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Original poster

Tampon Run. Ipad Game by Feminists.

146 replies

INickedAName · 04/02/2015 22:58

My first thread in this section, I'm nervous about fucking it up as I'm not so good at getting what's in my head to make sense.

I came across this game today, on an ios gaming forum I visit a lot. I've downloaded the game but not tried it yet. There is a bit of info on the two young girls who made the game and how they came up with the idea here

I'm still forming my opinion and have to play the game, but I think the girls' attitude is positive and I think the idea and theory itself is good, but, the site on which I found the game is mainly male, and the first few comments on the games thread are in a joking way "bloody good time" and even a mention of anal sex?!, I think there will be more of the same over the next few days. I'm not sure how to word how I feel, but I hope the girls don't get disheartened if the game doesn't achieve what they intended.

Told you I was rubbish at making sense. I will be back to post better, but just wondered what you all thought of it. Do you think the game will change any attitudes/feelings towards periods? Is making it lighthearted a bad thing?

OP posts:
FuckOffGroundhog · 06/02/2015 20:57

Doesn't sound as if some women are doing much to break that taboo are they if they go around saying they would be ashamed for their husbands to know?.I suppose it's easier to blame men rather than to stop holding such a ridiculous attitude.

Is there a point somewhere in there?

LazyJanePainter · 06/02/2015 20:56

*.AIBU might be a good place to start?

Snort

But she likes pink and we're all so mean. SO very mean and scary*

What a predictable response.

LazyJanePainter · 06/02/2015 20:53

Doesn't sound as if some women are doing much to break that taboo are they if they go around saying they would be ashamed for their husbands to know?.

I suppose it's easier to blame men rather than to stop holding such a ridiculous attitude.

FuckOffGroundhog · 06/02/2015 20:52

. AIBU might be a good place to start?

Snort

But she likes pink and we're all so mean. SO very mean and scary

YonicScrewdriver · 06/02/2015 20:49

Welcome to MN, LazyJane. Have you had a chance to try any other parts of the site yet? I think it'll put the really quite polite comments to DWH in perspective. AIBU might be a good place to start?

FuckOffGroundhog · 06/02/2015 20:44

Also he didn't just say it was natural he said there was no taboo, so we're all just silly women being embarrassed completely in a vacuum for no reason.

FuckOffGroundhog · 06/02/2015 20:43

Was it really necessary for several of you to pile into DWH? He is a man and basically said it's a natural thing for which there's nothing to be ashamed of. But oh dear, how dare he comment.

He was wrong and mansplainy and when he was told that he was he told us actually we were all wrong. So I'm not super concerned, tbh. As for the FIL did he need to shout at his wife and berate her in english so he DWH could understand? When he had been previously been happy to talk in his own language in front of him?

Hmmmm

LazyJanePainter · 06/02/2015 20:38

Was it really necessary for several of you to pile into DWH? He is a man and basically said it's a natural thing for which there's nothing to be ashamed of. But oh dear, how dare he comment.

Would you prefer if he'd gone "oh gross"

I see you all assume his fil or whoever it was was "shaming " his wife- as opposed to being angry at the sheer stupidity of flushing tampons?

Not any possibility that the person clearing the blocked drain wanted to show the person who caused the problem what the problem looked like? Groundhog apparently didn't know about this.

Original poster
INickedAName · 06/02/2015 20:08

Dh has his faults and can be set in his ways sometimes but I've never felt uncomfortable about periods around him, or anything to do with my body for that matter. Like a pp, I'd say I'm lucky but saying "I'm lucky I'm not ashamed of my dh or dc knowing I've got my period" sounds.... Silly?

OP posts:
PuffinsAreFictitious · 06/02/2015 20:04

It's crazy sad, isn't it?

Everyone who has done sex ed should know that women bleed every 28 days or so. Men to whom we're married or with whom we live must be aware of our periods. So why the shame?

FuckOffGroundhog · 06/02/2015 19:40

I was actually looking up flushing tampons (as I didn't know you weren't supposed to!) no one ever told me. I found tow threads, one MN and one on NM, in both of them there were several people saying if I can't flush them then my husband or children might see me holding the bag with the tampon in.

husband or children Ashamed of their family knowing.

PuffinsAreFictitious · 06/02/2015 19:11

I have lots of stories about periods. I've had loads of them and each one has been unique. There have been loads of threads on here and other parts of the forum where women have discussed their periods, how heavy, light, clotty, what types of sanitary protection to wear, what to avoid, how to treat the cramps, how to make the bloating go away, and it's all been fairly fascinating, even for someone who's had a couple of hundred periods of her own.

This is an anonymous forum, it's easy to discuss these things on here, because the chances are you'll never meet any of the women you're discussing them with, you see, even among women, the taboo is strong, but you'd know that wouldn't you DWH, given that you're a woman yourself.... oh no, sorry.

And red wings? Get the fuck over yourself.

FloraFox · 06/02/2015 16:35
Grin
YonicScrewdriver · 06/02/2015 16:27

I think it's the "smaller than a Lillet" level, Flora.

