Why are menstrual products so pointlessly gendered???
TW & CW // menstruation mention, TERFism and bigotry mention, cissexism mention, suicide mention, learning center mention (to ensure that others are safe from sc — — l and anything to do with it), genitalia/downstairs mention, etc.
A/N: Hey folks! Just here to say something that should’ve been taken seriously, but isn’t because of how narrow-minded and pointlessly gendered society always is (it claims to care about trans and gender-non-conforming folks, but it doesn’t), so I am going to vent here.
The week of Bloody Mary
Honestly, I’ve found out that my Bloody Mary started at either on a Friday or Saturday before Indigenous Peoples’ Day (or widely known as “Thanksgiving” in Canada), so I typically use menstrual products (the last time I tried tampons… well… it was simply uncomfortable for sensory reasons) that are comfortable for me, such as pads.
However, there was something in my mind that I wanted to write about for a short time now… Which is to vent or share some emotions on my feelings or perspective on menstrual products being so pointlessly gendered and how it’s far from fair (because life will never be fair for anyone in the first place, to put it frankly) that menstruating persons will still continue to be excluded because society is complete ass (to summarise, it’s because society only perceives menstrual things as a predominantly non-intersex and cisgender “woman’s” thing, which is, pardon my French, absolute bullshit) towards people who aren’t cisgender, non-intersex, queer and gender non-conforming.
I also remember seeing the menstrual packaging being pointlessly gendered because it had stuff such as “#likeagirl”. I hate this kind of packaging for many reasons.
For example, it is far from inclusive towards people who menstruate because it mainly focuses on the premise that people who menstruate have “wombs”, therefore are “”women”, which is transmisic and biological essentialist in of itself. Any menstruating people who feels dysphoric from menstrual packaging would deal with even more painful dysphoria from seeing the message on the packaging itself and even being sent the message of “we don’t give a single care about your well-being, now be happy you were born with a vagina”. However, this kind of packaging only benefits bigoted transmisic individuals, and especially TERFs (who are reactionary fascists comprised of predominantly non-intersex, allocishetero, able minded and bodied, singlet, and neurotypical white women) who love to claim the life subscriptions (a euphemism for driving lives to suicide) of so many trans, gender-non-conforming, intersex and queer individuals who deal with so much pain (especially for those dealing with dysphoria) and put up with so much non-sense from society’s beliefs in regards to how a person perceive their own gender(s) as.
I’m not and never will be fond of any menstrual packaging that is pointlessly gendered (EVER), yet here I am having menstrual packaging that is pointlessly gendered. It’s also very sad that there are a lot of TERFs (including a transmisic troll of a bigoted brat) that still think that a person with a ‘womb’ means ‘female’ (which, in reality, is far from factual and it is far from ‘reality’, because nature has always been LGBTQIAP2S+/MOGAI and bigots themselves are always afraid of what they don’t understand while expecting nature to conform to ‘male’ and ‘female’ terms [although they can be useful, they are to some extent, meaning not always useful since we’ve constructed those terms ourselves as humans] and especially in binaristic terms of both non-intersexnormativity and cisheteronormativity). I bet that their understanding of all varieties of reproductive systems are miniscule since their (lack thereof) understanding isn’t much from elementary-level biology. Well, whatever, let those bigots have their bubbles bursted the minute they realise how harmful their nonsense is and how poisonous their rhetoric (and themselves in general) are.
How society should be able to at least realistically strive towards being more inclusive in terms of menstrual packaging
In this section, I will at least state this… Include more kinds of menstrual undergarments for menstruating individuals of all sizes, all genders, and for intersex individuals who menstruate as well, remove the venus symbol (which is used to signify the marker of ‘female’ on human bodies who menstruate, and brings more than enough mental and emotional pain, gender dysphoria [for trans folks who continue dealing with dysphoria], trans imposter syndrome (the feeling that one isn’t really ‘trans’ or is ‘pretending’ to be trans and there is also more to it than just those feelings), along with feelings of self-doubt and self-hatred for gender-modal, non-binary, trans and intersex trans folks to deal with besides the heart and mind-crushing pain [varies from person to person and system to system for traumagenic systems] experienced), and to make undergarment products inclusive.
