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.
Smells fishy? Have these guys never smelled regular blood before? It has a metallic smell and taste, not a fishy one. And no, I’m not a serial killer, I just pay attention. I haven’t tasted menstrual blood, but it definitely has the same metallic smell as regular blood.
BTW, if you don’t believe me that blood has a smell, next time you cut your finger (hopefully only a scratch!) try smelling it. It’s quite a strong scent and recognizable once you know what it is.
(And for the record, the ‘fish smell’ thing is totally ridiculous. It only smells ‘fishy’ down in lady-bits land if the owner doesn’t, or can’t, keep things clean. And even then, ‘fishy’ isn’t really accurate IMO – it’s just another slur by guys who probably haven’t ever got close enough to a real vag to know.
SOURCE: I own lady-bits)
The only time I’ve ever heard of freebleeding actually being a thing was when a marathon runner ran the London race while bleeding (and no, average volume per period is definitely not enough for an ice lolly of reasonable proportions. Besides, I’d rather have stew).
Pff, obvious hoax. Nobody makes popsicles in February!
I mean, she said “upcoming summer,” so obviously she’s in the northern hemisphere. Those things would be sitting in her freezer absorbing fridge flavors for like 4 months.
@katz
Actually I find that if you place your menstrual blood ice-pops next to some onions it develops a tangy flavour that complements the fishy taste wonderfully.
Hmm. Maybe I’ll try that. I feel like there are shrimp cocktail possibilities, too.
Dang, these anti feminist a-holes make Patrick from spongebob look smart. Well almost.
Oh hey, regarding periods and access to good sanitary facilities and pads/cups/tampons, and why that stuff matters. Also, why helping to break taboos, stigmas and bans around menstruation is a must.
http://mosaicscience.com/story/blood-speaks
Note, pretty heartbreaking reading.
Those “Good Humour” ice cream trucks that drive around the neighborhood playing tinkly music? They’re literally selling humours on a stick. That’s where these are from.
I’m partial to Black Bile Crunch.
Oh shit, two highschool girls have been shot in Arizona school shooting.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/teen-girls-killed-arizona-school-shooting-1.3446008?cmp=rss
Apparently there’s no idea if this was a murder-suicide or double-suicide, but they’re not looking for an active shooter so who knows.
So my takeaway from all of this? MRAs are big babies who still think girls have cooties and act on that belief. The doofuses who believe menstrual Popsicles are a real thing probably also believed that homophobic Harlem pastor who said that Starbucks put semen from gay men in their lattes.
Do Good Humour vans do Choler Surprise?
Or would it be Melancholy Melba, Choler Crunch, Surprise Sanguine and Phlegm Flambé?
@ buttercup
That means they’ve run out of ice cream; that’s what my dad told me anyway.
Ooh, that’s smart.
I like how everyone who falls for this reveals that they have no idea how periods actually work, or what a vulva smells/tastes like. It’s a lovely own goal.
All that said, I now feel like I need to get around to seeing Only Lovers Left Alive, because there are blood popsicles there! Though not of the menstrual kind.
Basically, I am so okay with being a strawfeminist if I get to look like Tom Hiddleston or Tilda Swinton:
I’ve been wanting to see Last Lovers Alive!
Also, OT and violence doesn’t solve problems, but there’s an MRA (of sorts) in this new Powerpuff Girls clip.
ref=fb-share
I really hope that didn’t actually happen. “I can’t tell my kid no or that he can’t have ice cream so instead I will lie to him.”
Just, like, tell your kids why they can’t do the thing. Easy peas. Kids are amazingly rational beings, just like other humans or various ages.
@Dr Hoveiny
Oh yeah! That’s right! Powderpuff Girls are coming back! 😀 Excited! Can’t wait to get my cousins into Powderpuff Girls.
Well this is just great. Now I feel all inadequate because obviously I’m defective somehow because I don’t bleed like a lady-bits faucet and thus cannot make any blood-on-a-stick-pops with my menstrual blood. If I had the time to sit around with an ice cube tray between my legs I *might* be able to fill 2, 3 of the sections in a tray, tops.
Guess I’ll have to keep having the s/o randomly grab me dudes off the street to hang by the ankles for rapid and optimal blood collection when I slit their throats. A lady has to do what’s necessary to stay looking young – even if it’s bathing in male blood. 😉
I’d be willing to believe that there were a few “freebleeder” groups in the 1980’s when radical feminism was more popular in general (like the militant separatist lesbian groups and stuff). But it’s not the type of movement that would catch on among most radfems or anybody for that matter.
My mother encouraged us to yell at the ice cream man and put tacks on the street to vent our frustration.
Parenting: Lots of people are bad at it.
Uh, why would the ice cream truck draw attention to itself if it doesn’t have anything to sell?
It blares music to announce itself so all the kids indoors or in back yards can hear it coming and run out to meet it, assuming they have a couple bucks.
Long, long sigh.
I have encountered so many people online, or dare I say… men, online, who absolutely SWEAR that every single reddit or 4chan stunt is in fact a REAL declaration of REAL feminists and that REAL feminists are marching on Washington to end Father’s Day, to remove all men’s names from new babies’ birth certificates, to indeed create policies which #killallmen, to leave their freebleeding menstrual blood all over pubic seating in buses, offices, parks, restaurants, etc., because feminists are radical and want to force bad things down everyone’s throats against everyone’s will.
I wish these people could step back and see wtf they look like to the outside world when they claim to believe most of the scaredy anti-female stuff they subscribe to. How sheltered could anyone BE in order to believe even a smidgen of what they do?
http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/panic.gif
I see.
Kids are rational as in reasonable, not logical. They can’t see patterns they haven’t experienced yet, which is why it’s shitty to lie to them instead of telling them the truth.
That’s a mispronounciation of “funny”, I assume.
WE CAN’T EVEN KEEP PLANNED PARENTHOODS OPEN HOW WOULD WE HAVE TIME FOR THAT SHIT