I suppose it was yesterday some time, that I posted a photo of tampons on Facebook. I found it hilarious at the store that there were cutesy wrappers on the Super Plus and Regular size tampon boxes, but the Super size was just the plain green wrapper (photo below). So, I shared this sentiment and picture with my friends and acquaintances.
The intriguing part about this is not the fact that I publicly displayed tampons with ease, but the two comments that have shown up on the post in the past 24-ish hours. many people have “liked” the photo, but only two commented. And they were both men.
At first, I was a bit concerned when I saw the notification “[Insert man’s name] has commented on your photo” (actually, it’s all in German, so it doesn’t say any of that, but you get the idea) each time. The first was a young (twenties) guy (caused a concern for potential teasing or joking), the second a grown man (caused concern of offense/having to explain what the photo was). However, both men left me somewhat speechless temporarily, yet smiling inside and out for long afterward.
What did they comment on my post? The young guy commented with delight and joy (in the sense of respect and acknowledgement, as opposed to making fun, as one might have expected (slash as I kind of had expected)) on the fact that I had written such a bold post (because it’s clearly not commonplace for him to be seeing a post about tampons on Facebook), and also on how there were many types of tampons (you learn something new every day, and I guess that was his fun fact of the day ;P ). The second guy wrote as follows:
Wow, you’ve exposed women’s needs to the world!
Whenever my wife buys these in the supermarket,
they put them in separate brown paper bags;
not expected to be with the rest of the groceries in the
plastic bags they hand us. As if, somehow, they would be
?less clean? than paper towels or Saran wrap?
And I was blown away. Not just by my own doubt at the ability of men to be so supportive of my treating tampons as an everyday topic of discussion among all people (as opposed to being totally taboo around men, and a nervous topic with women for loads of women), but by how beautifully they had shared their opinions on the matter. I was overjoyed and somewhat awestruck at it all, and I still am (duh, that’s why I’m writing this about it right now)! Way-to-go, guys! I am incredibly grateful that we have at least these two men who are ready for the advancement of this conversation to normalcy. If there are two (and from two totally separate cultures, mind you), then there are certainly more. So, yay! 😀
Thanks, again, guys. I think you kind of made my day. 😀
hannah ananas 