Ban the Bland

Kotex has partnered with designer Patricia Field to put together Ban the Bland, a site where users can design their own disposable maxi pads. Fun colors and  patterns are one of my favorite things about reusable pads, so it's interesting to see a major manufacturer of disposable products picking up on this.

At first, I thought it was a contest, where some of the winning designs would be incorporated into some of Kotex's future products, but that was probably just my hopeful idealism kicking in. There's no competition, and actually their "bold" new products look pretty much the same to me. Still, it's fun to design your own.

my design, "8loodthirtsy"

It made me think about what I would want my ideal disposable pad to look like, though. Bleeding onto an octopus sounds a lot more fun than just another white sterile pad (especially when the unnecessary bleaching of these products leaves behind dangerous dioxins). I've been reading more Gloria Steinem lately, and so I tend to reframe this thought in regard to her "If Men Could Menstruate" essay. I imagine disposable pads for men with targets and crosshairs. I think bleeding on a target could be okay.

Then again, perhaps there is something to be said for providing your own art (hah).

Cool, but...

...I would not do this.

h/t to WTF Tattoos

Advertisting humor (?)

So, in my journeys I came across this website which has "funny" tampon ads from around the world.

I really like the painted ladies one, not for it's humor, but for the fact that those women are very artistically painted. The rest of them I only find mildly amusing, but you should definately look at the painted ladies.


Also, FYI I have finals next week, and thus you may not hear from this particular contributor.

May the Force Be With You.

Life Clock and Menstruation Clock

Check out this art from Brigitte Coremans. She's got two different things going on here.

The first, Menstruation Clock, records a woman's daily temperature and records it on a seismograph-like chart each day. The result is a pretty neato fertility chart.

The second, Life Clock, is a series of beads. Each bead represents another egg that could be potentially fertilized. Each month, a bead moves from one side to the other. There are 500 "eggs" in this project--the colors change as the series progresses to show the gradual change from young to old, in a way.

Says Coremans:

"During the embryonic development of a feminine fetus, the egg cells are formed. In the twentieth pregnancy week there are approximately seven million eggs. During the further development in the uterus, a robust number goes lost, through which by the time of birth 'only' one million eggs remain. At the moment a women starts menstruation there are 400.000 left. Each menstruation cycle around 400 eggs die and only one (or two in case of a twin) will be released and can be fertilized. This process will repeat itself for an average of 40 years. "

Your tampon's defenses will be helpless.

I wish I knew who drew this so that I could give her specific credit, but I saw this on I Love Charts.

Eggs are pretty dumb-ass.