Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Trans male now promoting periods.

154 replies

Eliza9917 · 18/03/2018 08:44

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/period-campaign-transgender-male-model-kenny-jones-face-pink-parcel-im-on-stigma-a8257131.html

'A transgender male model has been announced as the face of a new campaign aiming to challenge the stigma around periods.'

Just why?

OP posts:
Mummyoflittledragon · 18/03/2018 10:12

At first I was shocked. But having had time to reflect, I agree with whydomypubes. There is a lot of hysteria amongst teen girls about being trans and it’s a hip and trendy thing. Anything to normalise it for them. However, as a pp said, girls in poverty are being ignored in this campaign but they’re not the target audience. And for each sale of a t-shirt/sweatshirt £5 is being donated to Bloody Good Period for asylum seekers needing sanitary ware.

ScattyCharly · 18/03/2018 10:13

Several people are taking part. Kennys involvement is perfectly fine. MN is transphobic.

Mummyoflittledragon · 18/03/2018 10:14

Ah crosspost Aftershock. If 8% of advertising includes trans ales, that’s already a lot. I didn’t know that.

tinclap · 18/03/2018 10:14

How is MN transphobic?

Mummyoflittledragon · 18/03/2018 10:15

transmales. Not trans ales

JennyJames · 18/03/2018 10:16

Transgender people experiencing periods is a reality.

Again though.

I’m expected to simply be ok with this because TIF experienced periods.

But even wanting to discuss my concerns about my DD missing out on selection to a sports team because a TIM was competing is transphobic?

Why the double standard?

CapnHaddock · 18/03/2018 10:16

Actually I think it makes transition even more appealing. Take T and you can stop the pesky little sods bothering you every month.

And let's not pretend this is some altruistic campaign. It's advertising designed to flog stuff. It's capitalism dressed up as caring.

20nil · 18/03/2018 10:20

Sorry, trans ales made me Grin

TERFragetteCity · 18/03/2018 10:28

Several people are taking part. Kennys involvement is perfectly fine. MN is transphobic.

How so?

We are told we are 'transphobic' [whatever that means] for pointing out 'trans' women are men, and yet this points out that a 'trans' man is still and will always be a woman, it is 'transphobic' for even commenting on this.

You lot are so confused you have no fucking idea what you are saying any more.

Tinycitrus · 18/03/2018 10:32

I couldn’t give a toss whether trans people ‘experience’ periods or not.

It’s just a period. I don’t ‘experience’ my period.
I just get on with looking after three kids, a ful time job, climbing the corporate ladder and trying to keep it together.

Thus has really, really irritated me fir some reason.

It’s akin to the ‘busy mum’ Marketing campaigns which encourage you to feed your family utter shite because you are ‘too busy! ‘ to give them a decent meal.

Iceweasel · 18/03/2018 10:35

There are so many children, whether we like it or not, dealing with feeling as though they are 'trans' and having periods too. Normalising the whole periods/trans issue can only be a good thing can't it? If we can get girls who feel trans to accept their periods/biology then there is a massive chance they won't transition.

I agree. I would like to see more gender non conforming women in adverts for women's products.

I was a tomboy as a child and a teen, adolescence was a difficult time for me. I took the pill continuously and didn't have a period for two years. I thought about transitioning in my late teens but knew I could never really change sex. It frightens me that these days I might have been encouraged to identify as a boy and take medications with non reversible effects. Seeing advertising showing women I could identify with would have helped to normalise the experience.

JAPAB · 18/03/2018 10:41

I'd have thought that they would have created a special term for periods for trans men, as they have done with chestfeeding and fronthole.

But if not then good that they raise awarenes that men can have periods too, and in fact that trans men do exist.

PussyTrumpHat · 18/03/2018 10:44

Normalising it is not a good thing
Research into why so many girls want to opt out of womanhood and wreck their bodies with testosterone would be a good thing
No research, wonder whyHmm

McTufty · 18/03/2018 10:45

I have no issue with this per se because I think female biology is at the root of female oppression, and Kenny is biologically female.

I’m concerned though that women have transwomen speaking for them and taking roles for women, and transmen speaking for them and taking roles for women, but how often do men get sidelined to make way for a trans man or trans women?

It’s only happening one way, and I totally agree with @jennyjames above about the hypocrisy between dead naming trans women and yet blatantly publicising that Kenny used to be a woman

Tinycitrus · 18/03/2018 10:46

It is normal.

St high school in the 80s it was normal! And discussed!

Gileswithachainsaw · 18/03/2018 10:47

BUT it does just highlight that society never sees them as anything other than women.

