So I was a fool recently. Not that I am immune to being a fool at times, but the most recent gullibility was just so…not fun. Although it was funny, too. I fell for a fake ad touting a “tampon” for post-op transwomen, that even had a liquid red fluid that could help a woman feel so-o-o-o feminine. A package of 25 sold for almost twenty bucks! I was ticked off at what seemed to be yet another ‘need’ created by some marketer that transwomen didn’t need. So I posted about my indignation.
Then two angels alerted me to my overzealous: first my daughter kindly messaged me that I’d been had. Then Courtney Gray, my pal and the head of transgender services at the Colorado GLBT Center, did the same. I sheepishly took down the post. Silly me.
But now I’m thinking about why I fell for it. What if such a product really was pitched to transwomen, or all post-menopausal women, or women who lost their ovaries to cancer? After all, if transmen buy devices that let them urinate while standing, they’re doing it to meet a psychological and social need, rather than a physical one. It’s not just for safety while in a men’s room stall.
The thing about “being a body,” is that we lived embodied lives, not just intellectual ones. Like many of my transwomen clients, my cisgender women clients who’ve been diagnosed as infertile, have grieved about the loss of motherhood. Post-menopausal women and those who’ve lost ovaries to cancer or hysterectomy also often grieve the losses that are outwardly signified by menstruation.
If a “bleeding tampon” was produced and sold as a psychological aid, I wouldn’t be ticked off, I’ve decided. But I would be furious if it sold for a penny more than the ones menstruating women buy.
So call me gullible, but don’t be surprised if this invention does in fact show up for sale. I’d suggest it for my clients with gender dysphoria who might benefit from it. Whatever works, works.
Personally, I think the whole thing is insane…real or not. Having a period is not fun. That said, such a tampon would inherently be much more expensive because they would be much more complicated to manufacture and since demand is not nearly that of regular tampons, they could not be produced by the truckload and cost per unit of production would be high. So…if such a thing ever comes out, don’t get your panties in a wad because it is 4 times the price….which is what the supposed price will be of the supposed product.
You are probably right about the high price, Melle. But mine is just a thought experiment; I’m not advocating such a product. However, it leads me to reflect on how, when I was a younger cis-woman, I too disliked the downside of having periods, until a life-changing experience showed me the positive side of menses. It involved an indigenous woman shaman confronting my western negative attitude toward my periods. In her tradition, women ‘in their moon’ had more psychological, creative power than at other times in their cycle, and their ways of life honored this with time off from the normative day to make use of it. Remember that in those cultures, a vacation would be unheard of, a strange aberration. But naturally-occurring ‘sabbaths’ in life activities would be the norm. If we ‘modern’ women were to slow down and let our bodies teach us, I believe we’d live in a way that any woman, trans or cis, would envy. If that were the case, I could imagine a “tampon” that gave a psychological sense of this would be…useful. As much as the stand-to-urinate device transmen can use, and for the same psychological benefit. Thanks for commenting.