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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

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Original poster

Tampon Run. Ipad Game by Feminists.

146 replies

INickedAName · 04/02/2015 22:58

My first thread in this section, I'm nervous about fucking it up as I'm not so good at getting what's in my head to make sense.

I came across this game today, on an ios gaming forum I visit a lot. I've downloaded the game but not tried it yet. There is a bit of info on the two young girls who made the game and how they came up with the idea here

I'm still forming my opinion and have to play the game, but I think the girls' attitude is positive and I think the idea and theory itself is good, but, the site on which I found the game is mainly male, and the first few comments on the games thread are in a joking way "bloody good time" and even a mention of anal sex?!, I think there will be more of the same over the next few days. I'm not sure how to word how I feel, but I hope the girls don't get disheartened if the game doesn't achieve what they intended.

Told you I was rubbish at making sense. I will be back to post better, but just wondered what you all thought of it. Do you think the game will change any attitudes/feelings towards periods? Is making it lighthearted a bad thing?

OP posts:
cailindana · 05/02/2015 10:17

I'm sure my mother would drop dead if she saw my packet of towels on the windowsill in the bathroom. Luckily she lives far away so she doesn't have to suffer the indignity of it Grin

FuckOffGroundhog · 05/02/2015 10:17

Trying to think about camping or festivals and people will happily walk around with a loo roll under their arms. No one wandering around with pads....

PuffinsAreFictitious · 05/02/2015 10:18

Another BBC link about a man who invented a machine to make disposable sanitary towels in India.

And one of the organisations that helps women in India to make and sell reusable sanitary protection.

And one from Africa

JennyOnTheBlocks · 05/02/2015 10:20

women take extra hormones before events, even holidays, so they don't 'spoil' them by bleeding

i understand the need if your period is extra-intrusive, just had a hysterectomy to 'cure' mine, but because you don't want to take tampons on holiday? that's so sad

FuckOffGroundhog · 05/02/2015 10:21

The number of my friends who admit that they don't put sanitary products on the shopping list as their husband wont buy them

Angry

I have on occasion had dh call me from the tampon aisle with cries of "they haven't got the right one...there are so many..... what do I doooooooo?" which is annoying enough but I have to be honest and say I find it a fully divorcable offence to be so humiliated by menstrual products a man can't bring himself to buy one. Hmm

What does he think people will think? Confused that he is married to a woman with a uterus? For fucks sake.

cailindana · 05/02/2015 10:23

I took norethisterone before my honeymoon to stop my period, not because I didn't want to take tampons with me but because I can't use tampons and even if I could I bleed so heavily they don't work. I wanted to be able to swim on the beach and just go around travelling without wondering where the nearest toilet was. It was well worth it.

JohnFarleysRuskin · 05/02/2015 10:30

I take norethisterone before a holiday in a hot place - I think its great. I have very heavy periods - so no tampons and no sex - so delaying it for a week is ideal.

All my partners have been super-relaxed about buying sanitary towels or whatever. I can't imagine what it would be like to live with someone who wasn't.

JennyOnTheBlocks · 05/02/2015 10:33

that's why i said about women being too ashamed about taking tampons with them, different reasons Thanks

LillyEvans · 05/02/2015 10:35

Yeah dp has bought me tampons and sanitary towels before. It's ridiculous (though completely believable) that there are men who won't.

ifyourehoppyandyouknowit · 05/02/2015 10:53

DH happily buys whatever I need, he just likes specific instructions so he doesn't get the wrong kind. Because they now do scented ones (what kind fuckery is that?!) etc that my vagina doesn't agree with.

Original poster
INickedAName · 05/02/2015 11:00

Just before Christmas I was in the supermarket with dh and a man shiftily asked if I could help him, his girlfriend had sent him to the shop with the instruction of picking up "the cheapest ladies things". He had no problem doing so but didn't realise how much choice there would be when he got to the aisle. ( it's a small shop too so not as much choice as the bigger branches) He was embarassed at having to ask a stranger what he needed to get more than buying the product. I sent him off with the cheaper packet of tampons, sanitary towels and pantyliners but thought at the time it's sad that his girlfriend couldn't tell him the exact thing she needed, but at the time I couldn't place why I felt like that.

Dh will buy mine, he has in the past gone out to buy only them, and isn't bothered in the least, he just likes me to tell him specifically brand names, flow, wings etc and then with a back up option in case that's not available. Makes it more of a faff, but we usually do the weekly shop together and I stock up when BOGOFs

I think not hiding them at home has helped dd understand more, when she was a toddler and had to come in the toilet with me, she had seen me changing towels, and I'd explain why in a dumbed down way, she called them "Mammy Nappies" and would grab them from the shelves when shopping just like she would grab cheese or other stuff on the list. I had a few horrified looks.

I also remember going to a friends after school when I was around 11 and my friend shouted me to the bathroom, her mum had just been to the toilet and it mustn't have flushed properly, friend was pointing to the bloody tissue in toilet and opened the bin with used products in saying her mums on her period and how disgusting her mother is, I didn't understand fully at the time(I knew fuck all about periods until I started them) but remember feeling awful for her mum who was very lovely. I try to stay away from public toilets when menstrating in case I can't flush the chain properly. I've stayed in toilets in other peoples home waiting for the cistern to refill so I can re flush. I'd be more comfortable if they think I'm having a big fat dump than flushing away a bit of bloody toilet roll.