Transwomen are famous for their sporting achievements and their military achievements and their political achievements. Just like men.

Transmen are famous for pregnancy periods and body related shit or their relationship with another person. Just like women.

How is this poster ok. How 'are feminists murderers but poster designers are geniuses?

PussyTrumpHat · 18/03/2018 10:47

Gender non-confirming is normal and should be
Wrecking a body with T is not
It is changing your body to conform to societies expectations. It is saying being a butch girl is not ok

Whydomypubeslooklikeanest · 18/03/2018 10:51

Normalising it is not a good thing

Why not? Surely the fact that someone who some teens identify with is talking about female biology is positive?.

Surely a trans man standing up and talking about periods and therefore recognising biology is a good thing.?

Yes, research should be done and other measures taken, but this doesn't detract away from that at all. It's not like money has been taken away from other areas to fund this campaign.

JustDanceAddict · 18/03/2018 10:53

£13pcm?? What’s wrong with going to Boots or whatever and buying your San pro, or putting it your online order. I ask my teen dd if she’s running out or look in the bathroom drawer if she’s not around. If we’re in pain we use paracetamol and a hottie. Just like my mum do d for me 30 years ago!!

NeedsAsockamnesty · 18/03/2018 11:00

That is a biological woman who can talk about periods as much as they wish and advertise them if they fancy it.

Iceweasel · 18/03/2018 11:02

Gender non-confirming is normal and should be
Wrecking a body with T is not

I think a young woman presenting as a boy, no medical transition, would be a better choice. I am in my thirties and advertising with women celebrating their curves make me want to run the other way, metaphorically. As a teen I wanted no part of that whatsoever.

KatVonSweet · 18/03/2018 11:10

It's a cynical attempt by some marketing w*nkers to draw attention to their ridiculous product. Who the hell wants to spend 11:99 on pads plus tat each month?

Yey. Clap clap. Look normal periods. Spend money. Spend money.

SnibbleAgain · 18/03/2018 11:12

Just catching up with thread but wanted to comment on this while I saw it:

"he had periods, which are often vastly distressing for trans guys and also a taboo subject. He's trying to remove that stigma and help other people,"

So periods aren't often vastly distressing for old style boring cunty girls, nor taboo.

Gotcha.

Old style cunty women and girls are just so dull aren't they? I think it's much better that if anyone is going to to talk about periods, seeing as we can't get an interesting expert man to talk about it, second best is a transman.

velourvoyageur · 18/03/2018 11:14

I guess for me here the issue stems from the fact we're so heavily reliant on visual cues - secondary sex characteristics - to bridge and link language (M/F categories) and perceived reproductive capacity, and I do think this reliance is useful. So in this case, where we see someone with an M/F mix made explicit, our affective anatomical mappings just become vague and don't really serve the tasks for which we normally use these processes of deduction e.g. from 'is it safe to approach this person' to 'can i flirt with this person knowing they'll be of the sex to which I am attracted' or, finally, 'has this person been socialised as M or F on the basis of their biology - (expectation of) periods or no periods?' The word 'man' will still steer us towards entirely different discursive networks than the word 'woman' does, which leads to its inappropriate pairing with e.g. the treatment of periods as an often problematic experience (there is no man in Uganda who will have had to skip school because they didn't have a tampon and I really don't think it's appropriate to allow a situation which allows us to more easily imagine that Ugandan teen boys and girls have more or less the same schooling experience in this respect, not least also because then we relinquish access to the resources held by feminist class analysis, which nevertheless remain highly pertinent).
Language is extremely potent and limiting here - we are guided so much more than we think by the historically and societally shaped definitions of words. Consider differing reactions to the very simple phrases 'male victim' and 'female victim'.
(Just to make clear, I'm not talking about consumer choices (e.g. clothing) as visual cues in this context - a man not on HRT wearing a dress will be correctly decoded as a man, so that's absolutely not the issue.)

Against the backdrop of this reflexively reinforcing triad of language, visual cues and our conception of the non-visible body, the above just facilitates an increasingly more deeply ingrained conceptual shift where we imagine that female- and male-bodied people have pretty much the same experiences in this world and where it's alleged that individual variance, rather than our belonging to a sex class, most informs our functioning and how others relate to us.

This person will not be seen as female-bodied by viewers. They'll be imagined as male-bodied on the subconscious, non-intellectual level, due to the fact that the thought process will go: 'male face + 'man/him/her' = male body', and that's problematic - male bodies don't menstruate.

SnibbleAgain · 18/03/2018 11:14

I also thought we weren't supposed to acknowledge the sex related body parts / functions of trans people as it was triggering for them.

Swipe left for the next trending thread