Why American Apparel’s pubic hair mannequins are no big deal

Leave it to American Apparel to shock and offend.

With recent gaffes like its menstruation T-shirt and ads featuring women's bare breasts and bottoms, it's no wonder people are frequently outraged at the "genius" of the AA marketing department.

But this week, media is calling the retailer out for displaying mannequins with pubic hair at one of their New York City stores, something that arguably doesn't deserve such heavy-handed criticism.

"And now we have mannequins with big hairy bushes, spilling out of equally frightening knickers in shop windows," writes Louisa Peacock from The Telegraph.

But hold on a second, "frightening?" Does seeing pubic hair on women really induce terror? If indeed it does, we should probably examine why seeing adult women mannequins resembling young girls without pubic hair isn't viewed as equally scary.

Admittedly, the retailer's latest stunt is designed to shock, but the move is more grey than their past antics, not to mention more thought-provoking.

The idea that women who go au-naturel are unattractive is a socially-constructed myth -- one that's been bought into for far too long.

A spokesperson for the retailer says the display was created to challenge our comfort level with a woman's natural appearance.

"American Apparel is a company that celebrates natural beauty, and the Lower East Side Valentine's Day window continues that celebration," Ryan Holiday tells Gothamist. "We created it to invite passerby's to explore the idea of what is 'sexy' and consider their comfort with the natural female form."

Now if only stores would start displaying mannequins of different body abilities, shapes, sizes and races -- that would really be progress.