Sears Appears To Yank Some, But Not All, Of Its Racy Bondage Wear From Site (NSFW PHOTOS)

Sears seems to be in the midst of an identity crisis.

The big-box store, which once prided itself on its "softer side," has listed on its retail site quite a wide variety of provocative bondage items, including a "leather adjustable harness," a "leather spanking skirt," and a "leather bra and g-string set."

A quick search on Sears' website for Elegant Moments, one of Sears' third party lingerie vendors, brings up the following listings:

But clicking on any of these items brings up the following error message:

It's not entirely clear why the Elegant Moments line is unavailable. We reached out to Sears for clarification but did not hear back. Various news outlets have reported that Sears recently pulled the line from its website entirely.

A Sears spokesman told MSN Money that the company performs "routine content audits to remove items or product images that do not meet our Marketplace guidelines."

Makes sense, except that as of Tuesday afternoon, there were still plenty of bondage-inspired products still available on Sears' site:

While Sears' motivations for pulling some of the items from the website are still unclear, it may be related to competition with other online retailers. As Consumerist pointed out last week, Amazon features some of the same bondage items at a much lower price.

In May, the company reported quarterly losses after seeing profits a year prior. Since the company was taken over by Kmart in 2005, sales have dropped considerably and its stock has plummeted.