Cleaning Alternatives for Reusable Pads

The ladies at the Be Prepared Blog sent us a link to their new post discussing alternate cleaning products for reusable pads. They talk about H20 at Home's Eco-Clean Laundry Ball as well as a couple of organic washes. I personally never thought about using a different soap for my pads; usually I throw them in with my regular laundry loads. Yet they bring up a good point of the chemicals in laundry detergent sticking to your pads after you wash them (and who wants that near your ladyparts?). While we're on the subject, I have to give a plug for the Forever New wash. It's branded primarily for washing lingerie but I've washed some of my homemade pads in it as well. Are there any other products or methods you use to clean your reusable pads?

The Power of the V?

I've posted about Summer's Eve's "Hail to the V" commercials before, but they've reached a whole new level of ridiculousness with their latest spot: I never realized all the great battles in history were fought over getting some pussy. The whole epic set-up to advertise for vaginal cleansing products is both laughable and in my opinion rather offensive. Depicting men fighting over a woman (or more specifically her va-jay-jay) is objectifying rather than empowering. I guess it's impossible to fathom that men would want a woman for anything other than the power of her lady parts, like her personality. So I guess the lesson here is to keep your vagina clean and you'll have men fight epic battles over you. Or something.

Hail to the V

I've been reading a lot about the series of Summer's Eve commercials featuring hands representing vaginas, with their slogan "Hail to the V."

They were recently parodied on The Colbert Report.

The Colbert Report
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I'm not sure how I feel about these commercials. Obviously as the video above points out, they rely heavily on racial stereotypes. On one hand I can appreciate that they are trying to represent the female body and perhaps break taboo about talking about vaginas, but using the talking hands makes them more laughable than anything.

Do you think the commercials are more empowering or ridiculous?

Your body is disgusting. Let us help you out with that.

Libby Copeland at Slate has a really good article about how advertisers have historically marketed personal hygiene products--particularly new ones--by creating an anxiety for consumers and then oh-so-conveniently providing them the cure for it. This has long been effective marketing strategy for feminine hygiene products as well as deodorant.

Writes Copeland:

Dove recently unveiled its latest campaign, and it hinges on the idea that your armpits are ugly. Dove Ultimate Go Sleeveless is supposed to give women "softer, smoother underarms in just five days"—in ads for the product, which Stephen Colbert calls a "breakthrough shame-o-vation," women cut the sleeves off their tops with joyful expressions, as if they've been liberated from a terrible scourge. If it's news to you that this part of your body is not so hot, Dove says you're in the minority, citing a survey in which 93 percent of women said they "think their underarms are unattractive." And if you doubt statistics culled from 534 women in an anonymous online poll, rest assured that Dove's best advertising efforts will be directed at making those numbers true.

Pity the poor deodorant-makers. What else are they to do? As the Wall Street Journalpoints out, they're in a bind—almost the entire U.S. population already uses deodorant, and consumers appear reluctant to switch to new brands. Dove's empowerment-via-shame marketing approach for Go Sleeveless has its roots in advertising techniques that gained popularity in the 1920s: a) pinpoint a problem, perhaps one consumers didn't even know they had; b) exacerbate anxiety around the problem; c) sell the cure.

The history of ads directed at women is particularly rich with such fear tactics. Thus, ad copy from the 1920s and '30s warned women of their place in the "beauty contest of life" (a corset manufacturer) and reminded them that "The Eyes of Men …The Eyes of Women/ Judge your Loveliness every day" (Camay soap). A 1953 ad for Chlorodent toothpaste stated point-blank: "There's another woman waiting for every man." Yikes!

Certainly there's been a good dose of shame-marketing towards ladies' down theres, as Copeland explains. She highlights the use of Lysol as a douche.

The unfortunate truth was that as a contraceptive, Lysol was ineffective, not to mention dangerous. Improperly diluted, it burned and blistered the vagina, and in some cases even caused death. Yet, Tone writes, it wasn't until the pill came along that Lysol douche was supplanted as the top choice of women looking to prevent pregnancy.

