To think this is male fantasy about periods?

[OneOfThoseOldFashionedWomen]

Trending there is a post about the reality of heavy periods, and yet every time I load MN there is faux advertising of women (of course thin and pretty and acceptably diverse) all hanging out in their pants by a window, looking back with a coy smile.

I'm sure there will be shouts of its advertising of course it needs to be aspirational/alluring etc, but this is MN, why can't the advertising be more honest?

To me, it’s the ageism that I see in this, not sexualisation.

The issue with this advert on here is that it’s an image aimed at teens, not mothers 25 - 50 (which is my guess at who is on MN who might buy period pants). And that’s kind of insulting to put that on here. We know we aren’t “trendy” and don’t “matter” to companies who want to seem trendy. So if they aren’t prepared to acknowledge us in their advertising why the fuck are they trying to get us to give them our money? They can FOTTFSOFATFOSM

I don’t see this as a male fantasy at all. I don’t think most men want reminding that women are on their periods and don’t find period pants particularly attractive.

For the teen age group I think the image is somewhat aspirational and staged to try and show the various designs in decent light in a single photo. So not a real life depiction but not outrageously ridiculous as advertising goes.

But while it is definitely not something I would do now, as a teen I certainly had sleep overs where we were hanging out in our underwear while doing various other things - from getting ready to go out to getting ready to try out our femme fatale personas on the boys in the other room. And I would have done that while on my period too (though wearing a tampon and a teddy not huge knickers).

I really disagree with the posts suggesting it isn’t realistic because they don’t look miserable and curled up in pain. While lots of women do have significant issues with pain, bloating, flooding, etc. and almost all have some pain at some point, the vast majority of the time the vast majority of women don’t. It’s just as bad for women to tell people it’s all awful when it isn’t as to suggest it’s always fine when it isn’t.

Funniest thread I've read in a while. Thank you all who posted!

Who on earth stands by a window in their underwear like that?

I'm not far short of 70 now but I always pull the blind down in my bedroom until I'm properly dressed.

Also no need for period pants now but did wonder why my mum found ads funny. 🤔
Had little lesson on how to use suspender type thing with pad attached. At around age 9.
Fortunately stick on pads were a thing by 11.But didn't give me wings.
Lovely to think that my mum had the same sense of humour, all those years ago, that I and most other women have now.

is it really different from draping a luscious woman across a sports car, showing fancy cars driving on empty roads in beautiful places, showing the smiling lady clean up her disgusting child to flog washing powder, showing the grateful healthy cat eagerly eat the kibbles. All advertising is selling a fantasy.

YABU they’re hardly going to sell their period pants if you have women looking miserable and leaking period blood down their legs.

Of course it’s not representative of the majority of women but it’s like all adverts.
You won’t find anyone looking sad and they’ll all be very attractive as that’s what encourages the consumer to buy their products.

YANBU I read once that something like 70% of women think that their periods are heavier than average, presumably because of advertising like this (because that's not how averages work!)

But I would find some hideous, sycophantic "keeping it real" advert even more infuriating (especially if they based it on dainty, delicate chocolate cravings. I don't know why that particular cliche gets to me so much. I guess it reduces women down to such bland, two dimensional, simplistic creatures- give 'em a square of chocolate, that'll shut them up)

Yeah completely agree and jeez Mumsnet having just seen that period pants advert the OP posted...what are you thinking?!

My eldest son learned about periods when I had a very unexpected heavy one with terrible cramps (stuck on a cross country train!!). It was distressing even for him! I explained what it was so he wouldn't worry and seeing it with his own eyes has literally made him ask if girls his age will go through this as he thinks it's awful. He is very sympathetic and will now be the boy who hands over his jumper not laughs if a female classmate gets caught out and needs to hide a leak. That's what we need, boys having this normalised from when they are young and being empathetic about it.

Tbh that Mumsnet ad looks like one of those male fantasy style things where women always just hang out giggling in their pants when they have sleepovers.

Yeah it's not woke, it's not even diverse in the models they've chosen.

Not at any age have I hung around in my knickers with other girls/women and when I saw this advert I thought it especially ridiculous that one of the girls is in just her bra and knickers.

I don't think I'm particularly prudish or a fuddy duddy, I think this advert is just plain wrong.

It is interesting, I had the same reaction when I saw this advert and it is bothering me to see it every time I come to this site.

Agree with this. It's just advertising. Male hair loss products don't show miserable bald men either.

Maybe see your GP. Your period should not be continuously flowing whist in the bath. Even if im heavy my flow practically stops... I am get a couple of clots and slight excess but that's it.

i think a recent advert i saw is changed, with red blood instead of blue, and women curled up on their beds

Oh come on OP - surely when the cramps start the first thing you do is invite all your equally lovely model friends to dance around in your knickers by the bedroom window?

When I was young all the ads for sanitary products showed gorgeous young women roller skating and having a great time. They made me feel terrible about myself, sitting at home with my spotty face and bloated stomach, in excruciating pain. I used to be worried about sitting down in case the blood spurted out everywhere. I also had to do PE in PE knickers, with a big fat pad showing, as they didn't do the slim ones in those days. So glad to be too old for periods now.

I think other posters have summed up my post better than I have (although I am also aware that it is a fetish)

It is designed for the male gaze for a product that is aimed solely at women. So the luscious women on the sports car is designed to appeal to men (obviously this has its own issues but different from this thread)

I also don't find the models diverse, they are 'acceptably diverse' which is very different.

@Discovereads has a good advert idea, that doesn't show pain/blood/clots or bloating.

When Sally Ride, the first woman astronaut was going into sppace for a week, she was asked if 100 tampons was 'the right amount'.

She was also asked to help develop a make-up kit for zero gravity, apparently.

Yeah I’d agree @CakeMonster1 yours do not sound typical (you should be able to manage some yoga and swimming on your period) - go see the GP and make a fuss till they take you seriously

I seem to only get those two adds exclusively. Both meals now repulse me.

As for the fantasy of periods, yes. That's a ridiculous add. I do wonder what it would be like to see an add that references my own experience....

She was feeling fine, top of the world, effective and successful, emotionally strong and balanced, slim. Then suddenly walking up stairs felt monumental, she became paranoid and plagued by doubt, bloated. She knew. Then cut to images of sudden rushes to loo in fear that a break through leak happened! Period Pants, we get it.

Is "woke" a word we are using now totally out of context of anything for things we don't like?

You mean you don’t hang out with your racially diverse friends in your pants by open windows? Odd.

As one of the testers that they are talking about, I can confirm that I didn't look like that when I was wearing them and at no point was I wearing them with girl friends stood by a window.

My friends are all very lovely but almost none of them look like that.

However I'm not sure Uniqlo would want to use a pic of me checking my bedsheets on a morning, thrilled that I hadn't leaked, whilst DH snores away on the other side of the divan with his naked bum hanging out

This! This is what actually happened in these!

The Uniqlo ad people are idiots. Maybe they should have used me and DH instead

I have laughed my head off all the way through this thread.

The women who have to experience the sort of period pain described by some posters on here deserve pedestals and worshipping and near-Goddess status (or, you know, sensitive and effective medical care but I think the Goddess thing is more likely) . I cannot fathom the physical and mental toll this must take EVERY month and yet here you all are, keeping down jobs and running households and looking after children. Unbelievable.