Reply from the Body Shop re JKR... just so dreadful...

Betty if women is just who you 'believe' you are and so can mean some people with the types of body that menstruate and some people with the types of bodies that ejaculate.

Then what should we call that distinct group of people with the types of body which menstruate? Now we can't call them women?

Because that distinct group of people who share the biology of having the types of bodies which can gestate, need naming so we can discuss them, and the particular issues pertaining to that group. Like menstruation and child birth.

What should we call them??

I would love to set up a company that just sold sanitary products to women and girls, marketed it specifically to women and girls, and branded it all accordingly. Yes you’d get some hate online but honestly, I really doubt it would affect your sales at the end of the day. These companies have got the wrong idea about who buys this stuff for households.

I no longer menstruate. What does that make me?

I am happy to accept they believe they are men
They aren't actually men

I am happy to accept that my aunt thinks her diet is healthy. It isn't. Sometimes I will go along with it, and sometimes I will refuse to be force fed.( she loves me truely)

People who claim they're non binary never seem to have any issue with the word men, do they? Odd.

Floisme surely because they were born with the same anatomy as a woman?

I don’t understand the psychology of the trans thing at all, not being “assigned” the right gender at birth etc. But if there are a group of people out there born with a female anatomy who believe they are “men” I’m happy to accept that.

Thanks SingingKettle.

Think I’m still lost.

So I read:

People who menstruate = “menstuators” = some women, transmen and non-binary

NOT

“Menstruators” = all women and some men

Have I completely misunderstood?

Trans men needing sanitary protection is not sufficient reason for women to be relabelled as menstruaters. What percentage of women consider themselves to be trans men ? It must be a vanishingly small minority, surely to God?
And yet they managed to get the "triggering" Venus removed from the packaging, whilst women (the old fashioned sort) have still failed to persuade the manufacturers that we don't need perfumed foofs.
Most of us have an allergic reaction to perfumed sanitary towels, in fact. But no, tough tit.

Betty - why do trans men menstruate?

@Betty98 what we object to is being reduced to a bodily function, we are no more menstruators than the human race is urinators. We are many things, women, trans men, mothers, sisters, office workers and so on, these titles give us dignity and purpose, they humanise us. Some women have no control over whether they menstruate or not but they don’t want to be disregarded because they are temporarily pregnant or haven’t started their periods yet.

Thanks for the email address to use: [email protected]

I just sent this brief email:
I am appalled by the Body Shops disregard and dehumaising language used towards women (adult females) when referring to us as 'menstruators'.
And the ludicrous suggestion now made that men (adult males) have periods.

How did the Body Shop get pulled into this absurd attempt to rewrite language and definitions, and in doing so offend and disregard thousands of women (females), your core customers.

I will never buy from your company again, unless and until a full recognition of your actions against women has been publicly retracted,and I will be contacting all women I know to ensure they are aware of your actions in this matter.

In fact, we don't need them at all! They only existed to sell us a dream of womanhood. And now women no longer exist, so does their entire purpose.

I’m a bit confused about the problem here.... are commentators joking about their husbands having periods being “funny” or do they genuinely believe that’s what the reply meant?

I’ve read a few statements from companies about the “people menstruate” statement and the focus of what they’ve been saying has been that trans-men menstruate.

I could understand if the issue was that if trans-men = men then by default trans-women = women. And that’s the part that people take exception to?

I don’t want to get ripped apart, I’m genuinely trying to understand. Help me out here.

I think my understanding was the same as CloudyVanilla’s but I don’t particularly understand the responses to her.

Don't worry @onlywomennotmen, M&S and John Lewis both had their worst christmas in ages when they started this crap. If they'd rather fold than face reality, then see ya! they need us waaaay more than we need them.

If men menstruate, what do they menstruate? Do they also ovulate? In what way are these male ova distinguishable from boring old female ones?

See also ladysperm.

Mockers, O Level Biology Grade B.

And can you request that if they insist on calling women menstruators, they change 'men' to ejaculators immediately.

Well they can fuck right off and peddle their wares elsewhere. I used to love Bodyshop and Anita Roddick. I won’t be buying from them again.
Also, I missed the memo about men menstruating. When dies this happen? Seriously I cannot understand this.

Still got the same shit pro-forma response.

But I think we can assume from it that not only are their social media department raving misogynists who think it's funny to troll a survivor of domestic violence, the rot goes all the way up to the top, and their CEO, David Boynton, is a raving misogynist who thinks it's funny to troll a survivor of domestic violence.

Truly, the spirit of Gerald Ratner lives on.

You'd think at the start of the worst recession/depression in a century, they might actually not want to alienate the whole of their core customer base. But apparently not.

As the old adage has it, there's no arguing with stupid.

I would email them back and say you're baffled as to how men are able to menstruate. Can they send you a link to peer reviewed research to show how is possible? Does the blood flow out through the penis?! Is the lining of the womb stored in the testes? Just be as faux naive as you can - as though you know nothing about genderism.

I received the same reply. Not acknowledgement of their abusive reply to jkr either. And how dare they refer to me as a menstrator. Fuckers.

People have periods – women, men and non-binary people. And plenty of women don’t. We value learning from everyone’s experience

Hang on - why have they only said that plenty of women don't have periods?

By saying men, women and non-binary people have periods and then singling out women as a class which includes plenty of people who don't have periods, they seem to be saying that all men and non-binary people have periods.

Unless there is something specific about women that would prompt them to clarify this in respect of women only? Perhaps there's some biological factor or something? But there can't be, because "people have periods" - it's absolutely not specific to women, and they've made that very clear.

So it must mean that all men and non-binary people actually do have periods. There's no other logical explanation, based on what they've said.

And if this was an oversight and they merely forgot to include a sentence stating that plenty of men and non-binary people don't have periods either, it seems they've been rather trans-exclusionary, doesn't it?

So the next time men piss us off can we ask snarkily if they have pMT AGAIN

If we started referring to men and trans women as people with penises, is that acceptable?