Have you ever gone to the store in search of tampons and end up on a wild hunt for the ever elusive period aisle? If you’ve ever bought menstrual products, the answer is most likely yes. One Arkansas teen found herself in the same predicament when a trip to grab tampons turned into a hilarious realization about just how real period shame is.
According to Refinery 29, Belinda Hankins sent her 13-year-old daughter to the store for some period products. When her daughter got there, she couldn’t find tampons for a solid seven minutes, texting Belinda in disbelief that the store clearly did not carry pads or tampons. Belinda urged her daughter to keep looking and she finally found those tricky little tampons tucked away in the corner. Here’s the entire exchange, which Belinda posted to Facebook.
Ok, now that we’ve stopped laughing, we can explain exactly why this exchange is so amazing. Not only do Belinda and her daughter talk freely about sex and reproductive health (lube, anyone?), but clearly Belinda is teaching her daughter some top notch feminist theory. Period shame is absolutely real and it’s lead to people being embarrassed about menstruation. People go to great lengths to hide their tampons, stuffing them up sleeves as they scurry to the bathrooms, or sneaking them to friends in the most secret ways. It’s also why there isn’t a “big sign reading ‘SUPER PERIOD CENTER’” in the store.
If joint braces get their own label, periods should too because there are likely more people menstruating than needing extra joint support. The reality is that both are necessary medical products.
This girl’s tirade about men being afraid to talk about vaginas is also hilarious — sometimes it really does seem like guys are afraid of those estrogen beams Belinda’s daughter mentions. (Though, of course, there are plenty of men who are comfortable with talking about issues essential to women and the LGBTQ community.)
Belinda’s is a household that eats the patriarchy for breakfast and that’s so bad ass. This whole exchange does leave us with one burning question, though. What is the vaj mobile and where do we get one?
