Do you remember “freebleeding,” that phony “radical feminist movement” protesting the tyranny of maxipads and the joy of free-flowing menstrual blood that 4chan tried their hardest to convince feminists was a totes real thing they should all sign up for right away?
While a tiny number of real feminists were discussing the idea before 4chan got hold of it, 4chan tried to turn a protest of sorts against menstrual shaming into a fun fad that involved pretty much bleeding on anything and everything one could possibly bleed upon.
The irony, of course, was that the only people gullible enough to fall for the hoax hook line and tampon weren’t feminists but antifeminists, always ready to believe the worst about a movement they really don’t understand very well at all.
I ran across what I think is my favorite example of this amazing gullibility while poking around Facebook recently in search of inadvertently hilarious Men’s Rights memes. I found the following screenshot posted on an energetically antifeminist Facebook page called the Anti White Knight Coalition.
Be warned: this is a bit gross.
I have to give some credit to whoever came up with this; it’s an amazing mixture of hilarious and disgusting.
But no one could possibly have taken it seriously, right? No one literally believes that feminists are making and eating period blood popsicles, right? That they think are “really heathy” and “overall good” except for a “little … fishy smell,” right?
Wrong, wrong, wrong. Here’s how the Anti White Knight Coalition’s fans responded to this obvious prank pic.
These are literally all of the responses to that post, except for one that contained a not-particularly relevant NSFW pic. Only one of the commenters is sure it’s a fake.
Everyone else is like, yeah, you could totally make popsicles out of menstrual blood and they’d totally look like regular popsicles and yeah that’s something feminists would totally do.
As far as I know, yeah, they’re pretty new.
I’m looking into getting one myself. I don’t like pads because I can’t sleep in them (I toss and turn, and all the blood seeps out the side), and I’m honestly terrified of tampons because of toxic shock syndrome (I’ve had to use them for years to spare my sheets and stuff, but I would like to not use them ASAP).
It’s good to have a cheaper-in-the-long-run option that’s better for the environment. 😛
@guy
Probably a regional difference. Some states have pretty good sex Ed, others don’t. In my district, at least, you can’t opt out of sex Ed. Thinking back, there was discussion of STDs, but protection and birth control were sort of skimmed. I came away with very little practical knowledge, but at least it wasn’t wrong I suppose.
My sex education was:
Health teacher: “You’ll learn this in biology so let’s skip this.”
*next year*
Biology teacher: “You learned this in health class so let’s skip this.”
Thank god for Google.
So even if you would really really think that feminists (routinely) would do something like this as a feminist thing, and not some personal obscure fetish…. they never actually smelled blood in their life? Hint: it smells metallic. Not fishy. If nothing else, THAT should have told you it’s fake, Mr. Anti-Feminist.
My sex education was hyper-religious abstinence-only. Literally less than useless.
(One downside of AO that never seems to get talked about: It basically pre-grooms kids for the nearest paedophile to take advantage of. Can’t say no if you don’t know what the hell they’re talking about!)
Be right back, puking forever.
Hey, geniuses, the only time I ever produced enough blood to make even one of your ‘popsicles’ was when I had a cantaloupe sized fibroid going on and it reached critical mass. I was cramming three and maybe four tampons up there to try to deal with sudden explosions of the worst kind. Boys, that was not a normal period; that was hemorrhaging. You know, that’s kind of bad for anyone to have regardless of where it’s coming from. I have never been so relieved to have a hysterectomy.
Pretty sure that unlike what these chucklefucks think, the female-bodied find periods farking annoying inconveniences. We just don’t want cis men to go ‘ewwwww, shut up about your feeeeemale problems, it’s not MY concern’ if we have the temerity to bring up an unavoidable natural bodily process in conversation, even tangentally.
@SFHC
That sucks. Abstinence only is just gross and counter productive. The more you tell people not to do it, the faster they want to do it. And they know so little about sex they aren’t prepared for anything about pregnancy either.
I remember learning about menstruation in high school – in class, to clarify – and being somewhat gobsmacked to realize that my two older sisters had been doing it for years and I hadn’t even known.
It never disgusted me, somehow. Maybe knowing that I would never have to deal with it personally affected that. Many of these He-Man Woman Hater’s Club types seem to be equally attracted by the idea of Woman and repulsed by the reality of an actual living, breathing, eating and digesting human being. Since the map doesn’t track to the territory, they cling to the map and excoriate the territory.
Most gay men seem reconciled to the idea that the people with whom they want to have sexytimes have bodies similar to theirs. Except for the g0ys, but they are outliers.
I remember the first time I heard about it thinking ‘well it’s not happening to me, I won’t let it’. We did have sex ed at school, but I really don’t remember learning anything I didn’t already know. The word ‘orgasm’ was never used.
There was no mention of how the semen came out or any thrusting/movement or how long it lasted or love or emotions. It was all strictly reproduction.
But I heard of girls who didn’t realise that that’s how they got pregnant, so at least we got that. I do remember the teacher telling us about miscarriage, and one boy asking what happens to the embryo.
No mention of feminine hygiene products.
Bodyform produced excellent towels in the 80s which were really thick in the middle, tapering out towards the back, front and sides. I think they stopped making them when the trend came in for ‘wings’ and ultra thin towels. But I found those inferior, as they were never close enough to the vaginal exit to press against it. Fine if you’re sitting all day, but sleeping they were far worse. Shame they stopped making them. I always found the thin towels tended to fold over unless I wore skin tight jeans. Maybe my knickers were too big!
