The Hairless Ape?

Okay, so last night I was working on the scene in Chloe's Education where Chloe and Adam do it for the first time and I realised that I'd given Adam a 'smooth bare chest'. I'd made him hairless, which for me is unusual. Let me explain. I'm hairy. Very hairy. I've got fluffy black hair on my chest, all down my torso and tummy that runs into my pubic hair. I have hairy underarms and hairy arms and legs. I have to shave my face every day for I'll have a Bin Laden beard. What can I say? I'm a man. I have testosterone. I'm hairy.

Now, it seems to be the fashion at the moment for men to shave off all their body hair, wax their legs and chests, to become hairless. Hell, watch any porno flick made this century and the men (and women) don't even have pubes for gods sake. That's odd, isn't it? When you're 13, being a 'sconner' is the height of embarrassment, but now, as soon as you get them you have to shave them off. On this year's The Apprentice (UK version) the eventual winner, Lee, was making a list of points about a 'modern man' for the final. And he came out with "And he defiantly shaves his balls." All I can say is he must be brave 'cause I ain't letting a sharp blade anywhere near my nut-sack thank you very much. I wouldn't want to get a nick down there. Or shaving rash. Ow-fucking-ouch!

Anyway, the point is, I don't have truck with all this 'going hairless' shit and neither do my heroes-normally. I think a man should be a man - warts, hair and all. So why have I made Adam hairless? I don't know. Maybe it was an oversight. Either way, I think I'll have to change it. Given Chloe is a movie-star, she'll be used to her 'celebrity friends' being hairless, so running her finger through Adam's chest hair should be a novelty. It'll turn her on. I know it will.

And speaking of Chloe...

In this re-write I'm working on, I've described her in her introduction as "Britain's latest sweetheart". Now, we've all heart the expression "American Sweetheart" before, but "British Sweetheart" isn't something you here very often. I guess that the sort of girl you'd describe as "an American Sweetheart" would, if she were English, be described as an "English Rose." Think Princess Di, Kate Winslet, Kiera Knightly - English Roses all.

So I should change Chloe's introductory description to "She was the latest in a long of of English Roses to grace the silver screen" or something like that.

And this got me thinking. I've never been very happy with the title. Chloe's Education seems... wrong, somehow. So could I call the story England's Rose instead? And if I did, should I change Chloe's name? If the story were called England's Rose, should my heroine be called Rose? Rose Goodman - it seems to fit. Seems to work. But I don't know. She's Chloe. She has been from the start and for over a year.

It's something I'll have to think about.