Indeed, every time I brought up my purchase (yes, I’m an oversharer), hairy conversations were had—which, beauty historian Rachael Gibson argues, is sort of the point. “This is a marketing piece to get us talking, in keeping with the nipple bra,” she says. “It feels uncomfortable to me to monetize and market bodily features as a punch line, which is what this feels like, as opposed to some kind of celebration of body hair, which it definitely isn’t.”
Kardashian, to be sure, is on-the-record virtually hairless. “I am Armenian, so of course I am obsessed with laser hair removal,” she told Allure in 2010. “Arms, bikini, legs, underarms….” And more recently she’s shared selfies from laser-hair-removal spas. Could it be, then, that she’s experiencing a bit of hair envy?
“I was one of those girls who sprinted to get laser hair removal the second I was old enough,” says Vogue sex columnist Eileen Kelly, “a decision I now mildly regret, as I’m as bald as they come down there. For people like me who have a touch of bush envy, this feels like a charming experiment in wish fulfillment. Though I suppose the logistics get tricky. What happens when it’s time to actually have sex? Does the bush have to come off?”
While I myself haven’t quite figured out the when-where-how of wearing my new merkin outside the house, I do think the Birkin comparison is apt: You buy it to show it off, not trap it under a pair of Levi’s. It should be noted, though, that I’m more of a Margaux 15 girl.
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