Before women leave the house for a night out, there’s a routine we all follow. We check that our makeup isn’t smudged. We add a dash of perfume to the nape of our necks. And … we carefully comb out the faux pubes on our underwear. No? Is that last bit not part of your evening checklist at present? Well, it might be, if Kim Kardashian gets her way.
Following her release of the viral “nipple bra” a few years ago, the reality-TV star turned business mogul has brought out yet another Internet-breaking item through her $4 billion intimates company, Skims. This time, it’s a “merkin.”
Technically called a “Faux Hair Micro String Thong,” this latest offering is a G-string with synthetic hair on the front, meant to emulate perfect pubes. And don’t worry, in case you were concerned about the inclusivity of the Kardashian hairy muff, there’s a variety of colors and textures, so if you want it straight or curly or blond or black, there’s a style for every minge.
Kardashian, of course, did not invent the merkin. They originated in the 15th century, when sex workers weary of S.T.D.’s would deforest their lady gardens to oust any unwanted critters. Bare nether regions were at the time associated with unsanitary, infested goods, hardly worth paying top dollar for, hence the invention of the merkin.
Fast-forward to the year 2025 and a bare bush is upsettingly normal, with the Brazilian being the most common type of bikini wax in America, and most women under the age of 30 having opted for laser hair-removal treatments in one way or another. So who is the target market that caused the entire Skims merkin line to be sold out in a single day?
My first thought was perhaps people going undercover at a nudist event, or those who got lasered and now miss the comforting warmth of a curly covering. The likelier option is that it’s being bought as a novelty item, in the same spirit as Sydney Sweeney’s bathwater soap (a limited-edition bar of soap created in collaboration with Dr. Squatch that is made with a small amount of the actress’s “actual” bathwater).
It helps that the thong is surprisingly cheap: $32. Although, if you’re thinking about buying your own, when running your calculations you should include the cost of regular waxes as well, because I’m pretty sure to have the full effect you’d have to remove your real hair before applying Kardashian’s. It feels weird to take off the O.G. version just to replace it with a synthetic one—like old buildings with painted windows covering the bricked-up ones. But not doing so would look even stranger, like placing a rug on a carpet or painting nails on gloves.
No matter the purpose, it all feels eerily dystopian. A hairy bush can be fashionable and transgressive. Merkins featured in Maison Margiela’s Artisanal 2024 runway show, with the Icelandic singer Björk then wearing one on the cover of Vogue Scandinavia. Julia Fox, the Uncut Gems actress and former girlfriend of Kardashian’s former husband Kanye West, was spotted in a hairy bra with her own hairy underwear for a particularly memorable ensemble.
But there’s nothing transgressive about Kardashian’s new thong. While Fox’s act was a statement, Kardashian’s is pure transaction. It would have at least had the potential of being interesting if it had been more realistic and less manicured. I might have respected it if it had a hairy back passage along the string up the rear, for instance. But I’m not sure even that could have saved it.
The only statement I can think Kardashian is making is a big middle finger to West’s new wife, Bianca Censori, who famously stood beside her clothed husband while wearing very little—including any pubes—at this year’s Grammys (which the couple had not been invited to). But even that, I think, gives Kardashian too much credit.
This is just another move to profit off of women’s insecurities. As women, our body hair does make a statement and can be political. We live in a patriarchal world that often demands women prune and pamper themselves for the male gaze, and refusing to do so can be powerful, but this is the exact opposite. In fact, it’s an eerily perfect metaphor for the commodification of women’s bodies and the way women are made to feel bad about themselves to push products.
There’s nothing off-limits, and nothing that can’t be profited off when it comes to our bodies. You might have thought your puss was safe, but Kardashian’s sister Kourtney already brought out a line of gummies to improve the taste of it, trying to convince women they should smell like sweet Starbursts (and if any man agrees, he’s too immature to have his tongue anywhere near any of your lips).
Kardashian’s thong might come in many different styles, but there’s one demographic noticeably absent: men. Because selling their insecurities back to them is a practice solely reserved for women.
Flora Gill is a London-based writer
