The Latest Style in Pubic Hair

I make oil paintings. I love my paintings and have them hanging all over my house, with many more stacked up in my art studio. I also have given them to close friends and family members when there is one in particular they have admired. They are of varying subjects including flowers, landscapes and lately, portraits. Many are completely abstract studies of the interplay of colors and shapes. I have sold a few in shows over the years, but not enough to make me anybody special in the art world. Now I know why.

In today's New York Times magazine there is a one-page Q&A with an artist roughly my age who is clearly successful. I never heard of Marilyn Minter before today but apparently she is a big deal. Her work centers on "women's issues," which are all the rage these days and surprisingly include quasi-pornographic, close-up paintings of women sucking men's penises. Sometimes there are two women sucking on one penis. (Funny, I would have said that's more of a men's issue, but that's just me.)

The interview about Minter's current exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum includes the following exchange: "There is an entire wall of your paintings, which were commissioned by Playboy, of women's pubic hair." The artist replies, "I'm trying to make a case for it because it's a beautiful thing." She goes on to explain that she wants young girls to stop lasering. The Times asks, "What if you're the reason that pubic hair makes a comeback in the next decade?" She replies that one should "do whatever you want for fashion, just don't laser."

I am stunned, having had no idea about any of this. I still have all my pubic hair and wouldn't have it any other way. I found the whole thing depressing, but at least I now know what's hot in art.