#menstruation stigma

[vigilante-duck-hawk]

This is available on my Redbubble (MothraMade)! I think it's pretty good for my first time using an art program and not something specifically designed for making cross stitch patterns. If you do cross stitch and embroidery the pattern is on my Etsy (also MothraMade), otherwise here's the link if you'd like to get this design as a sticker or something!

https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/160017960?ref=studio-promote

[talkingaboutmens]

How do you feel when people find out that you are on your period? Do people around you even know that you are menstruating? What effect does it have if they do know?

With this video, I want to gather as many experiences, thoughts and feelings about menstruation as possible. This video is part of a research project for the Swiss Science and Youth foundation.

[thedashproject]

[chemicalarospec]

Anyways reminder that you CAN talk to your doctor about periods being hell and you CAN see a gynecologist and you CAN look into Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD)! Periods may be an uncomfortable topic, but there is literally no mystic rule that can actually stop you from opening your mouth and speaking about it!

I know medicial stuff is difficult for many, but in general if your doctor isn't listening to you, you can get a new doctor! I mean, I've simply had doctors retire on me a lot and getting a new one was as simple as choosing from a few options, making a new appointment like normal, and then showing up.

For me, hormonal birth control is not an option due to cancer risk, but going on the pill and skipping the placebo week to stop having a menstrual cycle is a Thing You Can Do! You can in fact end your periods without surgery! Antidepressants can be prescribed for severe PMS or PMDD!

Also, I've found that sugar is a major exacerbater for me, so unfortunately eating less sugar can help! For me only Halloween-levels of sugar make my menstrual cycle unmanageable, though I do think my remaining struggle would decrease if I cut out added sugar entirely.

[lowpawly]

remember when mras would act like free bleeding was going to be a genuine social concern

[cyberthot666]

I just hate how you can’t really discuss your period openly without men being like “ah ha! I got you! so you ADMIT women do get more emotional on their periods” and it’s like proof women are irrational due to our hormones or whatever and that age old misogynistic excuse as to why women shouldn’t be in charge of anything but it’s like NO you would feel this way too if it was your biological reality it just isn’t so you built the whole world around that fact and left women’s experiences out and now women are left screwed either way!!!!! no matter what we say our periods are always used against us. I mean even still today they’re considered very taboo. maybe not so much in the western world but we still have a ways to go. I mean there are still fully grown & educated men in western society who believe things like women can just “hold” their periods. that tampons provide some sort of sexual sensation. that periods are dirty. that we’re over-reacting to the pain. that the hormonal fluctuation causes us to be too irrational to take on any real responsibilities. except for housework, and childcare, and providing sexual favors of course! because that’s always seen as a woman’s job no matter what! every time I get my period I’m reminded of how misogyny is rooted in how the biological functions of women differ from men.

[writtenbyshama]

An important message to all the people who menstruate.

If you use tampons and/or menstrual cups, please do not shame the ones who use pads. There are many health and/or social factors revolving around the decision of using a particular menstrual product, and shaming it will not help matters.

Recently, I came across similar posts and comments about what I mentioned above and really wish it to stop.

We all are already tired and sick and uncomfortable during periods, and let's not make it more terrible for ourselves, yeah?

[aviancataclysm]

is there a way to like block/quit 99% of tumblr but stay very active on the 1% because i cant take it any more people are so fucking stupid

or do i practice internet abstinence where i avoid looking at my dash and use tumblr solely for one or two tags (geometry dash + other fandoms i post about such as unaliver drones and gravity farts + aspec stuff because im not touching the trans tags!!! i am not!! people are so extremely weird about it even if it's the supporting side)

[talk2move-fundraising]

Kein neues Thema, aber kürzlich ist auf Netflix die Dokumentation „Stigma Monatsblutung“ erschienen und widmet sich mutig einem nach wie vor tabuisierten Thema: der Menstruation. 🩸 In dem 25-minütigen Film werden wir in den ländlichen Hapur Distrikt entführt, etwa 60 km von Delhi entfernt, wo junge Frauen mit den täglichen Herausforderungen der Menstruation konfrontiert sind. 🧘‍♀ Doch inmitten dieser Realität erhebt sich die inspirierende Figur von Sneha, die den Mut hat, gegen gesellschaftliche Normen anzukämpfen. Gemeinsam mit anderen Frauen aus ihrem Dorf gründet sie dank des Pad Projects und der Unterstützung einer Schule in Los Angeles ein Unternehmen, das handgefertigte Damenbinden herstellt und vertreibt. ❤️ Schaut euch diese berührende Dokumentation an!

