Blog of the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research
Readers who have been with us for a while may recall meeting the Period Fairy last fall. She was greeted with mixed reactions at re:Cycling, but she’s back, now with swag! Fans of the Period Fairy can now order t-shirts and coffee mugs with her likeness and slogan, “Irritating Women Since Time Began”. She’s also started her own blog.
Full disclosure: The Period Fairy’s creator just sent me a t-shirt, gratis, and they are quite nice. I was NOT asked to promote the site or the merchandise.
Introducing Leak Chic.
Chella Quint celebrates Fashion Week, recently ended in London and New York, with clot couture.
StainsTM. A removable stain to wear on your own clothing as you see fit. A fashion statement that really says something, and that something is, ‘Screw you, Madison Avenue. I’m taking this one back. I’m wearing my heart on my sleeve and my blood on my pants. I’m gonna reclaim the stain, reclaim my blood, and reclaim my period.’ Because people, I’m telling you red is the new black.
Read more at Adventures in Menstruating.
The iPad is not even available yet, but there are already iPad accessories on the market. Be the first on your block to get the iMaxi – the Apple iPad Case with Protective Wings.
With its durable vinyl outer layer and plush, quilted-cotton sleeve, the iMaxi helps keep your iPad clean and dry. Plus, the iMaxi’s Velcro-latched, advanced wing design wraps snugly around your device, so your iPad always stays where it should. Best of all, it shields it from all those unsightly and embarrassing data leaks that would make any motherboard worry!
But hurry and order – the red iMaxi is already sold out!
[via Jezebel]
So last week (and yesterday on Twitter) I was griping about missing out on the panel discussion “That Not So Fresh Feeling: Marketing Embarrassing Products To Women” at HousingWorks in New York. Muchas gracias to Jessica Grose of Double X for taking video and posting them online. This one features all four panelists – Allison Silverman, Susan Kim, Sarah Haskins, and moderator Hanna Rosin. Allison Silverman comments about aspirational tampon ads: “I was struck by all the horseback riding. Things I would never, ever want to do when I was menstruating. I was surprised there was no person comfortably reading a book.”
More video available at Double X.
ETA 02/24/10: There’s additional commentary from some who attended the event at Jezebel and at The Pursuit of Harpyness.
Ha ha! It’s funny because PMS turns women into hideous monsters! Just like Mexican wrestlers! Get it?
Yeah, I’m not laughing either at this ad for Kitadol. Neither is Copyranter.
[via Glad Rags]
NBC New York’s website just announced an upcoming presentation titled “That Not So Fresh Feeling: Marketing Embarrassing Products To Women,” to be hosted by DoubleX (the ladyblog spin off of Slate.com) on February 22. The panel of experts includes Susan Kim, co-author of FLOW: The Cultural Story of Menstruation; Sarah Haskins, creator of Target: Women for Current TV; former “Colbert Report” executive producer Allison Silverman; and Hanna Rosin, co-editor of DoubleX and contributing editor at The Atlantic Monthly.
I’m not sure exactly who is the intended audience for this presentation, but nevertheless I’m disappointed that no one from the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research appears to be on the panel. Consider this an open invitation to any of our readers who will be in New York and able to attend the event to write a guest blog entry about it for re:Cycling.
Details
That Not So Fresh Feeling: Marketing Embarrassing Products To Women
February 22, 7PM
Housing Works Bookstore Café, 126 Crosby Street; 212- 334-3324
Free
Four years ago I published an article in Sex Roles (March 2006) about the twists and turns of the media coverage of a scandal that came to be known as “Camillagate.” It concerned the publication of a surreptitiously recorded phone chat between Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, and his lover, Camilla Parker-Bowles, that occurred in 1993. The reason the mild sex banter between two horny middle-aged royals got so much attention was that at one point they made joking references to tampons in an erotic context. The exchange was widely misreported with a distorted claim that Charles expressed a desire to be transformed into a tampon. It even became the basis for a skit on Saturday Night Live (only a small portion of it is available now online).
At the time I predicted that Charles would never get away from the tampon association. What I could not predict was how nuanced the forms of mockery would be. Who could possibly have guessed that the story would play out as a means of bolstering George W. Bush’s faltering reputation by contrasting his macho style with the more effete image of The Prince of Wales?
Word on the street is that Apple is introducing their first tablet computer today. With their usual flourish, they’ve named it . . . wait for it . . . the iPad.
ETA: The ladies at Jezebel have published more than one compilation of period-related iPad jokes. A sample:
Are you there, God? It’s me, Marketing.
Don’t make fun. The iPad is the technology of the future. Period.
Can I get a scented iPad for when my data feels not-so-fresh?
Edited again to add: The Week has an interesting comparison of historical femcare slogans and Apple slogans – more similar than one might expect.
[Video via Lunapads]
We’re sad to learn that brilliant funnywoman Sarah Haskins is leaving Target: Women (and especially sad that she’s leaving before creating a TW about femcare products). But we still have her fine piece about how birth control is sold to us as period control.
Fortunately, the rest of her archive lives on, on the internet.
The latest magazine ads for Always “Infinity” maxi pads remind me of this old joke:
Two young boys walk into a pharmacy one day, pick out a box of Tampax and proceed to the checkout counter.
The man at the counter asks the older boy, “Son, how old are you?”
“Eight,” the boy replies.
The man continues, “Do you know what these are used for?”
“Not exactly,” the boy says. “But they aren’t for me. They’re for him. He’s my brother. He’s four. We saw on TV that if you use these you would be able to swim and ride a bike. Right now he can’t do either one.”
So if I use Always, will I be able to be a contortionist like the acrobat in the picture? Because right now, I’m pretty sure I can’t do that.
Jane Lynch just gave us another reason to join her fan club. Interviewed on the red carpet at last night’s Golden Globe event, in addition to being asked about her outfit and jewelry, Lynch was asked what was in her bag. She replied, “My invitation, a little bit of lipstick, and a tampon.” The (male) interviewer chuckled and responded, “Are you feeling lucky tonight?” Check out her reply in the video clip at the left.
(I am bit disappointed that she wasn’t planning to make the same announcement if/when she won the award . . . )
[via Kate Harding]
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