Kim Kardashian’s pubic hair thong ad exposes Instagram’s double standards

Yesterday, Kim Kardashian's clothing brand SKIMS announced its latest product on Instagram: faux hair panties. "The Ultimate Bush." Thongs that feature a patch on the front that resembles pubic hair — available in several colors!

"Your carpet can be whatever color you want," declared a model in SKIMS' Instagram video. "Match, don't match, or switch it up mid-day."

Similar to the SKIMS nipple bra that debuted two years ago, these tongue-in-cheek products seemingly highlight parts of women's bodies that are traditionally kept hidden. They also showcase the hypocrisy of Instagram's policies.

The great shadowbanning

For years, sex workers — as well as LGBTQ creators, sex educators, activists, and others — have said that their accounts have been disabled, banned, or shadowbanned (unable to be found via Search or Explore) on Instagram, despite posting content that fits within the platform's community guidelines. 

This is something a variety of creators have been battling on the platform since 2019, Dr. Carolina Are, platform governance researcher, content creator, and then innovation fellow at Northumbria University's Center for Digital Citizens, told Mashable back in 2023. 

Many of these creators have claimed that Instagram uses rules against nudity and sexual solicitation against them, even if their posts don't contain these things. 

The problem still persists. Adult performer and activist, Siri Dahl, told Mashable back in June, when discussing censorship on the internet, that she's on her eighth Instagram account and the platform is becoming more strict. It even extends to link services like Linktree (which has booted sex workers in the past) and GetAllMyLinks. Dahl claimed that links adult creators like herself have in their bio are starting to get "blacklisted" by the platform. (Instagram didn't respond to Mashable's request for comment at the time.)

Meta, Instagram's parent company, which also owns Facebook and WhatsApp, has rejected period care ads for being adult or political, Mashable reported in 2023. A Meta spokesperson told Mashable at the time that advertisers can run ads promoting sexual health, wellness, and reproductive products and services — but as a global company, it needs to account for the diverse range of people who see ads to avoid potential negative experiences. Meta's Adult Products or Services Ads Policy restricts these ads — like saying they must focus on health and medical efficacy. Ads can't promote products that focus on arousal.

Yet, SKIMS can post about its pubic hair underwear without penalty.

Ultimate Bush? Ultimate Hypocrisy 

On Tuesday, SKIMS shared three videos advertising The Ultimate Bush to its Instagram feed and stories. They were shot in vintage style, featuring 1970s game show aesthetics and hairstyles. (It's important to note that these are not sponsored posts or paid advertisements, as the ads above were. SKIMS was merely posting freely to Instagram to promote its product.)

Instagram didn't ban, restrict, or shadowban SKIMS for this, nor did it for their nipple bra posts. Instagram also hasn't done so to the Kardashians, despite what they wear in their Instagram posts.

But if a small creator — say, an OnlyFans model — posted themselves in The Ultimate Bush, there's a high chance their post would be restricted. Instagram could claim that the post counted as sexual solicitation or nudity.

Double standards in social media moderation have been studied. Back in 2023, researcher and founder of content moderation service Reliabl, Annie Brown, told Mashable that while Instagram supposedly allows for artistic representations of nudity, many users observe that larger accounts — such as those of the Kardashians — can get away with it, while non-celebrities are at risk of having their accounts hidden from non-followers.

As of this writing, every $32 pair of SKIMS' Faux Hair Micro String Thong is on backorder, suggesting that the videos were widely seen. This simply wouldn't be the case with smaller creators.

Mashable has reached out to SKIMS and Instagram for comment.