Guest Post by David Linton, Marymount Manhattan College

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?

In October 2005 as Charles was about to visit the U.S., he told an interviewer in London that he hoped to speak with President Bush about improving relations with Muslims.  The thought of a Brit having the temerity to advise Bush so enraged some in the right wing that they attacked with menstrual guns blazing.  A blog called “The Citizen Journal: Conservative Political Forum, Articles & Resources” headlined a brief screed, “’Prince Tampon’ aka Prince Charles to lecture Bush on Muslims!!” (exclamations in original).  The next day (Halloween!), the blog of a woman named Debbie Schlussel, a self-described “conservative political commentator,” echoed the same theme and in a far more vicious tone.  Her piece was titled “Another Halloween Costume: Tampon Man Now Islam’s Envoy to U.S.”  She repeated the phrase “Tampon Man,” “Prince Tampon,” “Prince Charles of Tampon” or “Tampon Prince” eight times and also included a crude cartoon depicting a box of Tampax with legs and arms and several tampons sticking out of the top, one with a crown and Charles’ face with the caption, “Sweet Camilla, Your wish is granted.”

Whew!  What a lesson!  Would it be any wonder that men, particularly any men exposed to this kind of vitriol, would conclude that menstrual contact of any kind must be avoided at all cost?  The threat to one’s social standing is too great.  If the reputation of an heir apparent of a great nation can be so publicly bashed over an innocent and misreported sex joke, can any man escape menstrual mockery?

The public’s fascination with the story has manifested itself in curious ways as it has settled into the realm of popular myth.  In 2006 a British paper, the Daily Star, ran a survey to mark the 130^th anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of the telephone asking its readers to select “the biggest phone scandals of all time.”  To the paper’s surprise, Prince Charles and Camilla’s “saucy” chat edged out all others including soccer super star David Beckham’s text sex exchanges with Rebecca Loos (number two on the list) and Richard Nixon’s Watergate recordings (number four).  Further evidence of how well entrenched the tale has become is revealed by how efficiently and subtly it can be evoked.  An episode of the cartoon program The Family Guy once had the lead character say on the phone “I want to be your tampon,” and a ballet performance titled “Diana the Princess” choreographed by Peter Schaufuss in London in 2005 featured dancing tampons.  Is it possible that one day “Charlies’ tampon” will be as familiar an allusion as “Achilles’ heel?”  It would be shorthand for any man who even toyed with the thought of voluntarily exposing himself to anything menstrual.