This article was originally published in the October 2025 print edition.
Skims, a shapewear and clothing company co-founded by Kim Kardashian, released the “Faux Hair Micro String Thong” this month. The product follows a TikTok trend “bringing back bush.” An effort to empower women has instead culminated in a product, affirming the tendency of capitalism to dictate standards for women’s bodies.
Recently, new trends appear to defy typical standards for female bodies. Last summer, the phrases “bush is back” and “full bush in a bikini” echoed across TikTok, introducing a rhetoric of empowerment surrounding visible body hair on women.
Similar trends have appeared on TikTok before. For instance, bralessness resurfaced through social media platforms in 2023. That year, Skims released their “nipple push-up bra,” which promised a “bra-less” look while still providing support. Somehow, Kim Kardashian managed to turn enthusiasm for wearing less bras into an opportunity to buy more of them.
Trends breaking norms for women’s bodies seem productive in forwarding inclusive thinking about beauty standards. But can a trend really sustain empowerment for women?
No, it cannot. While social media can foster public discourse and is, in a way, a reflection of the opinions of our society, the ephemerality of trends prevents them from producing lasting change.
By nature, trends feed a capitalistic cycle through their foundation in consumption. Take the internet’s new obsession with matcha, a Japanese green tea. Its popularity has been so intense that prices for matcha have increased by 170%, according to Food&Drink Digital. But when cycles of consumerism revolve around women’s bodies and “empowerment” are co-opted by brands, the stakes grow higher. Women’s bodies — in particular, how they look — are critical to mass consumption as new trending products introduce and enforce beauty standards.
Trends concerning physical appearances are often tethered to material goods, such as makeup and workout products, that require a purchase to participate in. A new lip product emerges almost weekly, and the expensive “necessities” to becoming a pilates-loving “it-girl” are seemingly boundless. As Lululemon leggings and de-bloating gummies flood social media platforms, the emptiness of such trends becomes increasingly apparent, as they blatantly feed consumerist culture.
However, becoming pro-bush and anti-bra does not require a purchase. They imply the opposite, that bras and hair-removal products are no longer needed. This sounds ideal, but we shouldn’t forget that trends inherently rely on commodification. Skims products serve as an expensive reminder of this contradiction.
The ethos of the pro-bush trend is to embrace the diversity of women’s bodies and reject the narrative that women must alter themselves to appeal to others. Kim Kardashian’s faux-bush thong directly opposes this ideal. It encourages women to purchase a product in order to appear natural. There is no empowerment in a commodified version of authenticity.
Social media cannot yield meaningful change through trends as long as they remain dependent on a fast-paced economic pattern of supply and demand. Instead, it creates ridiculous products like fake-pubic hair thongs.
This is not to say that there is no hope for finding empowerment in the diversity of women’s bodies through online spaces. Empowerment must be achieved through other means and driven by a willingness to embrace open-mindedness rather than meet an objective standard.
True empowerment stems from authenticity, as opposed to adhering to standards placed by others. Trends may have a role in opening minds to new ways of being. The normalization of existing without bras and hair-removal is a step towards long-term change. Fake bush thongs and nipple bras are not the answers — genuine acceptance and resistance to commodification are.
