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Feminism: Sex & gender discussions

Always advert - 61% of young people have felt ashamed for having a period

91 replies

MoltenLasagne · 02/03/2022 08:52

Saw an advert for Always last night that could have been good except in their attempt to use inclusive language they have butchered their statistics.

Apparently 61% of young people have felt ashamed for having a period which is rather concerning as I would assume there was an upper limit of 50% of young people who could have a period.

Are they trying to tell us that 22% of male adolescents have also started menstruating? Or are we supposed to remember biology and think "ah, only females menstruate so they must be referring to 61% of young female people"?

Always advert - 61% of young people have felt ashamed for having a period
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Ereshkigalangcleg · 02/03/2022 08:53

Fucking idiots.

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MoltenLasagne · 02/03/2022 08:55

You would think that companies who sell menstrual products, of all things, would have an understanding of female biology so why are they all so keen to pretend they don't?

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Clymene · 02/03/2022 08:57

How utterly stupid

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soapboxqueen · 02/03/2022 09:05

@MoltenLasagne

You would think that companies who sell menstrual products, of all things, would have an understanding of female biology so why are they all so keen to pretend they don't?

They're keen to sell products and fear Internet backlash if they say the wrong thing.

They don't believe it. Any of it. They just think it's a small change in language with no consequences.

Though if the majority of young people have issues with their periods they should be advising the 'male bodied young people' to seek urgent medical advice for unexpected genital bleeding Hmm
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Signalbox · 02/03/2022 09:06

Complain to ASA. That is clearly an incorrect statistic.

www.asa.org.uk/make-a-complaint.html

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MoltenLasagne · 02/03/2022 09:06

[quote Signalbox]Complain to ASA. That is clearly an incorrect statistic.

www.asa.org.uk/make-a-complaint.html[/quote]
Thanks, I will do that now.

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DomesticatedZombie · 02/03/2022 09:07

@Ereshkigalangcleg

Fucking idiots.

entirely this.
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Puffincrossing · 02/03/2022 09:08

Where was this as their website has a 'Keep her playing' campaign showing picture of teenage girl and they also state that '60% of women use the wrong size pad'. I'd like to use the advert in op as part of a discussion I'm having around this subject but I would like to know where it was seen

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Signalbox · 02/03/2022 09:08

Brilliant. Let us know how you get on :)

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ErrolTheDragon · 02/03/2022 09:12

Or are they saying boys aren't people?
Idiots.

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MoltenLasagne · 02/03/2022 09:14

It was on Channel 5 last night - I don't usually pay attention to adverts but did this time because i actually thought it was very good until the stupid statistic.

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Lovelyricepudding · 02/03/2022 09:20

It is like the FPFW sex definition case - the crux of which seemed to be 'it doesn't matter if we butcher the definition of sex because most people will answer based on the true meaning so it won't skew the data'

They can only get away with it because most people know what sex actually means/who actually has periods. Even the TRA demands for entry into women's spaces only work the way they want if everyone else respects the fact they are women's spaces.

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Crimeismymiddlename · 02/03/2022 09:20

I actually stopped buying Always products a while ago due to stupidity like this. They have heavily fragranced products that many women have complained about but have not changed, however one transgender person complained about the female symbol on the wrapper and they changed it straight away. The own brands are of equal quality and unscented.

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CarbonelCat · 02/03/2022 09:21

What's weird about this is that they provide some terms below - explaining that 'young people' are aged 13-17. So they've defined their terms but this just raises more questions than it answers.

What would be wrong with saying 61% of girls aged 13-17? Presumably as they collected this data from the respondents themselves they could have even asked whether these young women were ok with being referred to as such?

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Lovelyricepudding · 02/03/2022 09:30

Crimeismymiddlename I stopped buying them when they added that awful scent. Advised my daughters to stay clear of scented products too (trying to persuade them to use reusable products).

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LunaLights · 02/03/2022 09:37

The issue I have is that we know they mean females.
We know which humans are female.
We know which humans menstruate.
We know the science/biology/statistics are being stripped of correct meaning.
We know what they are trying to say, even though they aren’t actually saying it correctly.

The next generations don’t/won’t/can’t know….
They don’t have the scientific facts to base their decisions on. They don’t have the correct terms/definitions/truths.
They won’t know the extent of the bullshit they are being fed, and they won’t know any truth except the ones the trans-lobby force feed them.

That is horrific.

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Datun · 02/03/2022 09:38

@Lovelyricepudding

It is like the FPFW sex definition case - the crux of which seemed to be 'it doesn't matter if we butcher the definition of sex because most people will answer based on the true meaning so it won't skew the data'

They can only get away with it because most people know what sex actually means/who actually has periods. Even the TRA demands for entry into women's spaces only work the way they want if everyone else respects the fact they are women's spaces.

This is what makes it so frustrating.

We get it on here, all the time. Being accused of homophobia, for instance, when the ideology says homosexuality doesn't exist. Or how can you be a cervix haver? If you don't know who's got one.

No one is reading that bloody advert and trying to work out exactly how many men and boys have periods.

How many people would that ad have had to go through before it was finished. How many people were told by the inclusion officer, or LGBT department that they had to say people? And how many of them thought, hang on, statistically that's fucking nonsense.
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HowlingKale · 02/03/2022 09:41

I wish they'd leave maths alone.

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Lovelyricepudding · 02/03/2022 09:43

Saying 30% of people doesn't have quite the same impact does it?

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Sweetmotherofallthatisholyabov · 02/03/2022 09:54

Is the bigger issue not that 61% of young (I assume - menstruating) people have been ashamed of having a period? Given that this could be driving the need for the term people in the first place as shame of bodies and being female has driven girls to identify as boys? It's disheartening that what you took from the statistic is messing about with language.

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CarbonelCat · 02/03/2022 09:56

But it could still be 61% - because if it's 61% of respondents, and all respondents were females aged 13-17 then that is 61%.

But we don't know because the terms are v unclear

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Lovelyricepudding · 02/03/2022 09:57

Why wouldn't they be ashamed of their periods when companies flogging sanitary products are also too embarrassed by female biology to even acknowledge it?

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FebruaryRainandSleet · 02/03/2022 10:01

That is the big issue and it’s obscured by the incorrect language.

It’s obvious in this case. But if you hear a smaller statistic, say ‘10% of people have reported delayed periods after medication x’, how do you know whether that’s 10% or 20% of all female patients? That’s a huge difference.

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Helleofabore · 02/03/2022 10:06

Their brains fell out!

Good thing I stopped buying them when they took the female symbol off the packs.

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MoltenLasagne · 02/03/2022 10:08

I can be simultaneously frustrated about the language and believe it is a worrying statistic. I also think that this misuse of language and the loss of single sex spaces such as toilets which give girls privacy to deal with periods probably contribute to the shame they claim to be trying to tackle.

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