Trampons

Trampons. That was what one of my female acquaintances called “Super-Plus” tampons on Facebook.  She was clearly very pleased with herself, but phrased it as a question: “Does it make me a bad person when I see super-plus tampons, I immediately think “trampons”? TeeHee!”  In reply, a bunch of her male friends laughed about all those loose women who just can’t seem to plug up their cavernous vaginas during that time of the month. I guess they should have thought twice before slutting it up, now they are forever doomed to use super-plus tampons…it’s the price you pay!

For "those" women in your life!

I think what caught my attention was that it was another woman feeding this idea to the world that the only ones who need that kind of tampon are clearly sleeping around. Never mind that some women have endometriosis or fibroids or PCOS or have had a baby or has something happening that might affect their flow. I have a uterine abnormality; given the option, I fervently WISH that I didn’t need them. I hate buying them at the store, I hate keeping them in my bathroom, and there is nothing about them that I like.

Good for her if she’s never needed anything above “Regular” in the tampon department; but does that mean that she’s had less sex or sexual partners than me? No.  I’m sure there are women who have had TONS of sex who don’t need to go beyond “Light Days”. Plus, I would never judge women who are having lots and lots of sex; if it’s what they want to do and they are taking care of themselves in the process…I don’t care! You do you and do it in whatever ways works. If you need a super-plus tampon paired with an overnight pad…I don’t care! That is your business. (Unless we are having mutual bitch-fest about how awful our periods are. In which case, I feel you ‘boo. Periods are the worst and we don’t deserve this abuse).

Really, I get it; it’s a clever play on words. It’s a joke, but it’s a joke at the expense of other women who probably, if given the choice, don’t want to have to use them. I also recognize that this isn’t a horrible offense in the way other jokes can be, but still something about it rubs me the wrong way. I think it might be because this came from another woman more so than the joke itself. I'm not raging mad, just kind of disappointed.

Ladies, we need to be good to one another.  It can be easy to fall into that trap of dragging others down to be funny or to be accepted. Even when it feels great to be one of the guys, try to represent women by not tearing each other down with a thousand little cuts and jabs. We live so much of our lives shrugging off these tiny hits against us not only by strangers, but also by people we know. Each statement or judgement alone might not look like much, but the cumulative effect of this is real. If we aren’t fair to women as women, no one else is going to do it…it starts with us.

Be good to each other as much as you can. Unless someone is being a total jerk, you know when to make exceptions.

#periods #tampons #trampons #judgement