Braun, V. , Tricklebank, G. and Clarke, V. (2013) It shouldnt stick out ...

GENDER AND HAIR REMOVAL 15
patterns of meaning by re-coding the entire dataset, disregarding both the questions to which
participants responded and whether they were responding to generic, male, or female bodies. The
codes were also revised at this stage to add more detail, producing more complex codes such as
“not embarrassing, but...,” “interferes with sex,” and “individual choice, but...” At this point, the
codes identified were collated in order to develop potential themes. In the third step, provisional
themes were created from the codes, such as “caveats,” “personal choice within limits,” and
“attractiveness/looking good.” The fourth stage involved further refinement of provisional
themes, which meant revisiting the coded data, and then the full dataset, to determine the fit of
potential themes.
Key Themes
Results
The final themes identified were: (Theme 1) what you do with pubic hair is up to you
(within limits), (Theme 2) pubic hair is and should be private, (Theme 3) pubic hair is not dirty
but having less is cleaner, (Theme 4) pubic hair interferes with having sex, and (Theme 5) pubic
hair is unattractive and should be removed. We sequentially present these five themes, developed
with illustrative data examples. In line with a qualitative framework, we do not quantify the
number of respondents articulating each theme, but each was expressed by at least two-thirds of
our 67 participants, with the exception of “pubic hair is not dirty but having less is cleaner,”
which was articulated by over half. Questions regarding gender will be primarily discussed at the
end.
Theme 1: Choice. One of the most prominent themes was an endorsement of personal
choice around pubic hair—but within limits. Choice was evident throughout the data, both at
semantic and latent levels, and was particularly strongly expressed in relation to questions asking