Period Pants for 'children' using a photo of boys - WTF?!

[KhaleesiOfChaos]

Cheeky Pants are selling period pants for children. Not girls. And using a photo of what very much looks like a couple of boys to me.

My first thought was logically perhaps they're targeting the incontinence / bed-wetter market, but the copy clearly refers to children having periods etc.

No no no no no.

I was told by someone the other day that at schools they are now going to be encouraged not to use "your son / your daughter" when talking to parents at parents evenings. It now has to be "your child". I can't get my head around stuff like this.

I stopped buying from Cheeky Wipes ages ago because they've gender washed the site. Also their pants are the worst fitting of all the brands I have. Loads and loads of other period product providers out there.

How do you know they're boys? They might be girls with short hair. My DD had short hair and looked very much like a boy until she was 10 or so.

Do they have a social media presence?

"Children are having their periods earlier "

It needs to be clearer. I dont think my nephew has started yet, at what age should his parents start to get worried and take him to the doctors?

@Doesabear

How do you know they're boys? They might be girls with short hair. My DD had short hair and looked very much like a boy until she was 10 or so.

It is usual for breast development to precede menarche. Not one, but both children appear to be prepubescent whether they are male or female.

@Theimpossiblegirl

This is getting beyond ridiculous. Promoting boys being able to claim anything that girls have as their own. Where will this madness end?

The amazing thing is that if boys and men actually had to deal with periods, they wouldn’t want to.

It’s playing at the superficial aspects without dealing with cramps and flooding and all that goes with the biological process of menstruation.

Porfre, I am with you! This is all very complicated these days.

I first thought that girls got periods and boys didn’t, but I realised that this is transphobic. I don’t want to be transphobic.

Then I thought that people born with penises didn’t get periods and people who were born with vaginas did. But then I realised that there is a lot of transwomen (born with penises) who discuss their periods and uses sanitary pads.

Now I am just really confused. Should we all maybe book all children into our local GP to have them checked out (when their period starts or if it is late)? Just to make sure it all is ok?

The only thing I worry about is the lack of GP appointments and the huge waiting lists for people with cancer and similar but this is also really important. We need to keep our children healthy and we don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.

If the photo had just been for the bed wetting pants no one would be questioning about knowing if they were boys or not, yet when it is for period pants suddenly it becomes awfully unclear.

Don't pants for incontinence or bed wetting need greater absorbency than pants for periods? It doesn't make sense to market the same product for both instances.

Then I thought that people born with penises didn’t get periods and people who were born with vaginas did. But then I realised that there is a lot of transwomen (born with penises) who discuss their periods and uses sanitary pads.

It's the next logical step of the role play. If you're going to join in the role play you've got to pretend that they have periods too.

Here's an online store ("Aisle: Sustainable period products") doing that:

6 transgender women talk menstruation

It’s painful for transgender men and nonbinary people who have uteruses and are hearing that their body parts define their gender. And it’s also painful for transgender women like Tess, who don’t have uteruses and don’t bleed on a monthly cycle, but who are women and many of whom do have a period. “As a trans woman, obviously you don't have a monthly bleeding cycle, you don't have a uterus, you don't have ovaries. But you'll hear trans women talk a lot about having their periods,” says Meghan, a transgender woman and officer in the Royal Canadian Navy.

We’ve spoken with six transgender women, including Tess and Meghan, about their experiences with menstruation, from dysphoria to PMS. Read their stories below:

("From dysphoria to PMS" - ie "from not menstruation to not menstruation".)

I'm in the market for some reusable wipes to use alongside reusable nappies.

I know which brand I won't be buying.

It's put me off buying them. Outrageous.

Ah Cheeky Pants, I wrote to them ages ago about their removal of the word word.
I got a reply which pretty much told me off for not being inclusive.

They are a small outfit, appealing to an even smaller group, within that even a smaller subsection of mothers (would father use this website to buy period pants for their daughters, would they not be confused further by the pic of boys on the stairs?).

For those looking for alternatives that know what a woman and girl is, some searches here will help you, I remember some threads on this at the time.

@FannyCann

Don't pants for incontinence or bed wetting need greater absorbency than pants for periods? It doesn't make sense to market the same product for both instances.

It's not the same product. The company makes products for incontinence and periods.

Lol at the idea that these kids nights be girls. 🙄 They are boys. And boys don’t have periods.
Only girls and women have periods. Periods are often very difficult for girls to deal with, as girls are indeed having periods at a younger age. Girls of 8 and 9 dealing with them as well as the pain and cramps and the awkwardness they feel dealing with them at school. This is not another thing to centre boys, men’s and trans in.
This company can fuck right off!

*might be girls

They’ve updated their website, that picture is for incontinence, as everyone has said
I did look at their App though on Periods…” people who menstruate” that would be women then…. Shocking

Women and girls I should say

It’s amazing how this whole new movement has managed to eradicate the term women, and female.
Misogyny wins as always, what a hilarious outcome we’ve arrived at, trying to accommodate people who want to be, or feel they are different.
We are too damn polite in this country

I was 9 when my periods began and have never had must breast tissue (often told I'm less of a woman because of this - by other women funnily enough) so it is possible that the two in the picture are actually girls and even if they are not it's likely they have just made a mistake with the picture/wording as they do also sell incontinence pants. Using children in place of girls is fine because at that young age they very much are still children.

*Using children in place of girls is fine because at that young age they very much are still children.

Absolutely not. Periods are very much a thing only girls and women have.

First sentence IS NOT MINE and should be in bold.

@KevinTheKoala

So we just need to do away with the terms girl and boy altogether then? What about man and woman? Or are male bodied people allowed to be called women still, but not female bodied?

Their site is a bit all over the place TBH.
The photo you linked is on their incontinence page.
The photos on period product pages are all clearly female. They use the term daughters or teens in some places (but also established menstruators in others)
I couldn’t find any photos of someone who could be a transman.