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Women's Health

Women are shocking their boyfriends by showing them how tampons actually work

The viral videos are a great way to educate men on a sensitive topic.

via TikTok

Women shock their boyfriends with tampon tutorials.

Menstrual taboos are as old as time and found across cultures. They've been used to separate women from men physically—menstrual huts are still a thing—and socially, by creating the perception that a natural bodily function is a sign of weakness. Even in today's world, women are deemed unfit for positions of power because some men actually believe they won't be able to handle stressful situations while mensurating.

"Menstruation is an opening for attack: a mark of shame, a sign of weakness, an argument to keep women out of positions of power,' Colin Schultz wrote in Popular Science in 2014. The big problem with menstrual taboos is the way that males are (or are not) educated on the subject leaves them with a patchwork of ideas that don't necessarily add up to the whole picture. First, there's the information they get from growing up with women in the house.

Then, there are the cryptic descriptions of menstruation seen in advertising and the cold, scientific way the topic is taught in sex education.

"Boys' early learning about menstruation is haphazard," a 2011 study published in the Journal of Family Issues reads. "The mysterious nature of what happens to girls contributes to a gap in boys' knowledge about female bodies and to some negative views about girls." Over a decade on from the study, and not much has changed. Men are still woefully undereducated on women's health and periods specifically, and, though there's acknowledgment they deserve more information and education, little progress has been made. In fact, boy's and men's misunderstanding or total lack of understanding surrounding menstruation is often played for laughs.

Unfortunately, the gaps in the average man's understanding of a complex female health issue can put women in a difficult position, whether it's denying them positions of power or a failure to understand their discomfort and their medical, physical, and emotional needs.

That's why it's so important for men to become better educated about menstruation.

A group of women on TikTok are helping the men in their lives better understand the subject by showing them how tampons work on the inside of their bodies. They call it the Boyfriend Challenge. Some of the guys' reactions are clearly over-the-top, but it's also obvious that many of them have no idea how tampons function.

A video by the Demery family has gone viral attracting nearly eight million views. It's fun to watch, but it also shows men how tampons function and what women go through during their monthly cycle.

@thedemeryfamily22

His reaction is priceless😂 #cutecouple #pregnant #prego #viral #InLove #couplegoals #trend #tampon

It's a bit of a facepalm moment that her man think he has to "compete" with a tampon after he's shown how it works, but I digress...

In another video, Rachel's man just uttered the phrase "vagina parachute." Sure, why not.

@mrshillery829

Of course I had to make my husband do this! I will forever call tampons “vagina parachutes”! LMAO!! #tamponchallenge #husbandpranks #funny #fyp


Paulina's man was completely flummoxed by the inner workings of a tampon. "You've been carrying this like, inside of you?" he asks. "The whole day?"

@paulinat

showing him how a tampôn works😭 @fabioguerrrraa

This guy thinks it's "like a butterfly."

@amanialzubi

showing my boyfriend how a tampon works 🤣😳❤️ ( @originalisrael ) #comedy #couple #couplegoals #foryou #trend #tiktok

This guy was in utter shock.

@thekelleyfamily

lmaoooo why 😂😭 #tamponchallenge #trend #hilariouscomedy #couple #married #foryoupage #fyp #xyzbca

Let's hope this challenge gave some men out there a better understanding of what women go through every month and a little more sympathy for the women in their lives. Hopefully it also makes them feel a little more comfortable around period products and inspires them to pick up the correct box of tampons next time they're at the grocery store.

This article originally appeared three years ago.

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Yes, there's blood in this tampon commercial. And yes, it's awesome.

More of this, please.

Too often, you'll see something like this in an ad for tampons.


Photo via iStock.

White shirt, white sheets, white everything.

Or this.

Photo via iStock.

What is that mystery blue liquid anyway?

This probably looks familiar.

Photo via iStock.

"Let's go with pink," says every person making a decision about the color of feminine hygiene packaging.

And this monstrosity?

Photo via iStock.

Wow, we get it already.

For the most part, tampon commercials don't really know how to sell their product in innovative, stereotype-busting ways.

Sure, sometimes they can be clever. But all too often, they rely on obnoxious notions about gender and female fragility and try to hide the fact that menstruating is not, in fact, fun. Like, there's such a thing as a "happy" period? And why is everyone twirling in white yoga pants all the time?

Admittedly, promoting a product that involves blood and genitalia can be a hard sell.

"I'm not saying that I want to see blood in tampon commercials," Dodai Stewart once wrote for Jezebel. "I don't know what I want to see. And it seems like the ad execs don't know either."

But there's got to be a better way. Right?

That's what makes this new tampon commercial so fantastic.

Unlike most other feminine hygiene ads, it doesn't shy away from showing some blood (albeit in an unexpected way):

The ad — promoting the U.K.-based Bodyform's Red.fit campaign — depicts what the website Elle India describes as "the strength, the ferocity, and toughness of blood on women" without awkwardly resorting to flower petals, weird blue liquids, or models with perfect teeth.

Ad execs: More of this, please.

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Let's talk tampons and everything that is — and isn't — in them.

True
Seventh Generation

Behold, the humble tampon! An innovation so essential and effective that Consumer Reports named it one of the "50 small wonders" to revolutionize lives of consumers.

If you're a woman of reproductive age, there's a good chance a tampon has come in handy for you at least once. Image by iStock.

