chi's plurk is talking about the conservatives clutching their pearls

but like NO FOR REAL

I love this so much

it's so cute

and this is always the kind of convo that starts if someone is looking lost in a tampon aisle

"is it her first time?" "does she talk about cramps a lot? that probably means a heavy flow"

yep

oh thats great

"my daughter likes these" because it's normal for Dad to grab tampons on his way home

and I think about like. fontech: akai remember how they were about japanese pads

U G H

like it was a regular "shit we need" run from a really general store and they fucking GIFTWRAPPED the maxi pads in like three layers

NO ONE CAN KNOW

those were the worst tampons i have ever encountered

they had better tampons in africa

the SHAME you brought upon that cashier

perks of being a tourist: i gave zero shits about that, just wanted to Cease Bleeding

omg AND they were bad? I never could get comfortable with the tampon life - what signifies a bad one?

i mean, tmi, but: they're supposed to last a certain amount of time before they start to fall apart, assuming the flow isnt excessive; if they're in too long and that happens, you get some itchies and it can contribute to TSS which is a very bad time!
a good tampon means it'll last that time. a bad tampon means OH GOD GET IT OUT

*bad tampon, rather

it's not that different from bad pads in that way, then

more or less. the difference is if it falls apart inside you, it is rather more difficult to get the cottony bits out

a bad pad is like "there is an entire pillow between my legs and I have to keep checking to make sure it hasn't shifted out of place and ruined the entire point"

scream -- and that right there is why I could never get behind tampon life

basically tampon rule of thumb is "pay attention to the timing"

that's the kind of shit you see on PBS when you're a child being raised by TV

I can't do the tampon life either tbh

ive had excellent luck with kotex "u". they work for overnights so full 8 hours with no issues. i think outside of the japanese brand i tried, tampax was the most "eugh, really?" ive tried?

super disappointing for a big name brand

but yeah def not for everyone. i just dont like the diaper feel of pads

I used to set aside like half an hour with a bunch of handmirrors at strategic angles to be like "I'M GOING TO FIGURE THIS OUT" and then it was just frustrating

a puzzle I could never solve

lmao. it was weird at first but now its just like WOOP in it goes

the first time I tried it was with an applicator and to this day I'm like "WHAT WAS IT FOR"

I think I just needed to get my mom to like. show me or something

but Boomers and period shame

I learned all my body shit from weird early internet porn written by dudes and then spent my entire adulthood going "wait what do you MEAN that's not how it works "

youtube demo videos my friend

I learned some from my mom who didn't have much Boomer shame and then some from her Cosmopolitans and all those teen girl magazines

Not much better than internet porn written by dudes tbh

when you just need someone to show you how to work a vagina but every normal-person place isn't allowed to show you a vagina

Man, I was on the swim team when I was a kid, so I had to figure out the tampon life, but I never found one that actually lasted more than two hours.

However when you're on a swim team, it's a solid way to get a bunch of older girls to start giving you tampon tips.

We're all in this together.

one time i had a friend at the cottage who couldnt go swimming bc she was on her period, so i gave her a tampon to try. she was in the bathroom for like 30 minutes. my brother came along and was like WHATS TAKING HER SO LONG and i just about ripped his throat out

BE RESPECTFUL, IT'S A LARGE MANUAL

At first I was like...nah bro but like SaroSaron: I was a swimmer so eventually I had trial and error to teach me lol

the show also has this

riss 🌺 on Twitter

SO CUTE

riss 🌺 on Twitter

oh my fucking god

Baymax just casually has the conversation we've been having ABOUT all this

it would've been so nice to have something like this as a kid

we need to teach people it's not something to be ashamed of or hide

even as an adult, I still feel weird about buying pads and going through the checkout line that has a male cashier, and I know it's ridiculous

oh like if you have kids in your life who have disney plus, I do have a rec that's already online

let me find the link

Video player | Disney+

girl gets her period, all her girl friends support her through her shame until she's not ashamed anymore

Sidney to the Max is full of very Girl episodes I wish I had when I was growing up. There's one about shaving her legs that is just like "oh shit I wish the fucking Full House girls talked about how it's okay to just go around fuzzy and unashamed"

Stephanie Tanner did not prep me for nearly enough things