-span is but the blink of an eye in terms of evolution, so it's no surprise that many traces of our ancient heritage - such as pubic hair - still remain with us.

[joko]

QM - that explains HOW they get them - but not WHY.

why does the body start growing them at that point, knowing that 50% of them will serve no purpose?

[joko]

in terms of the pubic hair, i think it is to trap scents/pheremones etc in order to attract a mate, because before we became an over plucked, over sanitised, over perfumed society, that is what our species responded to - we once liked those smells, that we now find repugnant.

[Octavius]

Of course QM, I have checked and although evolution has occurred, I still have mine. I was just prospecting as to why. No doubt eventually in a few eons, or so, the need for pubic hair - if it were indeed for warmth and protection - would be eradicated and we would evolve into fair haired blondie pubes that were almost invisible.

I got your point originally QM - and suported it, but now you look bigger and cleverer.

[curlylfim]

if someone would like to start a collection, i'll gladly send mine........

[Pippa68]

I agree, joko. And it now seems that attractiveness in women is based on stick thin bodies and fake gazongas...

Bring back pheromones!

[Quizmonster]

I wasn't trying to look bigger or cleverer, O. I simply felt that you'd made two points that were easily "answered", so I answered them. If that was an error, I apologise for it.

I didn't know I was answering a 'why' rather than a 'how' question, Joko. Obviously, only God - if He exists - could answer such a query. Given that I personally don't believe He exists, my guess is that we're never going to know the answer to this or a multitude of other such questions, as indeed Octavius's phrase "eternal mysteries" suggests.

But what the hey! I'll leave it at that.