Historians credit the invention of modern applicator tampons to Earl Cleveland Haas, who patented the Tampax tampon in 1931 and sold his ideas to a sales conglomerate in 1934. But Haas was hardly the first person to think of internal solutions to managing menstruation. Women have been making their own tampons for hundreds — if not thousands — of years. Ancient Egyptian women used soft pieces of papyrus; Roman women used wool; Equatorial African women used bundles of soft grass. It seems as soon as women reach reproductive age, they're looking for ways — other than pads — to hide menstruation from everyone else.

That's one of the things that makes tampons so unique. They are discreet, super portable, and undetectable under clothing. They have a small waste footprint and, once governments finish getting rid of ridiculous luxury taxes, will be available for the same cost as pads.

Pads from the 1950s could also double as floatation devices in the event of an aircraft water landing.*

*This is not true, it just feels like it could be.

But for as long as they’ve been available commercially, tampons have been the subject of concern and controversy.

It’s not surprising why. Using a tampon is deeply personal. It is closer to our body than anything else, and our use of it implies a massive amount of trust and good faith.

Which is why when stories come out about tampons being unsafe, they really resonate.

To understand some of the historical context around our relationship with tampons, we need to head back to the 1970s.

It was a magical era of liberation, disco, and using high-tech synthetic fabrics in absolutely everything — even tampons.

In 1975, Proctor and Gamble started test-marketing Rely, a tampon made, for the very first time, without cotton or rayon. Instead, Rely substituted a mix of synthetic fibers to create a super high-absorbency product promising women more freedom by allowing them to wear a single tampon for up to a day.

Rely made bold claims, and they should have been tested. But right at the same time, Congress reclassified tampons from "cosmetic products" to "medical devices" in order to impose stricter regulations. Somehow, Rely managed to slip through the cracks.

In 1978, the Berkeley Women's Health Collective raised concerns about Rely tampons, particularly over how their synthetic ingredients could damage vaginal walls and create a breeding ground for bacteria.

Sadly, their fears were warranted. By 1980, toxic shock syndrome caused by high-absorbency tampons, including Rely, had killed 38 women and sickened more than 800 others across the United States.

Since then, there’ve been big changes in how tampons are made and regulated.

Tampons sold in America aren't made with synthetic fabrics or additives anymore — only with cotton, rayon (absorbent cellulose fibers made from bleached wood pulp), or a blend of the two.

For some people, that's still cause for concern. The issue you've probably heard the most about is dioxin — a byproduct of chlorine bleaching that the EPA recognizes as highly toxic and cancer-causing — and which may be found in trace amounts in some tampons. However, the FDA assures consumers that on their own, these minuscule amounts of dioxin aren't a risk to human health.

Image by iStock.

Tampon manufacturers are required by the FDA to list a bunch of information on their packaging, including information about absorbency and the risk of toxic shock syndrome, but absolutely nothing about ingredients. Any tampon companies who list the ingredients in their products are doing so voluntarily. For that, we thank them, but many people also wish there were strong ingredient disclosure regulations for even more peace of mind.

In the last few decades, there's been a lot of progress on destigmatizing periods and making "that time of the month" more manageable for women.


Sorry, Brick. This is — thankfully — absolutely not true.

It's understandable and encouraging that women are paying so much attention to and asking questions about what they're putting in their bodies. Think of it this way: The average woman's reproductive life lasts for 40 years, or about 480 periods. If she exclusively uses tampons, that adds up to an estimated 9,600 to 11,000 tampons.

With an increase in conversations around periods, there's also been an increase in options. Women have dozens of choices for managing blood flow during their periods — everything from super-absorbent underwear to silicon cups to organic tampons and everything in between. It all comes down to your preference and comfort level.

In the meantime, let's keep talking about our periods! The more open we all are about menstruation, the better.

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Family

The first lady of New York City wrote a poem about tampons. It's wonderful.

With liberty and tampons for all!

Periods happen. It's a fact of life. About every 28 days, people of childbearing age with uteruses get their periods.

It's a beautiful process of biological renewal: The uterus cleans itself in anticipation of a possible future baby, and women everywhere who get caught off guard by the arrival of their monthly visitor can experience the unique joy of asking strangers in public bathrooms if they have an extra tampon.

Very recently lawmakers have started to acknowledge that helping people manage this time with grace and ease is a wonderful — and long overdue — thing to do.

Last summer, the government of Canada agreed to stop taxing tampons, pads, and menstrual cups. In mid-March, the Chicago City Council voted unanimously to stop its tax on all feminine products and reclassify them as medical necessities. And in New York City, a brand-new bill will supply girls in 25 schools with free tampons and pads, plus give free menstrual products to female-bodied prisoners in homeless shelters and city jails.

The first lady of New York City, Chirlane McCray, was very excited about that last bill. An accomplished poet, she channelled her enthusiasm about it into a delightful poem titled "Tampons for All," which she shared in a series of tweets.

McCray's ode to tampons — and its message — are so great, but Twitter moves on quickly and these tweets should not be forgotten.

So here it is, in all it's tampon-y glory:

If you're inspired by McCray's words, let her know on Twitter. And if you're a resident of one of the majority of U.S. states that still tax menstrual products, maybe it's worth sharing this with your lawmakers as well.

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