Always: 61% of young people have felt ashamed for having a period

If only there were words that advertisers or anyone else could use that differentiated between which sex could or couldn’t have periods.

Ah, so I wasn't the only person yelling at the TV screen. Good to know.

@anadulthumanfemale... The not so small print on the advert actually states 'online survey 2030 young people aged 13-17 UK 2020'... so they have defined 'young' to be those most likely to be menstruating and referring to the small print absolutely does not clarify the issue.

@anadulthumanfemale... its not compelled speech is the erasure of the words female, women and girls where the meaning is associated with a sex class and the use of those words only when it includes males that is the problem here.

Exactly.

I have teen sons and daughters so the young person label makes me think that they asked a mixed group.

Did they mean

61% of girls with periods, have felt ashamed of them.

61% of girls with periods, have felt ashamed while having their period

Or

61% of young people think periods are embarrassing. (Boys can think this one only)

In addition, there are times for writing clearly, and this is one of them.

I am wondering though if they did ask boys and girls, and a certain amount of boys answered yes just for a laugh.

Makes always look like a bunch of twats whatever the survey situation was.

No one is pushed out. Nothing is lost. Except the time to read the small print. And if you aren't willing to do even that little for the sake of another's feelings, well, that's that I guess.

What about the girls.qjo actually want to he called girls? The girls who don't want to he seen as 'people' when it comes to puberty in the sense that they want their female experience to be recognised and to talk about it? They want to complain about it and celebrate it.

It's bad enough that so many of them feel ashamed of/by their periods. Its unacceptable that its now the very reason for their female experience (I.e. being GIRLS) that is also considered shameful.

Where is the empathy and inclusivity towards them?

I think that's completely reasonable.

You could even make the case from an ally perspective that young people who don’t identify as girls ought to be excluded from a piece talking about the shame that girls feel, because they are going to be impacted very differently from girls. The shame would be compounded, wouldn’t it?

I can’t imagine they want to spend a lot of time thinking about such unmistakeably, ickily female activities as menstruating. Perhaps it would be better to have a specifically targeted ad for them?

If, of course we really are only interested in proper inclusion and representation, and not, say, manipulating the language to make issues relating to women and girls literally unspeakable…

In many ads for e.g. moisturisers, the strapline and/or voiceover will say e.g. '70% of women say it made their wrinkles less deep.' Then a faster voice or some small print will say 'out of xxx women surveyed'.
In this case, it could easily have said '61% of women and girls have felt ashamed for having a period' and then the small print 'out of xxx women and girls surveyed.' Then you know the sample size, and you've used the biologically accurate terms. People will by common sense infer that '61% of women and girls' means '61% of women and girls who are of menstruating age'.

@anadulthumanfemale can I ask would you care if it said girls? And if so why?

What about the distress that the ad could cause to the proportion of girls who haven’t got their period yet, if we’re looking for groups who wouldn’t feel “seen”? Weird how they wouldn’t get a look in for inclusions sake…?

Perhaps we shouldn’t talk about any of it all, for fear of upsetting people who should feel included, but don’t, aren’t included but feel they should be, don’t want to be included but are, do want to be included but aren’t…

Or we could just go with something factual “61% of girls and young women have felt ashamed for having a period”, which seems like it does all it needs to.

So for those who require clarity, it is still there. No one is pushed out. Nothing is lost. Except the time to read the small print. And if you aren't willing to do even that little for the sake of another's feelings, well, that's that I guess.

I get what you're saying but I think they're referring also to girls or women who identify as male so may not want to be called female

Are these the extra 11%? What about boys that want to be called girls, are they ashamed of not having to be ashamed of anything?

This is all such utter tosh.

Exactly. How do they think it helps the majority of girls?

And how, exactly does the language change help these youngsters who don’t identify as girls?

They’re still going to be getting their periods.

They will still have to cope with that, and all of the manipulation of language in the world won’t change that biological fact.

If they don’t think it applies to them, then they can ignore it, of course.

I’m not seeing how creating more obfuscation, more shame around the topic of menstruation by not even being able to say who menstruates is of any benefit to the vast majority of girls.

We know full well why this obfuscation is occurring. I think clear language around women's health issues is more important than their sensibilities.

I get what you're saying but I think they're referring also to girls or women who identify as male so may not want to be called female.

So we shouldn't use the word girl in case it offends someone but every knows we mean girls? But if no one can tell anyone that only girls have periods then how do we all know that only girls have periods. God this stuff blows my mind. Increasingly I'm realising that pronouns appended to your name is just to signal to people that you're thick as pig poo.

[quote TeenPlusCat]@anadulthumanfemale What justification is there for using the word 'people' instead of 'girls' if actually they mean girls? It is a longer word, that is less clear. It doesn't enhance understanding, it obfuscates it.[/quote]
Even if some people disagree with them, there are people out there who have had periods who would not see themselves as girls. You can say they are wrong all you like. But they will still not see themselves like that. And would be hurt to have someone define them in a way they did not agree with.

So one justification would be basic human empathy. Even if you think they are wrong, you can still have empathy.

And I personally think showing empathy is a damn fine justification to use people instead of girls, especially as any confusion can be cleared up by reading the small print, as you yourself have said. If an extra 10 seconds of reading is all that is required of me to save someone pain, then that is acceptable.

Unless you think saving that time is worth hurting people?