Tampon Run. Ipad Game by Feminists.

[INickedAName]

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?

I've just checked the game site and there's a commed
Nt along the lines of "fair play to the girls who helped create the game" and it's got me prickly, I'm going to try explain why here, if I'm honest I'm kind of wary of posting it as a reply there in case I have got it wrong.

From all the things I've read surrounding the game and the idea behind the girls created it themselves, saying they helped create has undertones of saying if a girl has coded and created a worthy game then it's by helping the men do the proper stuff and not by the merit if their own hard work.

Person who said it is a mod, and I dont think he meant any harm, but then when you have hundreds thinking the same way it's easy to see why Girls Who Code and other projects are needed. Am I overthinking it?

YY cailindana. I've been with my DP for 10 years and never once asked him to buy tampons for me. Ridiculous.

"girls who helped"

he can fuck off. the articles are very clear that they are the creators

Side story: I went over one day to help my father in law fix his blocked sewer. After a couple of hours we find the pipe and get it open. He uses a tool to get to the blockage and works it around to hook the debris. He then starts pulling out the problem... tampons his daughters and wife had decided were acceptable to flush down the toilet over the years. As he is doing this he is, I think, swearing in a language I fortunately do not speak, because swearing in English is all peaches and cream compared to the literal English translations of swearing in that language.

He calls out in heavily accented english 'Mummy... mummy... come here mummy..' His wife comes outside. He shows her this growing pile of swollen tampons building up on the ground and says 'Look at this mummy... it is the womans business I fix here.'

To return to topic: The girls in the video rationalise the 'ehh, yucky gross' reaction from their younger schoolmates as being based in 'menstrual taboo'. Sorry, I do not share that view, I think its just a reaction based in biological naivety, much the same as the penis stuff I went through at an all boys school. Yes, many of the things raised in this thread ARE feminist issues about menstruation, but not every period or tampon is a feminist issue.

I would hope that western culture and menstruation have moved on just a bit from the days of adult men having the vapours at the idea of buying tampons for the wives/girlfriends. Twenty plus years ago it was my wife who was embarrassed about asking me to buy tampons for her and at the time I was surprised she felt that way. Today young men debate the merits of earning their red wings.

"Earning their red wings" means periods are no longer taboo?

"Today young men debate the merits of earning their red wings."

Er- and this says menstruation is no longer taboo?

Thanks for absorbing and considering all the points that adult women are telling you about their past and present experiences, DWH.

Earning brown wings is also "a thing" and has been for twenty years. Should I punch the air and say yay for the progress made?

Ah well, CBA addressing you further as you clearly CBA with anything but your own opinion on the lives of women. Byesie bye.

"girls who helped" he can fuck off.

Yy to this.

Hey dwh, why isn't there a word for fingering someone?

I got my fingerwings? Or having vaginal sex when a woman isn't on her period? Because they aren't taboo. You only make special words for things that are unusual or taboo.

Does someone get their "cumwings" for the first time they swallows?

No? Do you know why? Because there is no taboo, it's basically the exact male equivalent but it's expected women should perform oral sex and swallow because male ejaculate is not considered disgusting.

Once again... "You only make special words for things that are unusual or taboo."

HAs it occurred to you to ask you wife or your daughters what they think about periods and if they seem them as considered taboo? It seems like you're trying to prove you're so Ok with them that there is no taboo ever.

Of course periods are disgusting. It's not meant to be a walk in the park, for gods sake. Just as most people don't like to talk in detail about going for a shit, most people don't want to hear about people's periods. Speak to the doctor if there's any problems. It's not a "stigma" It's perfectly normal.

The game isn't great tbh, but I love the music!

Actually it's quite fun. Just overly similar to many iPhone games I've played.

Such an ironic username magnetic

one man telling us there is no stigma, another telling us that any perceived stigma is a normal reaction

i love how between them they are proving the point

Why shouldn't it be 'a walk in the park'?

Most people don't want to hear about people's periods

It took me a while to realise what red and brown wings are...and I completely agree with fuckoff

There's nothing wrong with something's being kept private. Bleeding isn't something people enjoy hearing about. Just get on with it and go to the doctors if there's any problems, much like any other toilet-based release.

*some things

Most people don't want to hear about people's periods

Most men don't want to hear about women's periods

Magnetic thinks by not using relevant nouns he can be sexist and no one will notice.

Weird, I'm pretty sure in school if someone cut themselves badly the best bit was coming in to school and telling everyone exactly how much blood was lost and exactly how amazing the scar is.

I don't remember any girls coming in and telling the mixed group how they could do with a transfusion after their last period.

While everyone is happy to go to the toilet they still don't seem to be happy to carry a tampon to it in full view.

DWH your FIL is a dick. He was cleaning out a sewer so presumably he would have been okay with piles of shit or condoms causing the blockage. Would he have called his wife out to her to humiliate her if it had been shit or condoms? I note he did it in English, presumably for your benefit.

I assume you pointed out to him that there is no stigma attached to menstruation and used tampons are no more disgusting than any other possible cause of a blocked sewer?

It would also be a lot easier to go 'see a doctor' about any problems, if these kind of ideas about periods didn't extend to the medicall professionals too.

I'm happy to hear about people's periods.

I consider myself lucky that OH is completely unbothered by periods; he'll go out and grab a pack of pads or tampons if I ask (he'll usually come back with chocolate too; he's a keeper ), and sees them as being just like any other product like loo roll, wet wipes etc. But that's the sad thing, because I shouldn't have to consider myself lucky. I don't know where he gets it from, as his family certainly aren't open about menstruation; whereas my family are, and I know I could ask my 15 year old brother to get me a pack of pads and he'd do it without too much fuss - a bit of teasing, but that's brothers and sisters rather than a true belief that the female body is disgusting.

Maybe if we weren't pressured to keep our "female problems" to ourselves and discussed it a little more openly, young women - and women of all ages actually - would a) be more aware of if something was abnormal, and b) feel more comfortable in going to the doctor about it, and we'd have fewer people dying tragically young of gynaecological cancers and other issues.

Actually I've heard more people than I can count talk about shit. Both their own and other peoples, I've heard plenty of people (all men in my experience) announce they have been "baking one" or some such, and plenty of times (again men in my experience, saying something like "I'd give it an hour"
I've heard people say they are gonna shit or piss themselves if they don't get to a toilet lots of times too. I've often seen people (again men in my experience) will walk to the bathroom with a newspaper or book tucked under saying they won't be back for a while.

I've never heard a woman announce she's going to change a pad/tampon and will be right back. I've also never heard a woman say she's gonna leak all over if she doesn't find a bathroom quickly.

I'm not as relexed as I thought I was either, around my dd yes, but while thinking about this I've noticed that I will wait until a chain flushes or the dryer goes before opening the packaging as I don't want anyone to know. I was at an event last and stopped myself, then realised it was silly and ripped open the packaging, but it took a lot to do it, and I felt something, guilty/dirty/ashamed not sure which, walking out if the cubicles.

My periods were very heavy when younger and I'd rather have stayed at home than go out with friends in case I couldn't find bathroom and leaked. I often had to tie my jumper around my waist to cover patches as it would have been too embarrassing to ask to be excused from class. The fucking anxiety in case jumper fell off limited me to what I felt comfortable taking part in. Then when it was over, there was next month to worry about. I don't want that for my dd.