My colourful messages to bigoted wannabe-traditional wives (or otherwise referred to as ‘tradfems’ on Tumblr) known as TERFs
Also, for the love of rainbows TERFs, stop acting like prissy Mean Girl motherfuckers who always want everything to be ciscentric because it won’t get you places nor will it get you into positions with sincere intersectional and genuine feminists (anarchists included because they actually give a care about vulnerable individuals) who actually give more of a shit about women and many people of all walks of life (unlike you), and TERFs, none of you were ever feminists in the first place because your genuine hatred of people who don’t fit into your bullshit standards aren’t liberating nor do they actually protect the people you claim to give fucks about, because not every cis woman has a ‘womb’ like you have to hold above cis women who don’t even have uteruses. Plus, y’all literally hate women who aren’t white, cishet (etc.) and neurotypical like you are, so get off your fascist tradwife asses for once in your lives and at least develop some human decency (if your TERF nonsense hasn’t sucked out the non-existent humanity you have left of you), and please stop worshipping your uteruses as if they’re something related to a religion… it’s honestly creepy.
A/N: pardon my French, folks, but I will have to swear for the sake of roasting reactionary fascists that try to make themselves useful to bigots and nazis relying on white supremacy and patriarchy.
Why gendered and feminine-coded language does more harm than good to others who aren’t perisex and allocishetero feminine-conforming women
Okay, so I’ll share some thoughts on why gendered/cisnormative feminine-coded language actually does more harm to others than good.
For example, it often leaves out many menstruating non-binary, intersex, gender-non-conforming, gender-modal and trans individuals, and it also leaves out trans men who menstruate as well since society codes menstruation as something that only non-intersex and allocishetero feminine-conforming women experience, which causes a genuine discomfort in many menstruating individuals who feel that they’re punched, no, hit hard with a combination of a heavy anchor and a million bricks while shopping for menstrual products.
In addition, there are also plenty of menstrual cycle tracker apps that are also typically feminine-coded and aren’t gender-inclusive because those apps are made for cis women. However, Clue, which is a menstrual app, uses gender-inclusive language to liberate menstruating individuals, especially allowing them to talk about their experiences with menstruation while tracking menstrual cycles of menstruating individuals.
When using gendered/feminine-coded language, it doesn’t liberate other people who menstruate since society always genders experiences of menstruation as something that only cis women can understand (jokes on society and its nonsense, there’s cis women who don’t menstruate at all), which isn’t necessarily true because menstruation can happen to anybody, not just cis women. However, when using gender-inclusive language surrounding menstruation, liberation is provided to menstruating individuals of all genders and gender modalities, and there is more room for individuals to have conversations about their menstrual experiences.
Extra: For any LGBTQIAP2S+/MOGAI Canadian citizens residing in Ontario, here is some information on the Policy of preventing discrimination because of Gender Identity and Gender Expression, but please keep some things in mind (such as any outdated terms along with any outdated words referring to a trans person):
Policy on preventing discrimination because of Gender Identity and Gender Expression. 2014. Ontario Human Rights Commission. https://www.ohrc.on.ca/sites/default/files/Policy%20on%20preventing%20discrimination%20because%20of%20gender%20identity%20and%20gender%20expression.pdf
A/N: If anyone would like me to find international policies that are against anti-trans, anti-intersex and anti-MOGAI/LGBTQIAP2S+ discrimination, please let me know through my email of cloudmoon43@gmail.com (for confidentiality, personal and professional reasons) and please let me know through any comments and I will find some for you to keep and use just in case you are dealing with any situation involving bigotry and harassment (you are human and you deserve to have your dignity respected).
A/N: This article will be one of my last articles of 2021, as 2021 was a rough year, with the insurrectionist attack done by alt-right terrorists including many more humanitarian crises (i.e., Yemen’s population dealing with starvation, not having access to clean drinking water, hospitals being overwhelmed with children on the brink of death, including Uighur Muslim individuals being put through concentration camps [history is repeating itself over and over again]) and the pandemic taking many more lives of families and people. I have some remaining hope that 2022 would be a much better year for us, but with the unprecedented times existing in this cursed timeline, let’s hope that we do our best to survive next year.