OP posts:
Bifauxnen · 05/02/2015 11:05

DP's always got me towels with no fuss until he realised it was cheaper at the supermarket to get 2 single packs instead of a double pack. He's got quite evangelical about this apparent conspiracy.
Each visit I half expect to find him accosting women, waving towels in their face and ranting "false economy! You're being conned! That's 3.1 pence per towel"
His need to budget well overpowers any potential embarrassment. for him at least
Anyway, good on these girls, not power to them.

Bifauxnen · 05/02/2015 11:06

more power...

Hakluyt · 05/02/2015 11:08

I can't imagine being in a relationship with a man who couldn't put a packet of tampons in the shopping trolley. Why would you?

Original poster
INickedAName · 05/02/2015 11:11

Just remembered a place I worked at, private nursery, eleven women, one toilet, no sanitary bin. When I started working there I asked about getting one in, you'd think I asked for a kidney. They "compromised" and placed a waste paper basket in there as it would cost too much to have a proper one in and having it emptied. Condition was if you used the bin you had to empty it straight away, so the women continued doing what they did previously, leaving used products in their handbag all day or flushing, rather than walk through the entire nursery with a bin bag. I'll add the owners of the nursery were two women, SCBU nurses, they also expected one pair of gloves to be used when changing fifteen nappies, so I shoudlnt have been surprised at them thinking a sanitary bin is too expensive. (They don't own the nursery anymore and the new owners are lovely and run things much better)

OP posts:
DuelingFanjo · 05/02/2015 11:28

I've tried searching for this on my ipad in the app store and it's not there.

DuelingFanjo · 05/02/2015 11:29

oh hang on - is it in itunes?

ChunkyPickle · 05/02/2015 11:43

This is why I keep the tampons out, and don't make a fuss when changing them - if DS (4) happens to be in the room I treat it as any other bodily function (ie. I tell him to stand back and give me some space, that I don't need help, and that I'll talk to him about whatever he has when I'm finished etc.). As a consequence he's totally blaze about my 'blood thingies' and I hope will be the same with any future girlfriends.

Frankly I have trouble figuring out which ones I want when I'm in the supermarket, so I hate to think what DP would bring back (probably one of almost everything) - he's not a good shopper under pressure! It took me long enough to guide him over the phone to the maternity towels after DS2 (because of course they're with the baby stuff, not the period stuff!)

Original poster
INickedAName · 05/02/2015 12:04

duelling I made a mistake and it's actually iPhone, it works fine on ipad but at a smaller resolution! that's why it's not showing if you are searching the AppStore from an ioad! you'll need to select iPhone only at the top left I think it is.

The link should take you to the iTunes page in my first post, but in case I messed it up.

itunes.apple.com/gb/app/tampon-run/id948757853?mt=8

OP posts:
Original poster
INickedAName · 05/02/2015 12:05

Sorry for explanation marks. They should be full stops, no idea what happened there.

OP posts:
FuckOffGroundhog · 05/02/2015 12:32

Each visit I half expect to find him accosting women, waving towels in their face and ranting "false economy! You're being conned! That's 3.1 pence per towel^

Grin

I also try and be as normal about it with the kids as I can be (my mother was incredibly awkward and it's made me incredibly awkward as well). BUt I brazen through)

Ds regularly follows me in to the toilet to check my knickers Hmm [sigh]

"Have you got blood mumma?"

I then tell him yes/no and please piss off and give mummy 5 seconds peace. (No lock on toilet).

Dd is not happy about it at all even though she understands it doesn't hurt me...she just doesn't want it to happen to her. Not sure how to handle it, I don't want to do the whole earth mother/ it means you're a woman bs with her as it doesn't really mean any of that and actually it can be quite shit as we are a family of women with PCOS/endometriosis and loads of other problems. I don't want to scare but equally don't want to lie to her Hmm

PuffinsAreFictitious · 05/02/2015 12:36

DS's are pretty meh about it all really. Both were quite unaware of danger when little so they always needed to be within sight of me, so they're both used to it all. Now I use washables, they just go in the normal wash cycle, so DS is used to seeing them.

If they have ever wanted to know about anything, they've just asked especially when in the supermarket however, I know that we're an exception, rather than the rule, so the taboo will just continue.

ifyourehoppyandyouknowit · 05/02/2015 13:01

DS (aged 3) thought that tampons went 'up yer bum' (in a v northern accent), and I had to explain that women had other holes. So now he may proclaim that tampons go 'up yer GIIIIIINNNNAAA!' in Tesco. Ahem.

ChunkyPickle · 05/02/2015 13:17

Thank goodness DS1 is just not particularly interested. Watching Call the Midwife he piped up 'where do babies come out', I told him mummies have a special hole, and that was that.

We've moved on from the days when he desparately wanted to help me wipe my bum, straight to teenage indifference all by the age of 4.

DuelingFanjo · 05/02/2015 13:24

Ah yay! will try iphone :)

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