@anotherheadache
To be fair I think the post is taken out of context. Look at the rest of the posts on the Instagram page and they seem to be a very women friendly and empowering company. When you look at it in the context of the rest of their brand, I genuinely don't think she was meaning anything other than women who have periods as appose to women who don't have periods (menopause/contraception.. lots of women aren't actual 'bleeders') . This is a classic example of why you shouldn't pile on without looking a bit closer first.
“Bleeder” is both inaccurate (as a PP mentioned, menstruation involves shedding the uterine lining) & - as heavily emphasised both here & on IG -
an insult (though Collins don’t make space there for discussing regional & temporal variations in usage & meaning). It’s an insult in & of itself to do a product launch without checking something as simple as that.
The company website is all about those menstruating people. Even though the CEO seems to know what women are in this interview. Oh & this one from last year is full of women & females too.
Everyone bleeds. It is an absurd word to use. (BTW, Tampons are also handy for gunshot wounds as well as nosebleeds.) Not just everyone - it’s literally dehumanising: animals & insects bleed.
Back, yet again, to the simple fact of nonsense words excluding vulnerable women: if you think it’s about first aid supplies, you ignore it because it’s not for you.
You can’t be women-friendly if you won’t name women. You can’t empower women (though I’m not entirely clear what form this empowering was meant to be taking) if you won’t name them.
It’s a feeble excuse “oh, the person selling period products thought they should use a derogatory term for their target audience to specify they meant their target audience”. Women are quite capable of looking at an advert for period products & not feeling mortally wounded there wasn’t a special line drawn to announce exactly WHICH women were being invited to look at it. Unless you are unwell, you are not a “bleeder” for the majority of the portion of your life where you menstruate.
If an individual is unable to cope with being reminded that periods are a sex-linked and inherently female thing, they need therapy to help reconcile themselves to this fact. You know, much as the consensus is to provide therapy for anorexics who starve themselves because developing breasts & getting their period is so unbearable to them.