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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Superdrug person who menstruate

623 replies

Womanwhobleeds · 18/06/2020 16:36

Never posted on this board before, but nervous, but I’m furious.
Just bought some towels from Superdrug and the first line on the back of the packet is ‘A person who menstruates..’ I’m a woman ffs!
I shop in Superdrug all the time for their cruelty free stuff but no more!

Superdrug person who menstruate
OP posts:
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24
TheProdigalKittensReturn · 18/06/2020 19:33

You can choose to think of yourself however you like. You should not be able to force everyone else to play along if they don't want to.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 18/06/2020 19:34

Trans activist Shon Fay has actually said “Women - enjoy ur erasure”, @LemonadeAndDaisyChains.

And I have recently seen a set of definitions in which ‘front hole’ is the term for a biological woman’s vagina, and vagina is the term for the surgically created vagina made from a male person’s inverted penis! They even want ownership of the scientific terms for our anatomy. I cannot understand why women would be OK with this.

whatisheupto · 18/06/2020 19:34

"The word menstruation (.....) is from a time in the past when the lunar cycle and the monthly menstrual cycle were believed to be connected".

Something about this feels condescending to me. I'm sure I'm reading too much into it but are they dismissing not only the word 'woman' but also their silly ideas from long ago?

Perhaps now they consider the lunar connection as an accepted fallacy, they ought to invent a new word to replace "menstruation"? Oh, but wait... they just got all that pretty packaging done with LUNA written all over it.

Winederlust · 18/06/2020 19:34

@LST

Wow the ignorance is astonishing. They can choose to be whatever they wish to be. Support helps. Having the word person instead of woman could help them. But nooooo that offends to many wetwipes on mumsnet.

They could have a sex change at 18 and then they won't need to be told what they are by ignorant strangers.

I don't get why trans people are allowed to get so worked up about a word on a product that the company feels forced to change it, but women are unreasonable if they take issue with 'just a word on a packet'.
SerenityNowwwww · 18/06/2020 19:34

‘identify as a woman’ I can’t actually think of any women I know who ‘identify’ as a woman. You just don’t need to ‘identify’ do you?

SarahTancredi · 18/06/2020 19:35

You cannot see the problem with a company claiming they have sex equality in their offices and the female contribution is made up of males ?

Really? You are ok with g spots reserved for women being taken by males ?

midgebabe · 18/06/2020 19:36

Because you have just shown how half the worlds population can be forced out because of their sex. Thanks

Transwomen are not to be considered identical women in all circumstances in law. Suggest you read the equality act.

Sex remains a distinct category to gender reassignment. Ergo, a board with no women and only men and transwomen would be seem to be discriminating on the ground of SEX and probably also doing positive discr8mination onthe grounds of gender reassignment

Eo91 · 18/06/2020 19:36

@EffYouSeeKaye

Yeah, it's supposed to be inclusive of transmen too. Personally I think it's more inclusive to use 'Women and Transmen' instead of reducing everyone down to a biological function.

IcedPurple · 18/06/2020 19:37

Not all women menstruate - are people who no longer menstruate not women?

Almost all women menstruate at some point in their lives. In the rare instances when a woman/girl fails to menstruate, this is due to some defect in her female - get that, female - reproductive organs. Post-menopausal women no longer menstruate because their ovaries - an organ which only women have - no longer produce the relevant hormones.

Males, on the other hand, never menstruate because they do not possess the neccessary organs.

It really is quite simple, however much some might try to make it otherwise.

TheProdigalKittensReturn · 18/06/2020 19:37

"Identify as" means "but in reality am not". I wouldn't say I identify as being 5ft2, for example, I just am. If I were to identify as being 6ft 2 instead trousers designed for women that height still wouldn't fit me.

JoysOfString · 18/06/2020 19:39

On these boards, it's always that people say they have issues with safety from trans women, this is what bothers them.
Safety, same sex spaces.
This, though, it's not a safety issue at all - it literally does not affect me at all if someone wants to identify as a man.
I say let them crack on.
Doesn't make me any less of a woman. All this talk of erasure is so bizarre, I'm still me.
My identity isn't going anywhere.

You misunderstand if you think that anyone is saying all transwomen are a threat.

What is a potential threat to women is men - not all men, but enough that it's a significant ongoing risk. That's why we have sex-separated spaces in the first place.

A man who says he's a woman, isn't a woman in the sense that creates the risk. Now of course there may be a risk to trans poeple from transphobic bigots, but that's a different issue. And FWIW most people who tend to attack or beat up trans people are - men.

Even if you think that trans women are women, how do you separate them from predatory men who now know that they can enter any female space they like just by saying they are a woman?

Just like predatory male prisoners, including sex offenders, are doing RIGHT NOW to get access to women. What about women's refuges? We know that sometimes a violent man who's been dumped will go to great lengths to track down and kill his ex. Now all he has to do is say he's a woman, and he can access the refuge. What about teenage boys? They want access to girls, right? Now all they have to do is say they're a girl, and they're in the girls dorms, showers, tent on a scout camp.

