Have you seen the new Bodyform advert?

[Fairenuff]

Just that really. Sorry if there's already a thread.

www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/bodyform-s-new-advert-breaks-period-advertising-taboos/vi-BB16hTmF?ocid=msedgdhp

[TracyBeakerSoYeah]

For anyone who wants to try Bodyform you can get free samples here
www.bodyform.co.uk/sampling/

[LillianBland]

Thank you TracyBeakerSoYeah. I never apply for free samples, but it’s a good way of letting them know that their advert has had a positive response.

[TracyBeakerSoYeah]

Lillian it came up on my Latest Free Things app earlier.
I don't use them but DD1 does.

[Holothane]

I’ve just brought the music for it from the internet brilliant ad and at last tell it how it is for us women.

[Holothane]

Well my dragon is having a right bite at the moment in fact I’ve just taken a codiene tablet for it, long story which I won’t go into here, but this ad shows the lot§ I use reusable pads now a life changer but I’ll applaud this ad .

[MoleSmokes]

"Wombstories" is not an "advert" in the usual sense of the word, more a work of art. I found it incredibly moving.

It is beautiful and celebratory but also broke my heart and left me in tears.

The excruciating physical pain of periods is a memory for me now. I know it is not supposed to be possible to recall pain but the woman writhing on the floor while a snarling monster ripped up her insides, I felt my guts tighten and thought I was going to throw up.

The other agony, like a knife in my heart and searing my brain, was the "barren womb". I thought I was all over that now, the inner-screaming torment and gut-wrenching grief of infertility. Apparently not. Maybe it is something I will never get over and the pain was just dormant?

Phew!

Whatever . . . life goes on.

This is the video description on YouTube

Our #wombstories are never simple. But all of them – the weird and the wonderful; the happy and the sad – need to be heard.

Trigger warning: images of needles and portrayal of baby loss. Learn more: www.bodyform.co.uk/wombstories.

We tell girls a simple story:

Get your period around twelve.
Repeat every twenty-eight days.
Deal with some pain.
Have some babies.
Then more periods.

And then around fifty, your body is meant to politely retire.

But it’s never that simple.

And when we pretend that it is, we make every other experience feels less normal, less valid, less real.

Women's confidence and wellbeing suffer. Pain goes undiagnosed. Shame and embarrassment build. The silence about our bodies and experiences goes on.

Now more than ever, we need to tell all the unseen, unspoken stories of our periods, vulvas and wombs – our #wombstories - because none of them have gone away

They are real stories of love and hate,
Of pleasure and pain and pain so severe it’s a disease with a name, endometriosis,
It’s stories of longing and trying for babies.
And of never wanting children. Ever.
The joy of birth. The pain of birth.
And the silent devastation of miscarriage.
Stories of clockwork periods. And haywire ones.
Of awkward beginnings and roller-coaster peri-menopausal endings.
Good stories. Bad stories.
Mundane ones. Profound ones.
The bitter. And the sweet.

All our #wombstories need to be heard.

To know each other.
To help each other.
To see each other.
Thank you to all the women who shared their #wombstories with us and made this film possible.

• - - - - - - - -
  

The comments under the video are also worth reading.

[Ponddering]

@Whatsnewpussyhat

Just a quick FYI for anyone switching brands. I swapped to bodyform years ago when always told us the scented pads never cause thrush or cystitis and women love their fadge smelling like a car air freshener .
Until recently the pink or turquoise bodyform packs I used to buy said perfume free on the front of the packet. They've now changed and say fresh feel or similar and are scented, so if this is an issue look for the white packet that says allergen free.

Bodyform say they “only have a few fragranced products, and they are clearly labelled as being "Deo Fresh", but all of our core products have zero fragrance 😀”

[Ponddering]

@Shedbuilder
@SirSamuelVimesBlackboardMonito

Did you ever get a response from the journo?

[Shedbuilder]

Yes, she said the editorial mentioned women — which was true (and I acknowledged it) because she'd quoted from the Bodyform marketing manager who had used the words 'woman' and 'women' — but that she wanted to make her own words inclusive so that transmen didn't feel left out. I said I assumed she was very young and very woke and I hope she'd remember this conversation in 20 years times and shudder with embarrassment.

Quite why someone who wants to be male would also want to celebrate their womb and menstruation is a bit beyond me: I thought that testosterone usually meant that transmen didn't bleed and that many considered this a good thing.

One of the things we don't talk about here are the issues surrounding those lesbians who transition — or who flirt with transitioning by experimenting with testosterone and facial hair, packing etc — and yet continue to turn up at women's and lesbian events on the basis that they have vaginas. For those of us who have fought to love and respect our female bodies and whose feminism and lesbianism is centred on being pro-women, transmen wanting access to female space can be a real head-fuck.

[SirSamuelVimesBlackboardMonito]

Yes I got the same waffle about being inclusive. Blah blah.

[Pudmyboy]

I loved this even though that part of my life has been over for 10 years now. I loved having monthly bleeds, not calendar months but moon months, felt so connected to the natural world. Even when they started when out shopping or down the pub. (Not to say those whose bleeds are erratic or absent aren't connected to the natural world)

[Pudmyboy]

Also I was lucky as my periods were pain-free. Made up for it with the menopause: hot & cold flushes in quick ongoing succession, looked like a squid signalling! Insomnia, night sweats, low mood and anxiety then flashes of temper: so glad my friends stuck with me!

[ChateauMargaux]

@MoleSmokes
The description of your reaction to this advert and the pain your body holds and remembers is so vivid. I hope you find a way to allow your body to release this pain and to heal yourself from this. I hear your pain and am standing with you and the other women touched by these pains and these painful experiences, honouring our womanhood and our suffering and takingb from each other the strength we need to heal.

[DominaShantotto]

Didn't realise Bodyform hadn't gone down the making your foof smell like a 99p shop car airfreshener route and I'd gone to use reusable pads as couldn't find anything non-whiffy consistently... but I'll have another look now.

Although I do feel a little bit nostalgic for belting out "woaaaaaaahhhh bodyform... bodyformed for yoooooooouuuuuu!"

And yes I've dripped on the floor now I have really shitty almost peri-menopausal periods and yes to the facial expression change at the dildocam scan.

[Ponddering]

They haven’t, @DominaShantotto - read my response from Bodyform a few posts back. I think they’re pretty much the only company who do non-fragranced as standard now.

[thinkingaboutLangCleg]

Fantastic. I'll be buying Bodyform to donate to our food bank, as they need sanitary products as well as food.

[fascinated]

I really hated the fact that the cartoon “controller “ was clearly meant to be male.

[BoomBoomsCousin]

Overall I really liked it. Lots to nitpick but I haven't seen anything else that comes close to reflecting the breadth of the lived experience of women in regards to reproduction so succinctly and so well by any other group. It seems like a great piece of community storytelling.

I'm sort of disappointed they didn't seem to cover abortion at all. I understand why they didn't and it would probably make it much less effective if they had. But it's hugely sad that something that 1 in 3 British women is likely to undergo before they are 45 is so controversial that it's unable to be covered in something like this.