American Apparel Explains Its Merkin-Clad Mannequins

Yesterday, an American Apparel outpost in downtown Manhattan rolled out a window display featuring mannequins rocking serious pubic hair. Well, the company has since explained itself and—wouldn’t you know? They just want us to feel comfortable with our bodies, ladies!

The company provided Elle with a statement:

“American Apparel is a company that celebrates natural beauty, and the Lower East Side Valentine’s Day window continues that celebration,” a rep told us. “We created it to invite passerbys to explore the idea of what is ‘sexy’ and consider their comfort with the natural female form. This is the same idea behind our advertisements which avoid many of the photoshopped and airbrushed standards of the fashion industry. So far we have received positive feedback from those that have commented and we’re looking forward to hearing more points of view.”

Emphasis mine.

I’m certainly a-okay with anything that helps destigmatize the bush. But given the long, long, long, long history of criticism of the company’s ads for being objectifying—pretty troll-y, guys!