I've read about Lysol douching probably 100 times over the years, and I still cannot wrap my mind around the horribleness of the idea. I barely use any strong chemically-cleaning things, but sometimes I use Lysol to clean the bathroom. And when I do, I'm paranoid as shit. I super super dilute it, wear gloves, turn on the fans, and tell my cats to stay away so the fumes don't damage their sensitive little nosies. So the idea of using it to clean out the holiest of holies (so to speak) sounds just downright awful. (Although mentioning that this was the top birth control method before The Pill gives it some significant context.)

After reading this piece, I realized that all of the campaigns and products mentioned were marketed towards women. Surely similar tactics have been used to sell stuff to men as well, yes? I'd be interested to see how ad campaigns like this directed towards men differ from those direct towards women.

Homelessness and menstruation

I found this interesting:

Of course not everyone's experiences with homelessness are the same, but these sound reasonable. Anyone want to weigh in here?

UPDATE: Crimson Campaign pointed us towards a personal account of menstruating while homeless. It gives a real-life perspective on the experience. An excerpt:

Although I was so blessed to have my girlfriends, it was embarrassing to go to them and say, “I’m on my period and I’m broke.” I felt three feet tall. I felt beneath everyone else. I was taken by an inferiority complex still battle to this day. Not being able to support my most basic needs made me think back to being the poor kid in grade school who never had pencils. Guilt, embarrassment, and shame became emotions that were too familiar and entirely too soon to experience.

Check out the whole thing at Crimson Campaign's blog.

The Potatoes!!

So, this is more a personal anecdote.

When I was about twelve or so I came across (or possibly dreamed since I have not been able to EVER find the information again) some piece of something informing me that Russians (at least in my mind, maybe the Irish or the Swedes, again, remember I can not find this information again) used to use potatoes as tampons. At this impressionable age I thought "If this was effective at one point why not go back to it?", and my little brain started to run with the idea.

I drew diagrams for a thing that ultimately looked like the end of a pasta maker that's purpose was for easily cutting potatoes into a shape that would easily fit in someone's vagina. And I spent a lot of time thinking about the project. Marketing, production, advertising. Sadly for me, I had none of the tools necessary to make this product for myself much less market it, and so the idea died.

After being asked to work with my blog the idea resurfaced, though now I think that that would be silly. I don't know that vegetables would make the best tampons because of their instance on rotting.  But we do need to keep our minds open to new alternatives. Anyone else ever come up with crazy ideas for menstrual products?

Live Long and Prosper

Women Scholars at Central shout-out

This morning I was on facebook, looking through all the old pictures from Women Scholars. And I remembered this awesome bulletin board we made last year:

And, my favorite part, at the very bottom:

Lil Obee!

I'm almost finished reading Cunt, by Inga Muscio. It rocks. Here is one of my favorite parts:

I went to Anystore USA to buy a box of tampons. I had but eleven dollars to my name. I went down the aisle where I would find "feminine hygiene" products, bitterly playing that term through my mind.

Why are words like "hygiene" and "sanitary"-- which imply that a woman's cunt is unclean-- acceptable in our society? Why are these people trying to sell me feminine deodorant spray? That's like hawking floral air freshener to a lady who lives in a rose garden.

Also, excuse me, but what's so clean about dicks?

One never hears of sanitary jock straps, deodorant condoms, perfumed Hershey-squirt protection pads or hygienic ball wipes, whereas I've heard tell of need for such products.

So anyway, with thoughts such as these playing through my mind, you can imagine my dismay on tampon-buying excursions. If I happen to be in a good mood, it's simply annoying. If I happen to be in a bad mood, I am a green monster who lives in a trash can with a grand piano. On this occassion, I was in a bad mood.

I grumbled down the aisle, openly sneering at all the products on the shelves. New Freedom this and Light Days that.

Comfort, security.

Plastic applicators.

Discreet disposal pouches printed with flowers that do not exist.

I positively fumed as I scanned the prices. Five, six, seven bucks for a box of cotton. Sixty, seventy bucks a year.

Why the flying fuck should a woman have to pay some huge corporation over and over because the lining of her uterus naturally, biologically sheds every month?