So glad that’s all over now, it truly is freedom, especially from the hell of PMS.
I’ve always had good feelings about menstruation. And some months I’ve been downright ecstatic about menstruation! I’ve been lucky that PMS has been minimal.
Of course, the messiness is a nuisance. And when Things Go Awry, yeah, I’ve gotten quite worried.
But on the whole, I’ve felt positive about it. I see both menstruation and a positive attitude about it as a blow against the patriarchy.
For me, periods just made my already nasty depression and anxiety worse and gave me whacked out cravings, not to mention drastically lowered my pain threshold and made my entire lower back feel like a squeezed lemon. Never mind the mess and the bad timing. I see it as much more an adversary and an annoying fact of life. While I still have the hormone fluctuations (kept my ovaries), it’s not quite as bad and at least I don’t have to worry about bleeding all over the place anymore. YMMV, of course, and glad others had it easier. I just don’t see it as either an icky taboo or a sacred cow, it just is.
My first thought looking at those lollies was “How would you get enough blood?” Seriously, I’m fairly sure it would be pretty unusual to bleed enough to make two whole lollies in a month. I mean, do they think it’s like milking a cow or going for a pee or opening an artery or something ?
And yeah – as someone pointed out, menstrual blood doesn’t smell fishy, metallic is the right word.
This is something only someone who had never had a period and was terrified of women and their bits would come up with.
@Robert:
I had to look up what g0ys are, and… thanks, I learned something today, even if what I learned was really weird.
When I was a young man (fairly well read on biology but no personal experience) I assumed that menstrual “blood” was really intrauterine fluid and endometrial mucus, mixed with a few drops of blood for colour. Any substantial blood loss seemed too expensive from physiological standpoint to make sense.
Later on, I’ve been given to understand that the total blood loss is actually typically equivalent to 1-2 blood donations per year. That’s impressive enough for me.
@Arctic Ape
TMI ALERT
For some women, it’s a lot more, too. Mine used to be so heavy I’d completely saturate an overnight pad every 4 to 6 hours for a good 5 days out of the month (total length for me was about 7-9 days, so I’m only referring to the heavy days here). I got terrible headaches and lightheadedness. Thankfully I’ve got that under control now and I’m closer to the average of 30 to 40 ml per month, maybe even less than average.
Also, I’m really glad I had such good sex ed growing up. Your parents could remove you, but I don’t know anyone who was, not even the really religious kids. It started in 4th or 5th grade where girls and boys were separated and taught detailed anatomy of male and female reproductive systems and even a little about intersex. In middle school boys and girls were taught together and we started to discuss sex and lightly touch on STIs and birth control. In high school we had slide shows and videos to show us what happens when you don’t use protection and/or don’t go to the doctor right away when an infection occurs. We were taught about not having sex with someone who is drunk, how to properly put on a condom (with a cucumber demonstration), and all of the risks and benefits of the various types of protection. They emphasized the importance of using condoms if at all possible (including options for latex allergies) and adding spermacide and/or pills for extra protection against pregnancy. It was pretty thorough.
When I was a kid we had no internet and no PCs either. Digital watches and calculators were considered amazing, and we’d get great amusement from writing words with a calculator. But there were magazines such as ‘Jackie’ which provided some information, although sex was always ‘Boys will try and you must stop them’. I was surprised by a teen mag in 1997 full of articles and stories about sex, though. Surely that shouldn’t really be aimed at the teen market? Yes, discussing sex in a responsible, educational way is great, but featuring articles on best positions or ‘how to be good at sex’ is more appropriate for the adult market. Teen mags should warn of the dangers and risks appropriately, especially of being groomed by older guys. I’ve not bought a magazine for years, since iPods, iPhones and tablets.
Heavy periods can be a problem for many women, I had problems (thankfully briefly) at school, once I could feel my tampon overwhelmed an hour after insertion and had to perch on the edge of my chair to stop it reaching my skirt. Fortunately I could change it within ten minutes.
Once I had a baby I had 12-24 hours of extremely light bleeding as a warning, which I found tremendously helpful. Prior to that the first I knew of it was always really heavy. It also reduced the pain substantially.
An interesting look at feminine hygiene through the ages, done by a comedian.
http://allday.com/post/7317-5000-years-ago-getting-your-period-sucked-this-comedian-uses-costumes-to-show-why/
And menstrual blood TOTALLY looks pink!
Yeah. That’s really annoying. When I was younger, I discovered I had to wear underwear to bed, and not try to stick the pad on the inside of my pyjamas. Thankfully my periods aren’t that heavy, except on the second day. Maybe a cup would be a better bet, but I’m a bit worried that people I live with (parents, currently) would see it when I washed it and be grossed out about or make fun of the thing. I’m way too easily embarrassed, I realize. 🙁
@kupo
Saturating an overnight pad in 4-6 hours doesn’t seem too odd. For 2-3 days, I go through an overnight pad in 1.5 – 2 hours (I’m a bit cranky those days), then 4-6 hours per pad for the next 5-6 days (my period is always 8 days long). Should I be worried about this?
@NotPiffany
That sounds heavy. You might want to take iron supplements along with Vitamin C (which helps absorb iron) and eat plenty of iron-rich foods. If it continues for a long time you risk anaemia. You could always try hormonal contraception, which will reduce bleeding. I’d check with your doctor, especially if you feel drained, weak and tired. Most women take iron supplements in ante-natal supplements during and after pregnancy, too.