To say 'flowing free' isn't a feminist issue, it's a hygiene one?

[daydrinker]

I have attached screen shots of the conversation from one of my breastfeeding Facebook groups.

The genera opinion seems to be that periods are beautiful and not uncomfortable or gross at all.

Just like any other bodily fluid, I don't think it's nice.

AIBU to say it's a hygiene issue and not a feminist one?

I’m chronically ill and have very very painful periods. Been told I should consider a hysterectomy as the best option for treating this as I have adenomyosis. No way would I use a moon cup I can’t wear tampons due to clots. The thought of inserting one of those rubbery things inside makes me feel dizzy and physically sick. I think I would probably pass out.

Not everyone can be converted.

I’m a vicar and I use owl pads (can’t really free bleed when I wear white robes to take services!). Happy to bless anyone’s - after they’ve washed them!

That would put a whole new meaning on the blood of Christ .

How many owls to make each pad?

Only one, Querty, but they are kept in horrendous conditions, in tiny cages, chained to a branch, and fed on a single mouse a day.

They slave from dusk to dawn each night, without even a shrew break to let them stretch their aching claws.

It's brutal! Because of their big eyes they are ideally suited to making the very tiny stitches required on these small and intricate feminine garments (Though they are often de-taloned if they tear too many fabrics).

When their working lives are over they are just chucked out to fend for themselves as best they can, often blind from long hours making tiny stitches by starlight, their talons blunt or broken, their beaks soft and useless from a calcium-low diet.

I don't know how the purchasers of these products can sleep at night. Their hands are Stained With The Blood Of The Innocent (somewhat ironically, when you think about it)

Goodness Schadenfreude, I was not expecting such a comprehensive answer, thank you for that insightful explanation. Food for thought for us all I think .

Periods/ free bleeding is a feminist issue. As many posters have said it would be unpleasant to live in a world with the stains and remains of free bleeding. However the cost of preventing this situation falls on the woman who is experiencing the period not society. Loo roll is provided in public/work/school/etc toilets because it would be disgusting not to provide this. Why shouldn’t sanitary protection be provided on the same basis? After all I get a benefit from using a pad but as a sufferer of very heavy periods I’d argue that my employer and the Tube get more benefit (eg reduced cleaning costs and reduced customer complaints)

Hell no, I'd have to throw my shoes away.

Hell no, I'd have to throw my shoes away 🤣

You could always replace them with welly boots. 😁

Cacti are very popular too. As are pineapples.

Can't see a huge rush for cactus themed pads though...

I'd sit in a chair if it had someone's dried breast milk or menstrual blood on it, but if it had piss or shit on it, I'd stand. So I don't feel like all bodily excretions are equally disgusting. However, of course nobody would want to go round purposefully making a complete mess of everything by 'free-flowing'. It's a load of shite. It isn't a real 'thing' (outside of perhaps three irritating knobs on t'internet).

Oh I'd rather not it in a chair where a free bleeder or shitter had been sitting!

But to those who say this is a spoof, wasn't there a woman who ran the marathon free bleeding - to make the point? I saw the picture.

I no longer have periods and no longer shave my armpits - the hairs just don't seem to grow much anymore.

@SchadenfreudePersonified - you've got me worried now. I wonder how many faux had to die to trim the collar of my parka?

But to those who say this is a spoof, wasn't there a woman who ran the marathon free bleeding - to make the point?
Yes, but she ran the marathon after having been taken in by the 4CHAN pisstake.

It's gross. Yes it's a natural bodily function but it's not beautiful, not really amazing and not something I want to see oozing from anyone. Bleurgh

Hell no, I'd have to throw my shoes away

You could always replace them with welly boots

Sort of like an external Mooncup, empty them out every so often, are we onto something here? They could even be decorated with owls.

Instead of the wellies we could alternatively wear no knickers and waterproof trousers so it slid down our legs and surreptitiously slid onto the ground. A sort of feminist great escape.

Too many, FuckKnuckle, too many.

The faux is a close cousin of the humble acrylic. Once these charming and playful creatures roamed the wild downs of the south-east coastal counties, basking and frolicking in the summer sun, and spending their winters below ground, sleeping, eating, and getting progressively hairier*.

Demand for their easy-care, quick-drying pelts caused them (and their acrylic cousins, which flocked prettily across the Yorkshire dales, revelling in their freedom, and frisking merrily as they played exuberantly among the whippets) to be hunted to the brink of extinction; almost of of those remaining in the wild were trapped and brought into captivity where they have been selectively bred in a large range of genetically recessive colours (pink, lime green etc) as well as the more natural ones that we could once watch with delight from our kitchen windows, as they wrestled with magpies on the bird table, and drop-kicked pigeons for scraps of bread.

I understand that there are a few small, well-protected colonies in the South Downs, and acrylics are occasionally sighted in the suburbs of Batley, having become semi-urban, but alas, they are unlikely to fully recover, and have developed a Fear of Man that means they rarely even rob our dustbins.

NEXT WEEK - The Shreddies Kintting Nannas: The "Free-Range" Lie That Shocked The World!

*much like myself

LittleDragon

I can just see Donald Pleasance now, pointing to floor - "Look - over there - I can see . . . . eeeeew!"

Periods are not beautiful

The marathon runner didn’t run it to make the point, I don’t think. Her period started unexpected and she couldn’t run 26 miles wearing either a tampon or pad. So what does she do? NOT run the race she’s spent months getting physically and mentally prepared for, or run it? Hats off to her. Brilliant woman.

I read an interview with the marathon runner - she decided to free bleed and wear white leggings to draw attention to the fact that lots of women around the world can't afford san pro. Its quite possible to run in a pad or tampon and take a loo stop when needed (it might affect your attempt at a pb though). I've done a half marathon on my period and Paula Radcliffe's world record was set when she was on hers.

If I cut my finger and was dripping blood at work I would clear it up and cover it with a plaster. Menstrual or circulatory, it’s still blood and a possible infection risk to others surely?

Unicorns ... Now there is an idea ... The horn could be a sort of tampon, never heard of reusable pads before, I like the idea of the owls but surely they should do personalised ones ... Just an idea

Since when is period blood not disgusting? OK, I'm not disgusted by my own period blood (and do free bleed towards the end of my period where the flow is minimal and will be soaked up by my pants) . But I find the idea of sitting in some other woman's bodily fluids by accidebt absolutely revolting. Body fluids are gross because they harbor diseases. The unreasonable vilification that menstruation recives in some cultures is of course wrong but smearing your period blood allover the place is not acceptable either.