Slightly scented tampons - what fresh hell is this?

[TooExtraImmatureCheddar]

I was in Tesco yesterday buying tampons. I normally get the Tesco own-brand non-applicator ones, because applicators are just more environmentally unfriendly unflushable septic tank destroying crap. Annoyingly, however, Tesco were out of any non-applicator tampons in anything other than super-plus plus. After some deliberation, ruling out Tampax Pearl because of the infuriating adverts, I picked up Tampax Compak Fresh, because I couldn't see any difference between them and the unfresh ones. Not until I opened the box this morning did I clock the 'slightly scented' bit. Readers, I feel sullied.

AIBU to think that slightly scented tampons are the most ridiculous idea ever?

I like the cut of your jib, Wow (May I call you Wow, oh glorious leader?)

Each to their own about how to style - or not - their pubes, but it does drive me crazy when women talk about fannies being dirty with hair/a lot of hair. It's not only depressingly self-hating and colluding with misogyny, it's just illogical and scientifically wrong.

Thanks Oxford! I'm not sure a stubborn refusal to engage in pubic topiary necessarily qualifies me as a leader, but I'll certainly take the compliment! It's so nice to meet kindred spirits. I was getting a bit eye-rolling about the yoof of today on BC and had to leave.

I totally agree re the self-hating/misogyny bit. I really do think feminism is a dirty word to many of the women I encountered on there. And call me a cynic but convincing women that their vaginas are dirty oppresses us even more and disconnects us from our bodies. It's worrying that this seems to be accepted as the norm more and more. Pubes and smells are political issues, sistas! .

Love this thread! It has made my night.

I think it is possible that someone tried to shave me during labour...but I can't really piece it together...

They didn't make a dent if they did try though!

I know it is off topic for this thread, but armpit hair is another one....why is it okay for men to sport the natural hair that grows on them, but women have to remove theirs? Same deal...far less smelly if you just let your armpit hair be....

In principle I agree re armpit hair, but in reality I do shave my armpits and don't want to stop. I am brainwashed.

indeed...it has taken ages to get up the courage to go swimming looking like an actual adult female, with hair in all the right places....legs, armpits, fanjo bush....

Just seen the new ad for Always 'Odette' :

www.always-info.co.uk/whats-new/odette.aspx

Check out the chap's face (to the left of the woman)....he's all 'mmmmmmm, new-car smell fanny, my favourite!'

I don't like armpit hair on anyone. Personal preference, don't like it on men or women or myself. Love having hairy legs though, keeps me legs warm through the cold Scottish winters.

I don't bother doing armpits. I do sometimes in summer if I'm going to wear a sleeveless dress or top purely because I can't be arsed with twats reacting like I was raping a dwarf in front of them purely by having visible body hair.

I have no problem with anyone removing all of their body hair, I just believe that it should be equally valid for women to not get rid of it if that's their choice. Hate how a freaky porn standard for women has becoming the norm, and gets worse all the time. Read something the other week about the massive rise in labioplasties (might not be proper word) - surgical removal or trimming of yer flaps. Loads of young women convinced that just having labia at all looks vile or that there's something wrong with them. And other women finding that men are getting all grossed-out at the sight of perfectly normal lady lips. Loads of porn stars have it done, so men are starting to either think that's what women's buts naturally look like, or they get accustomed to that look. Depressing as hell

I feel I need to link to the Great Wall of vagina after oxfords last post! We should show our daughters (and sons) that there is no "normal", we are what we are Who is with me!

hmmm I feel a new thread coming on.

In chat maybe...something like:

Rate your look!

adolescent female adult female

key indicators:

Adolescent female = waxed (no hair fanjo, armpit, leg), flawless face mask (no wrinkles, laughter lines, sun damage etc), absence of lady lips or evidence of childbirth, stupidly perky probably fake boobs.

Adult female = has pubic hair, has a characterful face, has at least the possibility of lady lips and/or childbirth evidence, real boobs.

loving the vagina wall....I also love the real boobs gallery...

The thing is...who the hell finds the adolescent male look attractive? Men don't seem to have to ape their youngers.....

I am sure their is some sucky evolutionary shit behind this but I don't care....we have brains as well as gonads....

I hate the pornification of women's bodies as well. Apart from anything else it makes women more prudish and less sexually enlightened. How crap to have to shave and have implants and bits cut off before you are deemed shag-ready.

I was at a party a few weeks ago and got chatting to a woman I'd not seen for a few years. Very glamorous and gorgeous, she had split with her husband a couple of years earlier and had dated some younger men. They were completely clueless about real sex. They pretty much demanded a hairless fannny, the right to come on her face (just, WHY? Why would any woman let a guy do that? It's gross and humiliating), expected anal and if she didn't start groaning the minute they laid hands on her they were disappointed. She felt like the spontaneity had gone out of sex and it was much more about man-pleasing than a shared experience. And all because of what porn tells them is normal. Yeesh!

Sorry, that turned into a rant. But this car-interior fanny scent is the tip of the iceberg, I tell thee.

Anyone who thinks porn is a true replay of real life is a fucking idiot and needs to be educated in what sex actually is.

Had a look at Luxury Moon - is it just me or is there something... odd about the instructions on this page?

This is not the correct position for Softcup and can cause leakage.

ChairmanWow - I have a friend who's 9 years younger than me, so we grew up without broadband and easy access to internet porn and her generation grew up with it. The stories she tells about men she slept with at university make me and . It's fucked up.

The "always" pads smell like Febreeze!! that's what the smell is.. I have a box in my bathroom from ages ago and accidental purchase and I've been wondering why my bathroom smells like febreeze.

God that is awful wow.

It's odd...I have watched the odd bit of porn but it hadn't really occurred to me that I should look like the women in it....Do us older women have an inbuilt ability to realise we are all different? How much porn do you have to watch to forget that?

Totally agree! I had a bout of thrush a while ago and could I find anything non scented shen I had my period? Could I fuck.

I've been getting supermarket basics as they are usually non-scented. And are actually fine, no itching, etc. And I never use soap, sparays or any other product in or around the vagina. I did when a teenager, but the itching, etc soon put a stop to that.

I have never noticed any smell about me, except for one memorable occasion when I left a tampon up there for two weeks.

I reckon that all this advertising about slightly scented etc is to play on people's insecurities, because any hint that some part of you is not smelling right can really unbalance people. Have noticed this kind of advertising in relation to deodorants and breath fresheners.

Its normally at women, when are they gonna invent a spray called "Cock Fresh" to get rid of the odious smell of cock cheese.

ICBINEG I'm not a youngling either, and agree that I wouldn't think to try and emulate porn stars (though I have issues with porn anyway). Women of my age are much more comfortable with feminism and whilst there has always been pressure on women to look attractive (whatever that means) it was all a lot less homogenous than it is now. I think men were more respectful of women too.

I'm doing a lot of generalising in this post, but I do think a lot of younger women lack the confidence to resist this kind of pressure. I also think we're seeing a generation of young men and women who have had access to porn through adolescence, at a time whrn they are forming ideas about sex without any other experience to base it on and crap sex education which doesn't deal - literally! - with the ins and outs of real sex.

Sorry, that turned into an essay!