Biology Refuses to Play Along

Tampon company says only women have periods, accused of lying

A company that sells tampons has been accused of lying in advertisements that insist “only women can have periods”.

They thought they were stating the bleeding obvious. But apparently the idea that only women menstruate is highly controversial in these enlightened times.

Personally I thought it was good news since it explained my irritable mood. But I digress.

Company director Macy Maxson said she received emails from people concerned that advertisements for her Garnuu tampons “lead children to think that only women can have periods”.

She said the criticism shocked her because the reality that only women menstruate is “the truth, and so we’re just in a world that doesn’t know truth anymore.”  

Maxson said her company’s advertisements were aimed at countering other tampon brands, like Tampa, that had embraced the transgender movement and, with it, the idea that men have periods.

Tampax tweeted in 2020 …

“Fact: Not all women have periods. Also a fact: Not all people with periods are women. Let’s celebrate the diversity of people who bleed!”

The team at Tampax helpfully added the hashtag … “mythbusting”.

Imagine their surprise when they learn that insisting men can bleed from their vagina is not mythbusting, it’s lying. In fact, men don’t even have a … do I really need to explain this? Seriously?

Tampax US @Tampax

Fact: Not all women have periods. Also a fact: Not all people with periods are women. Let's celebrate the diversity of all people who bleed! 💙🎨: @gobeeharris #mythbusting #periodtruths #transisbeautiful

When you decide to pretend that people can change gender you end up having to pretend a lot of other things as well … like that men can menstruate, for example.

Imagine you’re a woman who wants to identify as a man.

It’s all going brilliantly.

You’re hogging the remote control.

You’re breaking wind without any thought for how it might affect people around you.

You can’t recall your children’s birthdays, but you can name the year of every one of Richmond’s 13 AFL premierships.

Then all of a sudden, you get your period.

Bloody hell!

This is bad since men don’t get periods, women get periods. What to do?

You have two choices.

(a) Admit that you’re not, in fact, a man after all.

Or …

(b) Insist that everyone must pretend you’re a man, despite the fact that your uterus is shedding the lining of your womb via your vagina.

Our culture responded “Is that even a choice?” and immediately went with option ‘b’.

The problem, though, is that once you start pretending, there is no end to it.

If you’re going to pretend that men menstruate, you will also need to pretend that men can fall pregnant.

And that men can have a miscarriage.

And that men might need an abortion.

And that men can give birth to babies.

And that men can breast feed.

And on and on it goes.

Before you know, it you’re a bearded bloke thanking God that you’ve got your period because it means that you’re not pregnant, and on top of all of that you’ve got no idea what’s real and what’s pretend anymore. And neither does anyone else.

I decided to ask my Uber driver about this story yesterday which, can I say, seemed to catch him off guard.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure,” my driver, a 29-year-old tech industry worker replied nonchalantly, though his casual manner was soon to disappear!

“If I told you that men can have periods, what would you say to that?”

It did go rather quiet in his Hyundai at that point. It was, as they say, a pregnant pause.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure if the silence was because he was thinking about the question, or because he was thinking about whether to give me one star or no stars for my passenger rating.

Finally, after quite a period, he replied: “Well it depends.”

I thought that was a disappointing response, and I told him so.

He explained: “Well it depends if you’re talking about trans people.”

In other words, he wanted to know if we were being real or if we were pretending. And he was happy to pretend, if it would help someone keep up their pretence.

But to pretend men can have periods you have to pretend that women are more accurately described as bleeders. Now your pretending is not only empowering an individual to perpetuate a self-delusion, but it is also dehumanising everyone else.

Macy Maxson has been accused of lying for saying only women have periods.

Instead of joining the pro-transgender narrative being pushed by brands such as Tampax, Maxson is telling anyone who will listen that “periods are for women only.”  

Besides, where would a man put a tampon to stop the bleeding? Up his nose?

Mason said brands such as Tampax were “erasing women altogether, which is just mind-boggling. I mean, we’re the ones that get periods. We’re the ones that give birth.”  

I have to admit, it’s a hard thing for a bloke to hear. The irritable mood is not my period. It’s just me being grumpy, as men who can’t find the remote tend to be.