Whether you’re team bush or team Barbie, society likes to change its mind every two seconds on what women should be doing with their pubic hair.
One day, we’re told that being hairless is the only way to secure a steamy sex life, the next it’s totally unfeminist to prefer a landing strip over a full forest.
And now, Kim Kardashian has officially joined the conversation, launching a new line of underwear decorated with a variety of different coloured and shaped faux pubic hair mounds.
Dubbed the ‘Faux Hair Micro String Thong,’ SKIMS announced the release of the merkin-looking products in a series of videos on TikTok.
One campaign advertisement was captioned: ‘Just Dropped: The Ultimate Bush. With our daring new Faux Hair Panty, your carpet can be whatever color you want it to be.’ The campaign also includes a promotional video featuring a Blind Date-esque game show where women reveal if ‘the carpet matches the drapes’.
The underwear, which retails for $32 a pair, comes in 12 different colours. But if you fancy grabbing yourself a synthetic and stretchy pubic accessory, you’re going to have to wait. All iterations of the furry thong are currently sold out in the UK.
Unsurprisingly, the internet has had quite the reaction to the new knickers. One user on Instagram said: ‘Kimberly, pls show me the market research. Who asked for this?’ While another wrote: ‘Years of laser and here we are…’
Performative or progressive?
The pubic panties could be seen as fuzzy step forward: Kim’s encouraging people to feel comfortable in flaunting their body hair as desirable, stylish even — rather than to be tweezed, shaved and waxed away.
Annabelle Knight, Sex & Relationships Expert at Lovehoney said they could be seen as a ‘quiet rebellion against unnatural beauty standards.’
She told Metro: ‘It’s refreshing to see Kim champion something rooted in realness. It signals that sensuality doesn’t have to be airbrushed or performative — it can be natural, and self-defined.
‘It’s women collectively saying: I don’t need to apologise for being human.‘
But critics have asked whether these hairy thongs are really the pro-bush stance they at first may seem to be.
The bushy knickers feature a mound of pubic hair, sitting on top of a sheer thong. Is it possible that Kim designed a pair of underwear specifically catered to people who are hairless to begin with?
Dr Helena Lewis-Smith, a health psychology researcher specialising in body image, told Metro: ‘Given Kim’s history of promoting a ‘hairless’ beauty ideal, it feels more performative than progressive.’
Back in 2023, SKIMS launched the equally controversial ‘built-in nipple bra.’
The product, which faced a lot of backlash from customers, had built in nipples, and promised to provide shoppers with a ‘perfect fullness’ for a ‘perky braless look.’
At the time, psychiatrist, aesthetic doctor and body specialist Dr Galyna Selezneva told Metro that it was ‘a caricature, almost comical portrayal of a nipple.’
She added: ‘To me, this is not empowering. No two nipples are the same. But this bra is about covering up what you’ve actually got, to fit into a perfect box.’
The same could apply to the panties: women are encouraged to cover their real pubic hair, with Kim’s faux hair that, while bushy, is still relatively groomed, with not an in-grown or stray in sight.
Dr Helena also adds that pubic hair represents more than just an aesthetic decision or grooming choice.
‘While this product could be seen as challenging restrictive beauty ideals, it also risks trivializing a genuine feminist issue,’ she says.
A research study by body care tech company SmoothSkin found that women are 2.5 times more likely than men to feel societal pressure to remove their body hair. They’re also 5% more likely to feel like society has different expectations for body hair for women than it does for men.
Dr Lewis-Smith continued: ‘Pubic hair is tied up with ideas of control, sexuality, and beauty standards. Because women’s bodies are so heavily regulated through beauty standards, the presence or absence of pubic hair can become a visible marker of conformity or resistance, and even identity.’
Finally, it’s worth remembering that Kim is an astute business woman who knows a money maker when she sees one.
‘Rather than challenging societal pressures on women’s bodies, this could simply commodify them, turning autonomy over our bodies into a marketing opportunity,’ Dr Lewis-Smith adds.
It’s a sentiment shared by Dr Galyna: ‘My only explanation is the commercial genius that the marketing behind all the Kardashian’s brands.
‘We unfortunately live in a viral environment where the product itself doesn’t matter, as long as it’s viral.’
Is body hair really a ‘choice’?
Virginia Menedez, is a gender equality expert and feminist. Speaking to Metro, she says: ‘On the surface, shaving is presented as a personal preference: “I like how it feels” or “it’s my choice”, but this choice is heavily shaped by pervasive social conditioning.’
‘If societal norms did not frame hairlessness as essential to femininity and desirability, many women might not adopt the practice or might abandon it earlier.’
Do you have a story to share?
Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@Metro.co.uk.