"It's an actual fact that not just women experience periods"

It's an actual fact there are many other cosmetic companies apart from Benefit . I intend to shop with their competitiors.

My dog gets periods. It’s a true statement but essentially meaningless without context.

As my mum used to say… if men got periods there’s be a ‘cure’ for it by now…

1. Only individuals who belong to the female sex can menstruate. Some individuals who belong to the female sex never menstruate, and no individual who belongs to the female sex menstruates over their whole life spans. This means that belonging to the female sex is a necessary conditions for menstruating but not a sufficient condition.
2. No individual who belongs to the male sex menstruates because menstruation requires that the person has a womb.
3. The statement in the Instagram post is intended to tell us that my points 1. and 2. are false. This can ONLY be the case if someone has changed the meaning of 'women' so that it has nothing to do with biological sex.
4. The new definitions of 'woman' are either empirically empty (female soul) or based on deeply sexist stereotypes and retrogressive gender roles. A group defined on such grounds cannot mobilise politically to argue for its needs. This is a win for the MRAs and anti-feminists.
5. The concept of 'cis' women forces all women who are women because they are biologically female and accept that label to also accept the label that they are very comfortable with sexist stereotypes and retrogressive gender roles as they have female feelings floating inside their brains.
6. This is not inclusiveness but misogyny.

Yeah? Show me someone who bleeds from their prostate and penis on a monthly basis and I'll show you a man who urgently needs a doctor.

MEN DO NOT MENSTRUATE.

Women who have gender dysphoria and still have working female sex organs will menstruate. Men who have gender dysphoria will never menstruate. Biology doesn't care what your pronouns are, no matter how loudly you shout. It doesn't care what you're telling everyone, biology will always put you in your place.

If only people lobbying on issues that actually matter (such as the climate emergency) had this much influence on big business

Ffs.
As a woman I don't want to constantly talk about periods. I understand that sanitary protection adverts are necessary but why does a company that doesn't sell tampons and towels need to talk about this ?

I was hoping that the answer to their question was young girls have periods as I wouldn't call a 10 year old girl a woman

Not ALL women experience periods but ONLY women do

As with others, this company will never see any of my money again.

It’s an actual fact that I won’t be spending my money with a cosmetics company who can’t grasp KS2 science. Shame that it is me that props up the finances for my teens otherwise it might have balanced out for them.

Lol re. mascara wand comment.

Good point, what an earth does make up have to do with menstruation? Is this a third party marketing firm sneakily testing the waters for say Tampax?

I saw a bodyform advert today saying their new pants were for "women+

Its just so fucking dishonest. They make their money out if female biology. Send stuff abroad for women and girls in poverty who don't have access to sanpro something they can't identify out of.

Then they play us like.mugs pandering to first world identity bollocks.

Benefit should go sell their make up in the third world. See how much money they get and who will be queuing at the door ecstatic that identity is recognised.

I saw a bodyform advert today saying their new pants were for "women+"

Plus what?

Sex is defined by your chromosomes, genitalia, visible physical characteristics and hormone profile.

No. Sex is defined by which type of gamete your body is built to produce, whether or not it successfully does so.

Sex didn't evolve because of identities people wanted to have and ways people wanted to look. It evolved because when reproduction requires two gametes that can come from different individuals, that makes a species genetically stronger and more adaptable and hence better at surviving.

That is why there are only two sexes - because there are two gametes involved in reproduction and those gametes themselves go on to give each individual a sex of their own, roughly 50-50 so as to ensure continued reproduction.

Claims that sex is defined by a multitude of factors are coming at it backwards. There maybe various results and physical / hormonal expressions of your sex. Your sex is still one of only two options.

However, I'd also like to know why, even if sex was what you say it is, that would mean a man can be a woman just by saying so. If sex can be changed by hormones and secondary characteristics and whatnot, then that suggests a man who just says "I'm a woman" isn't one. Or does it? Because transactivists will have you strung up for transphobia for thinking that.

Great comments on the post. Well done MNetters

Another company that will never see my money again.

Yes. There has never in recorded history to my knowledge been a case of a human being with both a fully functioning male reproductive system and a fully functioning female reproductive system. That's what would surely have to happen for a person to be described as a hermaphrodite.

There are cases where sexual development doesn't proceed as would normally be expected, and this will often need medical treatment because it affects fertility and may come hand in hand with other health issues. My understanding is that in virtually all of those cases it is, however, perfectly clear whether the person affected is male or female. The cases where that's not clear at birth (such as Caster Semenya) are very rare indeed and usually become apparent when puberty doesn't proceed as expected.

Me too.

This is so, so, stupid.

I can on some level understand 'TMANW', in some senses being a woman isn't just about having XX chromosomes and having reached a certain age, a certain quantity and quality of life experience is somewhat relevant too.

But I'm sure that nearly all TM in this situation are, of course, grown up enough to say 'I am medically a woman, so, yes, this stuff is aimed at me'.

That must be a new definition of queer that just means 'please look at me, I'm special'.
Indeed. If anyone can explain how someone who is a straight female in all respects is “queer” then please educate me! What is ‘spicy straights’?

Sex is "biologically" male or female. Sex is always biological. There are no third, fourth, etc sexes in humans or any mammals. The fact that the definition of sex is complex doesn't negate that there are two sexes. People with DSDs are not all "hermaphrodites", and of course they are a biological reality. They are also either one sex or the other, just with various developmental issues that are not typically seen in their sex. That doesn't make them a third sex.

Oh that’ll teach me to not refresh

everyone else has said the same thing!