[hneycmb]

"Menstruation isn't just a women's issue" and "misogyny is a contributing factor to period stigma" are two statements that can and should coexist

[becker-st]

Assignment #2

A semiotic analysis of tampon advertisements' exploitation of women

*the author of this post recognizes that menstruation is not only a female issue but is rather something that affects all those who have uteruses, regardless of gender. However, for the purposes of the following analysis of the gendered stereotypes present in the specified advertisements, menstruation will be discussed in the context of the female gender.

Tampon advertisements have long been shrouded in coy euphemisms and subtly suggestive imagery. While at face value these tactics appear to be a clever way to give a wink and a nudge to the female audience, the real strategy at play is something much less lighthearted. When tampons first arrived on U.S. shelves in the mid-1930s, government regulations and social mores made advertising the product a difficult task. Instead of trying to refute the stigma surrounding menstruation, tampon advertisements chose to use it to their advantage and continue to do so to this day. Through the employment of rhetorical devices such as euphemisms, metaphors, and personification, tampon advertisements exploit gender stereotypes and social taboos to persuade consumers to not only view menstruation as a problem but to believe that it is an issue only their products can remedy.

According to Johnston-Robledo and Chrisler (2020), menstruation meets all three of the criteria of stigma as determined by the sociologist Erving Goffman. First, because menstruation is unique to the female sex, it serves as a marker for the “tribal” identity of femaleness (Johnston-Robledo & Chrisler, 2020). Second, the hygiene and ritual practices surrounding menstruation imply that menstrual blood is viewed as dirty or unwanted (Johnston-Robledo & Chrisler, 2020). This speaks to menstruation as an abomination or “defect” of the body. Lastly, given such aversions to menstrual blood, “even reminders of such (e.g., tampons) can lead to avoidance and social distancing, which suggests that menstrual blood may serve as a blemish on women’s character” (Roberts et al., 2002, as cited in Johnston-Robledo & Chrisler, 2020). The fulfillment of all three of Goffman’s criteria of stigma makes menstruation a particularly potent source of female culture and strife.

In the context of advertising, messages are both explicitly and implicitly sent through the combination of symbols, objects, and words to communicate and connect with a target audience. Semiotics suggests that the extent to which a symbol is comprehended by the interpreter is dependent upon a number of factors. Namely, a person’s culture can heavily influence the way they receive and understand messages. Because of this, it is crucial that advertisements understand the culture of their intended audience. The following analysis of three Tampax advertisements will demonstrate how Tampon ads utilize signs, symbols, and semiotics as a whole to construct messages in the pursuit of maximum comprehension and compliance. 

In 1994, Tampax released a commercial for their new product, Tampax Compak. As its name implies, the product’s new design offered a compacted applicator. The commercial opens with a slightly more upbeat version of Billie Holiday’s “Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do,” repeating in the background. Throughout the commercial, various women are shown moving about in what is suggested to be their natural habitat. A few of the interesting shots portray several women in gowns, one in a bikini jumping into a pool, and most notably, a group of scantily-clad women running “Baywatch-style” down the beach (see Figure 1). A voice-over toward the end of the commercial boasts “nobody knows you are carrying it or wearing it." It is apparent through the commercial’s scarce mentions of the product and the numerous depictions of women frolicking in their leisure, that the advertisement is actually selling the lifestyle of the women using the product rather than the product itself. Additionally, the voiceover as well as the absence of any mention of the word “period,” conveys to consumers that periods are supposed to be kept secret and implies that one would be subjected to shame or negative reactions if anyone were to find out they were on their period. By conveying this message, the advertisement frames the compact feature of the product as a solution to the shame that they have just sold to its audience. A compact applicator doesn’t offer any benefit to a woman’s health, nor does it truly serve any purpose. It only matters when you believe that discretion is a priority. 

Figure 1

In 2008, Tampax launched one of its most popular campaigns entitled “Outsmart Mother Nature.” As seen in Figure 2, each commercial that ran as a part of the campaign featured a middle-aged woman outfitted in a green tweed suit, who served to represent the Mother Nature referenced in the campaign’s title. Already, the euphemistic personification of a woman’s period as “Mother Nature” highlights the off-limit speech that exists within the industry. Additionally, while a woman’s period is an indication of her health and maturity that some meet with celebration, the campaign’s title suggests that the biological event is in fact a problem that must be outsmarted.

