h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

".... this could get pornographic so I'll stop."

Too late!

I think you get the prize for the best use of the snork smiley this year, RE.

Couldn't've done it without you, Ben.

My wife was so shocked when she spotted a grey pube that she took immediate steps to make sure she never saw another.

She put on 2 stones.

The whole idea of "fashion" applying to something as personal as sex is a little disturbing, no? http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2010/01/12/on-the-ubiquity-of-shaving/

TRiG.

>> The whole idea of "fashion" applying to something as personal as sex is a little disturbing, no?

Why? Sex has always been hugely memetic.

I'd have to read it again, but I don't think anyone in Fanny Hill has sex naked, and she does have an awful lot of sex. Though I guess that could be Cleland's particular kink. Red velvet was the most erotic thing in the late 19th century, by the late 20th century it was black rubber fetish gear. It used to be that genital and oral herpes were different but now they are the same, suggesting a much wider practice of oral sex.

The ideal feminine shape regularly changes; early nineteenth century it was small high breasts and no waist, mid nineteeth century it was cinched in waist and huge hips and bust, late nineteenth century it was a big bum, in the 20s it was looking boyish, in the 50s small waist big hips, in the 60s boyish again, and so on.

B

http://poorlydressed.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/fashion-fail-let-your-garden-grow.jpg

Actually, that's quite fascinating. Should I read Fanny Hill?

TRiG.

We haven't mentioned corsets much here...

not yet, no nor whether men should smell really, really expensively nice...

That would be one reason to shave the armpits, to smell less of sweat.

Apparently its the sweat decaying that actually smells. I always noticed my right armpit smelled more than my left though which is weird.

I like that smell in small amounts.

I find it a turn on.

After shave has never done anything for me.

My husband doesn't use aftershave - he's bearded. However, he has always used 'smelly stuff' (our words for it) of some kind. It's always the kind you get from the gents fragrance counter, never the cheap kind you get from the toiletries section of a supermarket. Once, long ago, he ran out when we were on holiday. He couldn't get his usual brand, so he had a sniff of various cheaper brands. He couldn't understand how men could wear those. Having got used to the more expensive men's fragrances, I have to agree with him.

I've yet to smell anything designed for men that's smelly I find at all attractive. It all seems to smell like some sort of cleaning fluid I'd use in the bathroom.

Expensive perfume for women though...now we're talking. My weapon of choice is Rochas Mystere.

I fully accept this is just my personal POV though.

I don't have a strong body odour and I shower fairly often, so it was easy for me to ignore the pressure to spend my hard-earned money on deodorants, sweet-scented soaps, aftershaves, etc.

To buy often very expensive, artificially-produced pheromones when our natural ones are there for free, seems like madness to me.

All you need to do to avoid smelling like a damp, bacteria-infested washcloth is........wash.... regularly....... (if you catch my drift).

How often did/do, few left hunter/gatherers wash?

(Just to be clear I make this point because from my understanding as a biologist, this is what we are still basically evolved to be.

Sex, food and shelter are prime (yes I know you made this point Hoo ), and really when it comes down to it...it is a massive factor in this stuff.)

no idea about that but men's scents...

Aramis. Makes me

Never been a fan of poofjuice. Coal tar soap does for me.

I possibly get my aversion for smelly stuff from my dad. He wears gallons of the stuff. You always knew when he was coming down the stairs cos your eyes started watering. Outdoors, insects and birds fell from the skies in a 50 yard radius around him.