"Real Women" Use Tampons

Ugh.

Look. I understand that the point of advertising is to create some sort of insecurity that your product is meant to prop up and plaster over. I get that. But how insane do you have to be to put out an ad that says that femininity is not only competitive, but defined by mascara, lip gloss, tits, and menstruation?!?

Are little girls not capable of being feminine, or post-menopausal women, or women who have had a hysterectomy, or pregnant women, or women who are nursing infants, or hard-core women athletes, or women with various kinds of illness? I already know about the apparent answer when it comes to trans women, and there’s only one answer to that nonsense.

Ugh.

I almost wish I used this product just so I could boycott it.

Ugh.

Via Dr. Petra.

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"Real Women" Use Tampons
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17 thoughts on “"Real Women" Use Tampons

  1. 4

    Do they have any idea how many pads we have to buy in preperation for SRS?

    If bleeding out of your crotch is what defines femininity, then post-op trans women get to be the most feminine thing in the universe for two months.

  2. Sas
    7

    Wow.

    The fact that bathrooms are used to discriminate against trans women all the time just adds an extra layer of skeeviness to this.

  3. 9

    Oh, I don;t think ‘real women’ do anything as icky as use a tampon. They just have them in the cute packets with the nice design on them.

  4. 12

    Well, I’ve known I was a “fake woman” for ages.* Far as I’m concerned, the sooner we can throw both “femininity” and “masculinity” on the junk heap of history, the better. I mean, given what our culture says what those fictive constructs “women” and “men” have to be like, who’d really want to be one if they thought they had a choice? (I’m not talking about sex here, I’m talking about gender.)

    ____
    * I have no real gender; I’m just passing as a “woman” because people treat me better than when I look how I like, and I’m tired of paying social penalties for the stuff I can control as opposed to the stuff I can’t. Never mind the gender wage gap, ask me about the disability wage gap sometime…

  5. 13

    I almost wish I used this product just so I could boycott it.

    And *I* wish that I could be your Libra tampon.

    Ooh, now there’s a marketing slogan they should have considered! And with all the financial difficulties we’ve been having on our side of the pond of late, the royal family could make proper use of the royalty payments. Heh.

  6. 15

    And *I* wish that I could be your Libra tampon.

    Thought I’m almost certain it would be bad for my health I sometimes wish I could really know what goes on inside these people’s heads when they come up with this shit. I mean seriously, honestly fucking c’mon, how the hell do you just say something like that and think it’s a good idea?

  7. 16

    And don’t anyone dare tell me “It’s a fucking joke!” until you personally walk up to a total stranger in the feminine hygiene aisle and say “Hey you! I want to be your tampon! Ha! It’s a joke! Get it? Ha!” and have them genuinely laugh.

  8. 17

    @Jodie
    It’s a reference to a leaked telephone conversation between Prince Charles of Britain and his then lover Camilla Parker-Bowles, in which he used this very phrase.

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