Women, do you shave? How much, and why?
I used to. I spent hours each week shaving half my body, and resenting that men only had to worry about a few square inches on their faces.
I never questioned it. It was just expected, and I didn't want to stand out or be "gross" or "disgusting", so I did it.
Then one day I had enough. I stopped caring what other people thought (kind of, I do try to keep it hidden as much as possible and would make exceptions to go to a pool or wear shorts) and decided that if men could have beards, and European women could go without wasting time and money to have smooth skin for a day or so, that I would too. And I've never looked back. I am so much happier hairy because I realized I wasn't doing it "for me", I was doing what I'd been conditioned to do, because I am female.
That thread in GD got me thinking of this. It is so unfair, IMO, that women have so many extra restrictions. It bugs me a lot.
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Too bad the trend didn't move in the other direction.
It's a boon for the razor blade manufacturers, however.
just cant figure it, but ok.
I tried one of those things on my leg once. Once.
No flipping way would I have done it enough times for lasting effects.
I don't wear hose either. I'll suck it up and conform for special occasions. Usually I just wear boots. 
I'm fortunate that my man likes my naturalness.
If I had been with someone who disagreed when I made this decision, it would have been bye bye time.
Who'd have thunk?
And I have no doubt things would be much different, in just the type of ways she describes.
hair you used to shave, like armpits and legs falls out, so you don't need to exfoliate anymore. The bad news is your eyebrows pretty much fall out but you get new growth on your chin and above your lips. Well I take care of those growths with wax and my eyebrows are tattooed back on. It's great though not to have to shave the other body parts anymore.
i guess. lol. 
cause i am sure not gonna fight it. seems women have to fight all the way thru. not gonna do it anymore.
'Course I stopped scrapping even those "few square inches" years ago, too. And the last time I cut my hair I think Reagan was president. Life's too short to worry about that sort of thing. I know some people genuinely feel better about themselves when they conform to others' standards of grooming-- that's fine, and more power to 'em. Me, I rather like my body in it's original wrapper. Glad to hear that works for you, too! 
Just seems weird that pubic hair and the shave or not to shave topic has gained so much traction. maybe I am just weird.
I shave my pits, legs and nether regions though I often go lax on doing the legs because it's so much area to cover, and in the winter I don't get enough hot water to do everything in the shower I want to be doing... and often I just don't feel like shaving my leg hair whatever the season. I don't even think about what anyone thinks about my long dark leg hairs when I get lazy about shaving them.
I've always shaved my nether regions. When it first started growing in I plucked them out with tweezers until I couldn't keep up with it (and it bloody hurt!). It didn't occur to me then to shave it then until my older sister (who has never shaved anything "down there" advised using a razor. I don't like it, and it has nothing to do with porn or society. Women didn't shave their nether regions back then, and I didn't know anything about porn.
For me it's much more comfortable shaven. Heredity in our family is long thick profusion of dark nether region hair that climbs and twines like ivy into areas most people don't have it. Mine would get stuck in the elastic of my panties, which hurt when yanked on, itched like mad with the slightest moisture of perspiration (and I was very athletic, so this was a normal daily condition for me if not being in a running splattering sweat), and the worst was getting caked dried menses gluing the hairs together on either "side" so that spreading the legs just to step over the bathtub rim yanked out hairs which was excruciating. Back then girls my age didn't use tampons, but after several periods in a row using pads and having this happen several times each month so that I had to shimmy into the bathtub and soak the hairs to separate them I got more vigorous with shaving and started using tampons.
Just like with men shaving their faces, keeping up with shaving the nether regions doesn't cause itchiness, redness, etc. at all, and for a lot of us it's the shaving that gets RID of itchiness and redness that is CAUSED by the hair being there. One of my brothers is an avid runner, and finally started shaving his chest because, like me, the slightest bit of perspiration on his chest caused ghastly itching. Many of my male athletic friends that have chest hair do the same for the same reason though they mostly preferred having the hair because they claimed women liked it (and I confess there were a couple who had the most perfect chest hair that's really attractive to me, so I was hugely bummed they shaved it off).
Just like with facial hair and head hair everyone has their preference with nether region hair now that society permits that people do what they like with their nether region hair. I think it's ridiculous to make any assumptions of why anyone shaves any part of their body or why they don't, and I'm astounded that anyone would judge someone for what they do or don't do with their nether region hair just as I would be if they were judgmental about what they did or didn't do with their head or facial hair... or their leg hair, armpit hair, chest hair, back hair, butt hair or any other body hair. And I'm glad that society now permits men to shave their chest hair off if it bothers them without being judged as being gay (as if that's something that's bad anyway!).