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?

You do realise that jezebel article isn't related to what we're talking about here DWH?

So while I understand that the history of menstruation is fraught with shaming and red tents postmenstrual cleansing rituals and Carrie shower scenes how women choose to deal with their own periods is so not an expression of their feminism or an indictment of their lack thereof. Not everything is a feminist issue. This is not a feminist issue.

Great article, if only you had read it.

It is a feminist issue, because feminists are telling you it is. Geddit? Super easy?.

I am going to ignore all future posts from you as you're behaving like a male feminist an ignorant person.

Also OP I don't think it's something we've gone over yet, but those girls are American and while there is definitely a taboo about periods everywhere it's even more obvious in America.

The majority of sanpro have applicators to avoid you accidentally touching yourself, it's all heavily scented lest anyone "smell like period". You get all the washes etc as well.

Vaginas are taboo anything coming out of a vagina is taboo. Except for babies, and they're only OK when they've been washed by Johnsons and JOhnsons.

you can't say vagina on a tampon ad

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.

I found this offensive. I have my period for five six days every month and I'm not meant to mention it because you have decided its disgusting?

"It's not meant to be a walk in the park,"

that was the bit that annoyed me. It's a bit old Testament fashioned isn't it.

Yy JFR and to add to that - toilet roll and tampons are both perfectly clean items, yet I would guess you see more bathrooms with the spare loo roll out in plain sight than those with the tampon box out.

A woman's place is in pain apparently

DWH yes, please don't share any more of your non experiences of menstruation. Certainly don't share any more stories about arseholes you know and their encounters with "women's business". Just for good measure, perhaps you could also refrain from pontificating on what are feminist issues and what are not. I also wouldn't use Jezebel to validate your feminist credentials.

DWH
Of course it's an issue for the girls who made the game. They are saying they made the game because it an issue. Being as you are not those girls, how can you say something isn't an issue for them after they have said it is?

Groundhog.
I didn't realise it's was more taboo in the US, not being able to say vagina in a tampon advert sounds silly, but not surprising given the other things you mentioned about Sanpro.

I am pleased I started this thread, it's given me so many more things to think about, I'm new to this and have always lived in my own little bubble, I guess you could say I was naive, thinking that because my life was mostly ok then that's all that mattered, I've been reading books mentioned in threads and also going back through threads here, and it feels like I'm in a different world to what I thought, this time last year I'd have said things were mostly equal, now I'm pissed off at myself for being so naive and stupid. It's like now I've noticed things like casual sexism, I'm seeing it every day, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. I feel like banging my head against a wall sometimes and I've only been looking a few months, it must be frustrating to have to keep explaining and fighting it years and decades down the line.

Speaking out on the gaming site I use has gone really well, and it's given me the confidence to speak out more. I know it's a very tiny drop in a massive ocean but I feel like I've climbed a mountain. Silly I know.

Just wanted to thank you all for posting, even the negative ones, as it shown me that some negative attitudes do still exist and has given me even more of a push not to stay in my own little bubble and do something. (No idea what that something is yet though)

It's like now I've noticed things like casual sexism, I'm seeing it every day, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. I feel like banging my head against a wall sometimes and I've only been looking a few months, it must be frustrating to have to keep explaining and fighting it years and decades down the line.

This is the major negative to feminism. When you think about it sexism is actually everywhere, you're just programmed to think of it as natural and normal. It can be quite wearing.

INickedAName Thu 05-Feb-15 10:04:05
"I'm going back a bit now but when I was a teenager (13,14) there was a girl in my class who had a tampon fall out of her bag, the boys sat next to her shrieked away like she was dirty along with eewwww type noises. She was asked throughout the rest of her school life she was her period by these boys. I think a condom failing out of a boys pocket wouldn't get the same reaction."

To some extent that would depend on the social status of the boy. For the overwhelming majority, such an incident at my old school would have resulted in jokes based on incest, bestiality, virginity, AIDS status and homosexuality. The response would certainly have been different, but no less humiliating; a golden opportunity to rip into someone was not to be wasted.

A condom in the pocket shows some kind of intent, and presumably it's the intent that would be teased?

Boys don't have to carry condoms (though obviously it's not a bad thig to do)

Girls have no choice about carrying sanitary protection

To some extent that would depend on the social status of the boy

If it depended on the boy..it's not sexist. It's annoying all the same but it treats individual males as individuals. Some get a back slap some might get teased.

All women #yaw have to deal with periods and the stigma involved.

Of course condoms and sanitary products are not functionally equivalent, but I didn't select the comparison.

"If it depended on the boy..it's not sexist. It's annoying all the same but it treats individual males as individuals. Some get a back slap some might get teased.

All women #yaw have to deal with periods and the stigma involved."

To clarify "social status"; 98% would be insulted whereas the other 2% wouldn't because they'd smash you without hesitation. Any notion that there would generally be a round of patriarchal back-slapping at the sight of a condom packet falling out of a boy's bag is, in the case of my former school, simply not true.

Don't flush a mooncup Someone said that upthread and it's very wise advice. I accidentally flushed mine a couple of years ago, it fell into a loo with an automatic flush which flushed before I talked myself into retrieving it from the used toilet. I wasn't sure quite what to do, couldn't get it back and was then left with no sanpro. Oops.

And there is definitely a stigma to teenagers about having periods. I teach secondary school and it is very, very rare that a girl will admit to having a period, and those that do, do it in a tiny whisper when explaining why they need to go to the loo. A girl leaked on a chair a few weeks ago, and it spread around the whole school as disgusting, in a way that "x was sick" or "y had a nosebleed" would never be discussed.

Of course condoms and sanitary products are not functionally equivalent, but I didn't select the comparison.

Yes and it was a useless comparison. Which is why inickekedaname said what she did. She didn't make the comparison dadwashere did.

dotheyfloat I said the part you highlighted because dadwashere made the comparison in relation to why it isn't a feminist issue. I can't remember his exact words now but I think it was the very first reply to the thread.

This next bit will more than likely sound gobbledygook but I'm gonna try. The social status you mention as given me something to think about but in the example I gave of the girl at school would have happened regardless of her social status, the boys were not less yucked out as she was upperclass. I think what I'm trying to say is, the two can't be compared.

Should have read full thread, thank you milkmilkmilk you said it better than me.