Push for bush gets knickers in a knot

American Apparel thrives on shock value.

First there was the flesh-and-blood model in transparent underwear. Last year we had the menstruating hairy vagina T-shirt. Gross.

Now we have mannequins with big hairy bushes spilling out of equally frightening knickers in shop windows.

Compared with previous stunts, a merkin (a pubic wig) on a mannequin seems relatively tame.

Nevertheless it has had New Yorkers stopping in their tracks to look at and take photos of the store's shopfront window in New York. Naturally, the store has been inundated with press calls.

Like I say, a brazen PR stunt.

But the reaction to the hairy mannequins and the subsequent fuss they've caused says more about the world we live in than the company's cheap shot at free marketing.

Why are big hairy bushes still such a shocking thing?

I know I don't really need to answer that. As my fellow Wonder Women writer Beverley Turner explained recently, a whole generation of young men are grossed out by Mother Nature's handiwork because it hasn't appeared on porn stars since the early 1990s.

Putting pubic hair on full display for the American public feels like a scene from some 1970s porn film, when big bushes were all the rage.

Nevertheless, taking a step back from the whole thing, it's entirely funny that such a natural thing can still be so shocking.

In an era where we're used to seeing blood and gore in video games, Hollywood films and the like, and where we're bombarded with sexual imagery in advertising, music videos and so on, a bit of pubic hair still has the power to upset us more.

Fast forward 10 years, though, and this may not be the case. Half of 1870 women who answered an online pharmacy poll recently said they do not "style or groom their pubic hair'', with 45% admitting they can "no longer be bothered to keep up the grooming''. Interestingly, two-thirds of partners prefer the natural look, the survey by UK Medix showed.

As this return of the big bush trickles down into mainstream culture - as it looks likely to do - the thought of seeing a bit of pubic hair in the odd shop window won't be as eyebrow-raising as it currently is. We could even reach the point where seeing no hair - completely shaved - disgusts us more.

That day might well be a long way off. Until then, what can I say but enjoy the view, ladies.