Ladybag vs. P-Mate

I'm not much of an adventurous peer pee-er (that is, one who pees). I like plumbing, or at the very least, an actual toilet seat. So since I haven't encountered or used either of these products, it's more like a mental would-you-rather type of game for me. Camping season is upon us, so this seems like a good time to pose the question. Which would you prefer?

Exhibit A: The Ladybag

Basically, a plastic bag filled with absorbent crystals. You pee in the bag, the crystals absorb the liquid, and then you can throw away your pee gel. I'm not sure what purpose is served by the four protrusions on the sides. (Want to play Germany or Florida with this one?)

Exhibit B: P-Mate

A funnely thing you hold up to your crotch to enable you to pee while standing. This seems like it would really broaden the horizons about where you can do your business.

Or does everyone else have some foolproof top-secret outdoorsy peeing style I am unaware of?? I don't think I've ever peed outside in my adult life. Is that sad?

Cool, but...

...I would not do this.

h/t to WTF Tattoos

What Men Think of Menstruation at The Frisky

omg, this column made me laugh too many times to not share it here.

Men don’t really think about menstruation, because we don’t have to think about menstruation. We don’t have uteruses. Male genitals are embarrassingly simple. Our junk is a Speak N’ Spell. A woman’s private parts are more like an iPad. ...

It is difficult to empathize with biological functions that are radically different to your own. How would you feel if a man’s penis molted once a month and we had to apply copious amounts of salve to our raw member? You’d try to be understanding as best you could, but you wouldn’t really understand. But I bet you’d respect our space and our strange lizard wangs. Men don’t think about menstruation. But we know the best way how to deal with it: with a healthy amount of respect.

Go read about face rain and baby space pods and lust spawn. It's all very cleverly written.

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.

A Reasonable Compensation

It's immature, but I do enjoy a good rage comic:

h/t to Memebase

Period Packs

This is such a cool idea! Period Packs is a company that sells gift packs to give to girls when they have their first period. The gift pack includes not only menstrual products (like pads or tampons), but also a copy of the book Period., a calendar to keep track of her cycle, and a couple fun items like lip gloss and cocoa.

I was touched by Period Packs founder Wendy Bulawa Agudelo's story about why she started the company:

I was brought up on a farm in Upstate New York alongside three brothers and my father.  As you can imagine, getting your period amid all that testosterone in rural America was interesting to say the least. The day I got my period, I remember calling my father’s office to let him know and to figure out what to do. He seemed flustered but said he’d be home soon and would bring me the things I needed. At that point I thought, ‘Okay, that’s great, but what do I do now? Do I just wad up some toilet paper in my underwear? Take a shower or a bath?’  Needless to say, I was confused. A few hours later, my father arrived home with a package of maxi pads, and uncomfortably explained that I needed to wear them and to read the instructions on the package. He also suggested I call one of my aunts. The poor man, he was so ill prepared and obviously uncomfortable that his only daughter and precious little girl was going through a monumental change. I was growing up, and similar to most fathers, mine dreaded this day as I began to transform from little girl to young woman. 

Being a teenager, I felt completely awkward and didn’t really want to call my aunts to discuss ‘cousin Red.’ I instead visited the school nurse who gave me a preparation pack of sorts—containing various size pads and panty liners as well as a booklet on ‘Getting Your Period.’  Oh, the joy I felt from receiving a simple box of goodies and information. It was if I had just received the most wonderful of unexpected presents! And, that feeling of excitement stuck with me.

I really like the idea of creating gift packages like these without the corporate sponsorship. Even though "alternative" products aren't included in these packages, the Diva cup is at least mentioned on the website, so I like that too.  Period Packs also offers an Organic Period Pack (which also happens to be less pink... I appreciated that).

The Organic Period Pack

When I was about ten, I got a package of product samples from Procter & Gamble in the mail. I was thrilled. It came in a teal velcro case covered with inspiring quotes and a couple booklets. I read over that stuff probably a hundred times and studied every product. And still when I got my period (three years later) it was so totally different than I expected! I think gifts like these can do a lot of good in preparing girls for their first period and making them feel like they can handle it.

Real quick round up

• We've kind of known that menstrual blood contains stem cells, but scientists are always learning more about how those cells can be used to treat disease. In the meantime, there are mail-in menstrual banks where you can donate and store your menstrual blood. (For $499 + $99/year, I'm not exactly sure why you would, unless you're soon approaching the age where the well runs dry, so to speak..)
• A pretty awesome description of what PMS is like for one woman. Exceprt: "A black hole of emotions where sad and happy, tired and energetic, talkative and anti-social all meet and penetrate one another, forming a blob of nothingness. Yeah, I kind of feel like that. They’re all inside me, yet I can produce nothing. It’s like a sharp, involuntary intake of breath seconds before what you THINK is going to be a massive, super satisfying sneeze and… nothing." (PS, that's also where I found this picture.)
• I'm sad there is a market for products like The Va j-j Visor. Also I hate the word va-jay-jay. 
• Did you plan your wedding by your menstruation date?