Lunette (menstrual cups) policing our language.

[littlecabbage]

I was interested in the MN sponsored thread about Lunette menstrual cups, and so had a look at the Lunette website. Unfortunately, there is an entire page dedicated to discussing “cis-women” and multiple “genders”, and lecturing us all on “how feminine-only language hurts” and how they would like to police our language for us.

I will therefore not be buying this product.

uk.lunette.com/blogs/news/gender-and-period-care-products

What to Say Instead

So, it’s pretty clear that the use of female-centric words needs to cease in the menstruation industry. This begs the question of what to say instead.

Depending on the context, you can try to avoid naming groups of people. For example, instead of saying “Some people who menstruate prefer Lunette” you could say “Lunette is a preferred menstrual care product”

We’ve changed racist labels. We’ve changed sexist labels. Now, let’s change cisexist ones. Periods are not inherently feminine. Periods are a biological phenomenon that impacts the lives of people who are born with a uterus. We have the power to grow toward inclusion of all people who menstruate, and now is the time for that shift. All people deserve to feel comfortable taking care of themselves during their time of the month. Period.

Here is the MN thread:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_product_tests/3741592-Find-out-what-MN-testers-thought-of-the-Lunette-menstrual-cup

Periods are a biological phenomenon that impacts the lives of people who are born with a uterus.

Yup and we used to call such a person born with a uterus a woman. However now it’s offensive because people born with a penis feel that being a woman simply means someone who has a feminine identity. At the end of the day, it still just affects one group of people, no matter what we call them. We can distort our language all we want. It still comes back to the fact that menstruation exists and that it is only experienced by the half of the population who have a uterus (apart from the small number who have a medical condition that means they have no uterus or do not menstruate).

How ridiculous

There are few things in this world that are inherently feminine.

Long hair is not inherently feminine.
Being nice is not inherently feminine.
Wearing dresses or make up is not inherently feminine.
Being a people person is not inherently feminine.
Childcare is not inherently feminine.
Liking the colour pink is not inherently feminine.

I could go on.

There are, however, a small number of things that are inherently feminine, or more precisely inherently female because they are things that only do, only ever have, only ever will, only ever can happen to people who are actually female.

Menstruating is one of those things. Only women have periods. Only female human beings are women.

Oh that's a shame. I had a read of that thread and was planning on buying one. Not now though.

Really this is getting ridiculous. HTF (how the...) can a transwoman use one of these? So they are insulting all the women who could use one just to please a transwoman who could never use one. Did these people ever study business? Do they have backers? Because if I invested in a business that then insulted all of its real potential customers I would want my money back.

As I understand it their language mangling is supposed to be inclusive of XX trans people who do have periods, unless the artificial testosterone they sometimes take destroys their organs leading to the need for a radical hysterectomy.

That it insults the vast majority of women, or that the word women has always included XX trans people anyway doesn't seem to register.

No they are pleasing transmen. Who are triggered by being called women. But not by hoiking a menstrual cup out of their foof and tipping blood out of it.

O brave new world, that has such people in't.

I think it is more about appeasing trans men than trans women in this case, but offensive bollocks regardless.

Feel free to join me in commenting on the Lunette sponsored thread

Annasgirl
I think they’re trying to be inclusive to transmen rather than transwomen - transmen are the ‘people who menstruate’.

I used to use lunette but switched to meluna about a year ago as their website freely used the words women and girls (though I just checked now and they use menstruator once, which I hope isn't the start of a fall)

Also turned out to be much better (for me anyway) than lunette, which stopped fitting properly after my second child.

Just had a mooch around the Mooncup website. They are not as obviously woke as the Lunette idiots, but I have not seen the words “women” and “girls” mentioned yet, and there is a description of a project they are involved in to ease “period poverty” which refers to “young people” who need feminine hygiene products.

What a bunch of dicks. Isnt lunette a pretty feminine name?

Natsku thanks. I just had a very brief look, and the word “women” still features heavily. This will be the moon cup I choose to try.

Sorry, my post above refers to Me Luna.

So, it’s pretty clear that the use of female-centric words needs to cease in the menstruation industry.

Is it? Only if your main market is the 0.5% of non binary/ trans people rather than the 51% of women.

It's appeasing transmen at the expense of women who have managed to accept themselves as being women simply by virtue of their biology and have managed to put as much of the other shit gender to one side. It forces us to think about gender. Harmful.m

Oh, fuck this. This makes me very happy I have a mooncup and not something by Lunette.

I have both but if I ever need to replace one (hoping they last me until the menopause) I won't be buying Lunette.

I emailed Cheeky Wipes and got a refund when they did the same.

Women as a word will do just fine. If a tiny minority have an issue with this then I'm sorry they struggle with their biology but I would hope they would appreciate that many women need these products and some of those women don't have English as their first language.

So to keep track we have:
Always
Cheeky Wipes
Lunette

...and wasn't there a period pants company who also removed the word woman? ModiBodi or similar? I'll buy from independent zero waste stores that don't go in for this nonsense in future...

I’ve just looked at Mooncup, which I use. They don’t say woman, but equally they don’t say cis women or people who menstruate.

Hi all. We're not keen to have product testing threads derailed.
As we outlined in the opening post:
"This is the feedback thread for the 50 Mumsnet users who have been testing the Lunette menstrual cup over the last 3 months."
We'll leave the first post that makes the point - but will delete any further ones that make the same point repeatedly.

and wasn't there a period pants company who also removed the word woman? ModiBodi or similar? I'll buy from independent zero waste stores that don't go in for this nonsense in future..

Modibodi still uses the words woman and girls, as does Wuka (I researched a lot of companies when choosing period pants as a backup for my cup and settled on those two as they both used the word women and I didn't spot a cis anywhere, at least at the time of purchase)

@MichaelMumsnet

If it's testing whether MN users will buy their product it's relevant to them isn't it? You should let them know the strength of feeling on their - paid for - thread at the very least. Important to be open and honest in business.

Oh dear. I was going to swop to Lunette after the recent Mumsnet trial.

Me too.

I can't use a product by a company that does not respect women enough to even call us by our collective name.

cisexist

THIS IS NOT A THING! IT IS NOT A WORD.

WOMEN menstruate. Women are oppressed, disadvantaged, and hurt by the fact that they menstruate.

No male will ever menstruate.