Figure 2

In a commercial titled “Photoshoot” that ran as a part of the “Outsmart Mother Nature” campaign, Mother Nature visits a model on the set of a photoshoot to deliver to her a “monthly gift” which is neatly concealed inside a pink and red adorned giftbox (see Figure 2). The commercial opens with loud strobing music as viewers are shown flashes of models dressed in all white, spliced with other images depicting colors of silver and white (see Figure 3). As Mother Nature enters the set, the music screeches to a halt and she informs the model that it’s time to end the shoot, alluding to the gift in her hand. The model rebuts, claiming that because she has the new Tampax Pearl, her period doesn’t have to interrupt her life. The commercial closes with an image of the product and a voiceover repeats the campaign’s slogan, “Outsmart Mother Nature.” 

Figure 3

Throughout the commercial, the audience is presented with several layers of euphemisms. At no point are the benefits of the product explicitly stated. Rather, the advertisement uses symbols and codes to convey to viewers the hindrances of menstruation and leaves the viewer to draw her own conclusion. To start, the woman referred to as “Mother Nature” represents the giver of a period, and the pink and red box that she carries is used to represent that said period. Additionally, the use of the color white evokes notions of purity and cleanliness. A study on the depiction of women’s bodies in commercials explains: 

Consistent with prior research, disidentifying clothing was commonly used in the advertisements. Depicted women were often dressed in tight and/or white clothing. Prior research has contextualized the use of disidentifiers as a means of maintaining secrecy and avoiding shame since the advertised products are not visible under tight clothing and will prevent leaks that could soil white clothes.  (Erchull, 2011)

The use of white clothing suggests that a woman would or should fear bleeding onto her clothes while menstruating. In the commercial, the model’s white clothing is used to communicate to the audience that she is free from the anxieties of wearing white on her period, suggesting that Tampax Pearl lets her be carefree. Lastly, the advertisement’s use of a model, a golden standard of beauty in the U.S., further reinforces the idyllic narrative of Tampax Pearl.

As a part of the same “Outsmart Mother Nature” campaign, Tampax also produced several print advertisements in which the same implicative strategy is used to convey to consumers the benefits afforded to them by Tampax tampons. In one particular ad (see Figure 4), neither Mother Nature, her monthly gift, nor any other woman is present. Instead, the ad depicts a tall, dark, and handsome man outfitted in a familiarly white suit.

Figure 4

The motel room in which the man stands is decked out with all of the makings for a romantic Valentine's Day—dark red upholstery, roses, chocolate, and a man cast in an angelic glow. The only thing missing is his date, who, as suggested by the ad copy, has been afflicted by Mother Nature’s monthly gift (i.e. her period). The beaming light and the white of the man’s suit work together to cast him in an image of purity that stands in stark contrast to the red hue of Mother Nature’s storm that brews just behind him. The implication of this is that the man is “good” and that Mother Nature, and consequently the absent woman, are “bad.” In a study that examined women’s experiences with sex during menstruation, over half of the surveyed participants indicated that they experienced negative reactions to sex while menstruating (Fahs, 2020). In the fashion of the old Nature versus Culture dichotomy, this advertisement exploits this facet of menstrual stigma by implying that a woman’s period impedes intimacy. Unlike the “Photoshoot” commercial, this print ad doesn’t make any explicit reference to tampons or periods. However, the Tampax logo affixed beneath the campaign’s slogan in the corner of the ad manages to still suggest that even if you can’t stop Mother Nature, you can at least outsmart her by using Tampax.

Today, almost a century since the modern tampon first hit the U.S. market, tampon ads are still beating around the bush. Issues of censorship and the social taboo surrounding periods, while progressive in relation to the ‘30s, continue to persist nonetheless. The potent stigma surrounding menstruation presents tampon advertisements with a distinct opportunity for the maximization of their efficacy. Thus far, tampon ads have capitalized on women’s shame by gift wrapping it in a little pink and red box. However, analyses such as this may hopefully indicate that the time for clever equivocation at the expense of women is no more. The treatment of women’s periods in the media has become palliative at best and it’s time for a new strategy.

References:

[djuvlipen]

There is a woman called Nomcebo Mkhaliphi. She is a feminist activist fighting to end period stigma in Eswatini and she is now raising funds to continue her work travelling around schools to teach kids about period, distributing pads to girls and school shoes to those who need them. I am linking her GoFundMe here in case anyone wants to donate!