humiliatorofsubs: phan-is-sempiternal:mousathe14:gehayi:profeminist:Tampons are a &ldqu
humiliatorofsubs: phan-is-sempiternal: mousathe14: gehayi: profeminist: Tampons are a “luxury item” Once I worked as an intern in the state capital. One of the representatives I worked for was this middle-aged guy. And he hated the tampon and napkin machines in the women’s bathrooms. Hated them. He insisted that they weren’t necessary. I found out why after I’d been working there, oh, about a month. My period started suddenly, as it sometimes does, and I asked to excuse myself to go to the ladies’ room. He wanted to know why. I told him. He started ranting about how lazy women were. How we wasted time. How we were so careless and unhygenic, and that there was no call for that. He finished by telling me that I certainly was NOT going to the ladies’ room and that I was just going to sit there and work. He finished this off with a decisive nod, as if I’d just been told and there could be no possible argument. “If I don’t go,” I said in an overly patient tone, “the blood is going to soak through my pants, stain my new skirt that I just bought, and possibly get on this chair I’m sitting in. I need something to soak up the blood. That’s why I need to go to the bathroom.” His face turned oatmeal-gray; an expression of pure horror spread across his face. He leaned forward and whispered, “Wait, you mean that if you don’t go, you’ll just keep on bleeding? I thought that women could turn it off any time that they wanted!” I thought, You have got to be kidding. Several horrified whispers later, I learned that he wasn’t. He actually thought a) that women could shut down the menstrual cycle at will, b) that we essentially picked a week per month to spend more time in the bathroom, i.e. to goof off, and c) that napkins and tampons were sex toys paid for by Health and Human Services. I didn’t know the term then, but he believed that tampons were dildos. Which was why he and a good number of his friends considered them luxuries. And that’s how, at twenty, I had to give a talk on menstruation to a middle-aged married state representative who was one of my bosses. American politics, ladies and gentlemen. That’s.., that’s insane. what the fuck did i just read The tumblr ads are normally annoying and I skip past them, and have never reblogged one…but this is abhorrent and sadly uncommon. I had a male friend this weekend flippantly and proudly declare that he didn’t know where a woman’s ovaries were located or what they did. He’s a college educated individual with an advanced degree and was proudly ignorant of the most basic facts about women’s reproductive health. I called him out on it and he later did admit that it was problematic, but just like the person in this post (who I’m certain opposes all sorts of women’s rights issues without having even the most basic facts about them) men have to do a better job of learning these things and calling out other dudes when they say things like this. It shouldn’t be the burden of women to have to educate men about things that should be taught in every school in this country as easily and as comprehensively as any other subject. -- source link