Herbenick readily admits that today, both men and women alike largely consider pubic hair dirty or unfeminine. In other words, it carries a less-than-desirable stigma among members of both sexes. “But I would put it this way: so does the rest of women’s body hair,” she counters. “Pubic hair was kind of the last to join.” After all, she says, women remove their leg hair and underarm hair all over the Western world, and many report that they would feel ashamed or embarrassed if they didn’t. “They wouldn’t want people to see that on them,” she says. “They say they would feel unfeminine, or that they wouldn’t feel sexy.”

So what does it all mean? Is pubic hair removal a symbol of feminine pride, something that Gloria Steinem might be proud of? Or does it signify submission to a domineering male agenda?

“It’s all in how people deal with it,” Herbenick says. As she’s seen in her lecture-hall encounters, the hairless vulva isn’t always analogous to the clenched fist of female solidarity; just as often, it’s a telltale sign of oppression or forced conformity.

But, she says, uncovered, demystified genitalia can just as easily be a symbol of empowerment. “Many women have started to feel a sense of ownership over their bodies — an autonomy,” she says. “If they want to take it off, they take it off. If they want to grow it back, they grow it back. If they want to shave it into a heart, they shave it into a heart. But they’re doing it because they want to.”