Kat, I did *not* mean all women who shave are unsophisticated! No, no, no. I was trying to make a point about Steve's stereotyping about Americans, more like it...;) To me, the fact that some European women shave, and some do not, is very interesting because it really does not seem to be a big deal either way.

Since Steve's comment was about American women, so was mine! In general, in my experience, the woman who don't shave are either feminists and hippies of a certain generation, or neo-hippies and   neo-pagans who are younger, and many lesbians of my acquaintance. But it's certainly not across the board for any of them...

I do think so-called "unsophisticated" American women are more likely to shave than not to (the point I was trying to make to Steve), perhaps because the men in these populations are less likely to tolerate hairiness, but that does not mean I think women who choose to shave are unsophsticiated as a rule. I was merely talking in numbers. (Making a generalization of my own, though perhaps a somewhat more informed one than he was, who knows?) And I shave my legs! And consider myself relatively sophisticated...some of the time anyway! I am half-Sicilian after all...if I were a less hairy blonde, I might opt not to shave my legs, too..

I should have added, that many women who shave choose what I actually consider very sophisticated METHODS for doing it...waxing, electrolysis, etc. and I am personally fascinated by the practice of dying the body hair or shaving it into shapes...I saw a lot of unusual examples when I was a dancer!