Explain why this is OK please.

QueSera · 18/06/2020 19:41

Dammit I do A LOT of shopping at Superdrug, because of its many cruelty-free products. Well, no more.
Dammit will any shop simply stand up and proudly use the word woman? Why are we a dirty word now? I cant imagine that Superdrug is erasing the word man. Superdrug please stop this misogyny!!

TheStuffedPenguin · 18/06/2020 19:41

I don't get why trans people are allowed to get so worked up about a word on a product that the company feels forced to change it, but women are unreasonable if they take issue with 'just a word on a packet'

Exactly !

Inkpaperstars · 18/06/2020 19:42

Don't like it at all, and if they did not want to say woman they could have avoid the term less clumsily. How about just 'you', and anyone reading it who doesn't menstruate will just assume it isn't a phrase aimed at them. Like 'you will love the fresh fragrance of this shower gel..'

Surely anyway the only people who pick up this product to buy will be in fact...women...so they are pandering to a demographic who will never buy their products at the risk of offending those who do.

Snugglepumpkin · 18/06/2020 19:43

It is deeply offensive to me as a woman who menstruates to see the word woman removed from a product which is aimed 100% at women.
When I stop menstruating it will still be deeply offensive.

I will not shop in Superdrug until all womens products that have had the word woman removed have it put back.

Transpeople are bad for my mental health because they want to harm me for being female, infringe on spaces meant to exclude those of the opposite sex & remove my right for my identity as a woman to have real meaning.

If every genuine (as in genetically classed as female) woman in the world agreed that we would call ourselves Eves instead of women from this moment on, than transpeople would be screaming & grasping after that name too because real women were excluding them.

What about my right to NOT identify with people who are not like me by having my own word which means genetically female?
Transwomen are nothing like me & they never will be.

LemonadeAndDaisyChains · 18/06/2020 19:44

I didn't say anything about people were "going on" about it.
Just that the usual argument is safety issues, and in this case it doesn't affect us at all.
It's just wording on a packet.
To which I can get a "meh" up at best.

Womanwhobleeds · 18/06/2020 19:44

@LCT yeah had the time on my hands to think about this as I was driven direct to the shop to get the pads as I was bleeding out of my vagina and needed something to absorb the flow. Upon being driven home I had time.
Now to my mental health... I cried in the car upon reading it.
Why? Because eradicating the word woman you eradicate much of what has been hard fought and hard won for women.
I work in single sex space, if we lose the word women/woman how do we keep these spaces exclusively for women?
I should imagine trans men when they bleed are reminded every time they go to the toilet whilst on their period that they biologically still menstruate. It must be very difficult for them, if Superdrug wish to produce a sanitary product for trans men, then they should.
What they shouldn’t do is remove my fucking right to be seen as a woman.

They are more than happy to sell men’s razors and a hair dye called just for men!

OP posts:
LemonadeAndDaisyChains · 18/06/2020 19:46

You misunderstand if you think that anyone is saying all transwomen are a threat
What is a potential threat to women is men

That's just word soup
You're saying trans women are a threat because they're biologically men, right?
I haven't misunderstood anything.

IcedPurple · 18/06/2020 19:47

Just that the usual argument is safety issues, and in this case it doesn't affect us at all.
It's just wording on a packet.

Words matter. They certainly matter to the TRAs who loudly fight to have them changed to suit their preferences. Do you think words never matter? Derogatory words to describe people of certain races, religions etc? Or is it only words which erase women which don't matter?

JoysOfString · 18/06/2020 19:47

Trans women are men IMO, not in yours.

But what about men who we can both agree are men but "identify as a woman" in order to access female spaces?

Don't pretend you can't understand that concept, or that it doesn't happen.

midgebabe · 18/06/2020 19:47

No you said the "usual" argument was against transwomen. I forgot, you like stirring

And yes it's about a lot more than safety issues. It's our dignity and our very existence

It's also about children's mental and physical health

And probably a few other things as well.

michelle1504 · 18/06/2020 19:49

Well, you know what to do, make your voice known to superdrug. I certainly will be, nor will I be buying these pads. I think that places and organisations are catering to those who make the most noise. It's up to people who fundamentally disagree with the erasure of the word woman to stand up and have their voices heard.

JoysOfString · 18/06/2020 19:49

And the words on the packet matter because they reinforce the idea that there is no such thing as a a women defined on the based of sex (ie having the parts that menstruate, or are designed to). That's as offensive to me, when that's how I identify, as it is to a trans man to use the word "women". So why doesn't my identity and hurt feeling matter, but theirs does?

midgebabe · 18/06/2020 19:50

If words don't matter , why do transwomen care about being considered women?

LemonadeAndDaisyChains · 18/06/2020 19:50

Yeah, it's supposed to be inclusive of transmen too. Personally I think it's more inclusive to use 'Women and Transmen' instead of reducing everyone down to a biological function

Think that'd be better wording - the word women is still there for those feeling like they're being ignored as a woman, and also acknowledges trans men too