Periods. Periods, periods, periods, periods. We all (read: us two) have them. And, as hilarious commentator-on-life Richard Neill astutely pointed out back in October on the Bodyform Facebook page, they don’t usually match up to the depictions we’re shown in tampon ads. As the disappointed Richard – a previously unknown person who briefly catapulted to fame for telling it like it is about the week when the painters come in – described, there is “no joy, no extreme sports, no blue water spilling over wings and no rocking soundtrack.” He had been led to believe that the shedding of a uterine lining came hand-in-hand with laughter, increased sociability, and skydiving. And then he got a girlfriend.
It doesn’t take a genius to work out that Richard’s viral comment was tongue-in-cheek – and, in the spirit of the intention, Bodyform “replied” with a video apologising for misleading men across the country. There’s not actually such thing as a “happy period”, they explained, thus spectacularly trashing their own tagline. Most people, with and without vaginas, are of course already pretty familiar with that home truth. The emotional side of PMT is a worn-out cliché; if you’re a woman, you’ve probably encountered the age-old putdown that it must be “your time of the month” at some point in your life when you were angry, upset, argumentative, or otherwise busy distinguishing yourself from a piece of the furniture. Meanwhile, the physical side sometimes doesn’t even bear thinking about – but if you really want to, then this week’s article on the first period after childbirth in Jezebel is enough to solve the overpopulation crisis once and for all. One read and we guarantee that you will never, ever want to entertain thoughts of procreating again.
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