FloraFox · 06/02/2015 16:24

What level of lack of self-awareness leads a man to make the first response on a thread about tampons and make a pronouncement on whether it's a feminist issue? Hmm

YonicScrewdriver · 06/02/2015 16:20

I think DWH would like us to hear his various period stories as they are more interesting to him than ours.

FuckOffGroundhog · 06/02/2015 16:14

Twenty plus years ago it was my wife who was embarrassed about asking me to buy tampons for her and at the time I was surprised she felt that way.

And again nothing to do with her dad's view of tampons and not at all taboo because teenage boys try and get their "redwings" Hmm

Confused
FuckOffGroundhog · 06/02/2015 16:11

DWH, I'm actually baffled as to why you think the story of your mother in law being humiliated is relevant here? Do you really not see how your father in law/your responses contribute to the kind of attitudes that this game is trying to combat?

No, it was a "side story" totally unrelated to the shaming of women. Hmm he just thought we'd find it, what, funny?

DisgruntledAardvark · 06/02/2015 14:56

DWH, I'm actually baffled as to why you think the story of your mother in law being humiliated is relevant here? Do you really not see how your father in law/your responses contribute to the kind of attitudes that this game is trying to combat?

cailindana · 06/02/2015 12:56

Of course we'll bow to your wisdom DWH, seeing as you've had so many periods yourself.

How many was that again?

Original poster
INickedAName · 06/02/2015 12:26

DWH your fil sounds charming. Was bringing his wife out to berate her meant to shame her? "Look at this mess I have fix, dirty woman" would he have shouted everybody out with a telling off it if it was shitty toilet roll?

It might be worth asking why both his wife and dd flushed them in the first place. Like is there access to a bin in their bathroom? If not, why not? My grand had a bin in her bathroom, but it was forbidden to use it, esp for used tampons, she didn't want it getting "dirty" so on the occasions I slept at hers I occasionally flushed, it was the better option on occasions, as she often had lots of visitors and walking through a room with a clump of bloody cotton in my hand would not have gone un noticed. Thank god her system never blocked, esp if she would have acted like your FIL.

Just wanted to add my gran was lovely and loving, she just had a few not so good things passed on to her, she was brought up by men (her dad and brothers) as her mum died when she was a child and I often wonder if some of her ideas are linked to that.

OP posts:
Original poster
INickedAName · 06/02/2015 12:07

Actually I've heard more people than I can count talk about shit. Both their own and other peoples, I've heard plenty of people (all men in my experience) announce they have been "baking one" or some such, and plenty of times (again men in my experience, saying something like "I'd give it an hour"
I've heard people say they are gonna shit or piss themselves if they don't get to a toilet lots of times too. I've often seen people (again men in my experience) will walk to the bathroom with a newspaper or book tucked under saying they won't be back for a while.

I've never heard a woman announce she's going to change a pad/tampon and will be right back. I've also never heard a woman say she's gonna leak all over if she doesn't find a bathroom quickly.

I'm not as relexed as I thought I was either, around my dd yes, but while thinking about this I've noticed that I will wait until a chain flushes or the dryer goes before opening the packaging as I don't want anyone to know. I was at an event last and stopped myself, then realised it was silly and ripped open the packaging, but it took a lot to do it, and I felt something, guilty/dirty/ashamed not sure which, walking out if the cubicles.

My periods were very heavy when younger and I'd rather have stayed at home than go out with friends in case I couldn't find bathroom and leaked. I often had to tie my jumper around my waist to cover patches as it would have been too embarrassing to ask to be excused from class. The fucking anxiety in case jumper fell off limited me to what I felt comfortable taking part in. Then when it was over, there was next month to worry about. I don't want that for my dd.

OP posts:
MoominKoalaAndMiniMoom · 06/02/2015 11:52

I consider myself lucky that OH is completely unbothered by periods; he'll go out and grab a pack of pads or tampons if I ask (he'll usually come back with chocolate too; he's a keeper Grin ), and sees them as being just like any other product like loo roll, wet wipes etc. But that's the sad thing, because I shouldn't have to consider myself lucky. I don't know where he gets it from, as his family certainly aren't open about menstruation; whereas my family are, and I know I could ask my 15 year old brother to get me a pack of pads and he'd do it without too much fuss - a bit of teasing, but that's brothers and sisters rather than a true belief that the female body is disgusting.

Maybe if we weren't pressured to keep our "female problems" to ourselves and discussed it a little more openly, young women - and women of all ages actually - would a) be more aware of if something was abnormal, and b) feel more comfortable in going to the doctor about it, and we'd have fewer people dying tragically young of gynaecological cancers and other issues.

JohnFarleysRuskin · 06/02/2015 11:41

I'm happy to hear about people's periods.

ifyourehoppyandyouknowit · 06/02/2015 11:33

It would also be a lot easier to go 'see a doctor' about any problems, if these kind of ideas about periods didn't extend to the medicall professionals too.