WTF

Feministo Runs Marathon Without Tampon Because Period Shaming Is Oppressive

 

 

 

 

 

Saw this story on the Huffington Post about a “feminist” running a marathon without a tampon to fight oppression or something, and had to comment:

The night before she was set to run her very first marathon, Kiran Gandhi got her period. After a year of training, she refused to miss the momentous moment because of biology. She had two choices: She could either run the 26.2 miles with a tampon, or she could bleed freely. 

She chose the latter.

Gandhi went without a tampon during the London Marathon in April in an effort to fight period-shaming and to take a stand for women around the globe who don’t have access to menstruation products or who have to “hide [their period] away like it doesn’t exist.”

She wrote about her experience in a Medium blog last month: 

As I ran, I thought to myself about how women and men have both been effectively socialized to pretend periods don’t exist. By establishing a norm of period-shaming, [male-preferring] societies effectively prevent the ability to bond over an experience that 50% of us in the human population share monthly. By making it difficult to speak about, we don’t have language to express pain in the workplace, and we don’t acknowledge differences between women and men that must be recognized and established as acceptable norms. Because it is all kept quiet, women are socialized not to complain or talk about their own bodily functions, since no one can see it happening. And if you can’t see it, it’s probably “not a big deal.” Why is this an important issue? Because THIS is happening, right now.

Gandhi told Cosmopolitan she thinks the social constructs around periods are based on misogyny.

“I have this vision that if men had their period, because we are in a male-privileging society, that rules would be written into the workplace, rules would be written into the social fabric that enable men to take a moment when they need to or enable people to talk about their periods openly,” she said. 

“When push comes to shove, all this cleaning that we do, all this shame that women feel, it doesn’t matter,” she told Cosmo. “They were my family, that’s their blood too. On a spiritual level, that’s amazing. That connects men and women in a very amazing way. Instead of men getting grossed out by it or women being grossed out by their own bodies, we should move away from that.”

Gandhi said she wanted to use the marathon to send a message to the world. 

“If there’s one way to transcend oppression, it’s to run a marathon in whatever way you want,” she wrote on her personal website. “Where the stigma of a woman’s period is irrelevant, and we can re-write the rules as we choose.”

Screen Shot 2015-08-10 at 4.21.31 PM Screen Shot 2015-08-10 at 4.22.49 PM

Newsflash Kiran – women don’t wear tampons because they’re oppressed. They do it because it’s a waste of a perfectly good pair of pants.

Look, Turtleboy Sports is a real feminist blog. We believe that women and men should both be treated with the same respect and dignity. But this woman isn’t a feminist. She’s a feministo. Big difference. A feminist thinks you can gain equality by voting. A feministo is a psychopath who thinks disregarding personal hygiene is how you gain equality.

I’ve never worn a tampon so I can’t really comment on how it feels. I would imagine it’s not the greatest feeling in the world though. But what are ya gonna do? You were born with a body that bleeds for few days every month. So you either walk around covered in blood or you wear a tampon. You call it liberation, I call it nasty. And so does every normal person out there.

How funny was this line from her:  “I thought to myself about how women and men have both been effectively socialized to pretend periods don’t exist.”

Ummmm, what fucking planet are you living on where dudes don’t know about periods? At least 99% of guys out there have had access denied for this very reason. Even though most of the time it was a lie because no one wanted to hook up with their fat, disgusting ass, it still proves that they know what a period is.

Look, I took a huge smash this morning. That’s a fact. But you know what I didn’t do? I didn’t shit my pants. Because that’s fucking nasty. But it doesn’t mean that I’m oppressed because I didn’t get the walk around with shit stains all day. It just means that I’m a civilized, normal human being. I guess Kiran would call that poop-shaming. So in conclusion Kiran, you are not a feminist, you are just a huge attention whoring moron who is going to spend a lot of money on pants in your future. Oh yea, and your future husband with a hyphenated last name is probably gonna be an even worse person than you are.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

16 Comment(s)
  • mousy
    August 11, 2015 at 10:02 am

    I’m confused. The story says this woman had two choices – a tampon or bleed freely.

    Ok, so a menstrual cup takes a little more advance planning, since you can’t just swing into Target and pick one up. However, there’s a whole aisle of alternative feminine hygiene products, from panty liners to things that are practically diapers. In fact, there’s so many choices, it’s overwhelming.

    And if you can’t afford to buy disposable, there are dozens of sites on the internet that offer sewing patterns to make cloth pads out of flannel, old t-shirts, your grandmother’s tea towels…whatever you have around the house, basically.

    As for the workplace, I don’t freely talk about other bodily functions in the workplace, either. Why? Because I’m a professional and I work in a professional environment. I pumped milk at work for nearly a year, and almost nobody knew about it. It’s called discretion.

    What’s next on the list of things we shouldn’t do anymore? The courtesy flush???

  • WackyHonky
    August 11, 2015 at 8:17 am

    Eww. UNREAL.

  • Kevins 9 Iron
    Frank Lee
    August 11, 2015 at 7:59 am

    I just took a dump in my pants! Down with shit shaming!

  • Devils Mouthpiece
    August 11, 2015 at 6:53 am

    WTF! Can’t come up with anything better than that. #TamponsLivesMatter

  • Carlo's Daddy
    August 10, 2015 at 10:33 pm

    Ummm, isn’t this an issue of hygiene???

    She’s a pig….

  • lol
    August 10, 2015 at 9:42 pm

    gross

  • coffeemate
    August 10, 2015 at 8:32 pm

    “Its my families blood too!” Ummm….no. your period blood is a whole other ball game sweet cheeks. If you’re putting tampons in correctly, you don’t feel them. She’s an ass hat and I want to punch her. That was 100% on some weirdo attention shit.

  • Wabbitt
    wabbitt
    August 10, 2015 at 7:34 pm

    My favorite part is where she said, “women are socialized not to complain or talk about their own bodily functions.”

    Yeah, because it’s totally socially acceptable for me, as a man, to stand in the middle of my workplace and loudly discuss the massive dump I just took. And it’s perfectly hunky dory for me to fart loudly as I deal with customers.

    • JudyB
      August 12, 2015 at 12:21 pm

      “women are socialized not to complain or talk about their own bodily functions.”

      On what planet does this woman live? I am a woman and I’ll tell you, too many people (male AND female) ramble on about body functions.

      PS – If any of the men want to know what a tampon feels like…read on…

      It feels like nothing…

      …unless it is time for a new one (or maybe one has a physical issue), and maybe this runner needs frequent changes and that is the problem. Still, who is their right mind chooses THIS option?

  • Publius
    August 10, 2015 at 6:56 pm

    Maybe that is the way they roll in the homeland. Disgusting just the same.Mrs. Pubi agrees.

  • george
    August 10, 2015 at 5:36 pm

    Everyday it’s something new that white men are doing wrong. Just to make sure I don’t piss off any liberals I guess I’ll ask a female coworker how her period is going and ask if she needs a midol.

    • Wabbitt
      wabbitt
      August 10, 2015 at 11:41 pm

      My favorite “thing men are wrong about” is that offices are too cold for women, because they’re heated to a temperature that men like.

  • Frogshit
    August 10, 2015 at 5:26 pm

    That’s a bloody shame mate….

  • Jorge Romero
    August 10, 2015 at 5:10 pm

    And I bet that was comfortable. All 26 squishy miles of it.

  • Hank
    August 10, 2015 at 4:45 pm

    I say nuke the site from orbit. Only way to be sure.

    • Diana
      August 10, 2015 at 4:54 pm

      Best movie ever!

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