Playtex Sports Tampons
Obviously tampon companies work hard to appeal to women and girls, but Playtex Sport Tampons really irk me. I purchased a box on a whim, and to my surprise, each tampon wrapper had an insprirational message on it. Fabulous. Which makes me wonder what inspired them to do this.
I suppose they may claim their intention is to positively support women/girls who play sports while selling their product, which is the gist of what I get from looking at some of their website, but many of the sayings are absolutely ridiculous. How many male athletes are told that it doesn't matter if you win or lose, it's how you play the game? Sure, that sounds nice, but playing competitive sports is NOT ONLY about playing your hardest. It's playing your hardest TO WIN.
And it's hard for me NOT to correlate the sayings as being related to my period, because, umm...I'm changing my tampon. The sayings are something related to being "sporty" and the tampon is cheering you on! Woo hooo! I certainly get really pumped up when I change my tampon now, because while doing so I get to read:
"Victory! " or "Game on! " as though I'm in a fight against my period?
"I'm on your team "--- creepy.
or "Celebrate your efforts " (huh? is that similar to "Winning isn't everything, as long as you do your best"?)
and similarly, "Who cares if you win or lose - play the game! " Which kills me, because alot of the sayings are all about doing your best but it's ok to lose. Fuck you, in my book, I'm a competitive person and so are other female athletes, and no, I'm not going to smile if my team loses a game and hug everyone and say oh well.
How those could be related to my period, I have no idea. Celebrating my efforts to use the 'right' tampon and not worry about my period while I'm playing a sport? lol
But my absolute FAVORITE is:
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"You can play hard and still be girly "
oh good. phew. I was worried about that. Especially playing competitive soccer at college level, I know the first thing I worried about before I played a game was if I was still going to be girly (barf). I just couldn't believe I was even reading this. I know for a fact that my gf, as well as a number of my friends, who are athletes, and very much boi's, have also never worried about playing hard = not girly , and were insulted by the idea that this should be somethign they should be worried about. As for non-boi's, the girls I know who are athletes are more concerned with winning than looking hot. In fact, playing hard = hot .
I understand that maybe some (especially young) girls are afraid to be "overly athletic" for fear of losing their femininity, but I'm not sure having my tampon wrapper reassuring me not to worry about this is the best action to take to rectify that. It shouldn't be the first thing girls worry about when being athletic and having to deal with their period. And I do NOT think a tampon wrapper is the appropriate medium to discuss femininity and athletics, (which I do think are important topics in relation to female athletes etc).
Let's be honest, Platex has a goal = $$$ .
And I just have my damn period.
duh.
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So basically, we can't say things to encourage women, because that might imply that we think they need encouragement, which is in turn condescending. Companies should be chastised for saying things that could possibly be interpreted as sexist, and for saying things that are patently not sexist, because they're TOO not sexist.
And your message is not that since men are told losing is bad that we should work to let everyone know that losing is okay if you do your best. Rather, the message is that losing is simply not okay. And if you do your best and still fail, you shouldn't feel good that you did your best; instead you should feel bad that you're a loser.
I guess I'm a little confused about what your ideal world would look like.
Sure, everyone should learn to do their best and have good sportsmanship, and accept that winning isn't EVERYTHING. I'm not saying feel bad for being a 'loser' I'm saying that competitiveness isn't necessarily a bad thing for girls, and yet we are told that winning isn't everything? by our tampon wrappers?
In sports, people play to win. Male and female. Telling girls "who cares if you win or lose" is just bs. Why shouldn't we care? There's a balance between wanting that win, and losing and being overly bitter about it.
I don't think losing is simply not ok. I think NOT CARING about winning or losing is what's not ok, once you get on a given level of competition.
(As for Victory! or Game on! I didn't say it was sexist, just kinda silly.)
What I also have issue with is telling girls it's ok, you can still be girly and play hard, as though that's something they should be worried about to begin with. As though playing hard would be too masculine.
I guess you're right, the "who cares" language is pretty strong. Obviously someone cares.
I just guess I don't see the big deal. They probably thought "well, we need to print wrappers anyway, lets put some inspiring crap on there while we're at it." and then they came up with random corny messages. It's not that interesting, but I don't see why it's bad.
I agree that putting such messages on tampons is weird and wholly unnecessary (and that the "you can play hard and still be girly" one is downright sexist), but I disagree that encouraging women to not care about winning or losing is stereotyping or damaging. I am also a very competitive person but if I lose (I am a competitive dancer and a former competitive swimmer/soccer player), I see no reason to be angry and enjoy hugging my teammates and trying to encourage them. In fact, I think the main problem with this sentiment is not that it's encouraged in women, but that it's not encouraged in men. You can want to win but in the end, it really doesn't matter. There's almost always another game, another competition, etc. If winning was all that mattered, why would anyone keep playing after a loss?
Okay, long sportsmanship rant over.
Would you, for the love of dog, go spend some time reading Feminism 101?
http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/
For real, FruminousB.
People who are blind to their own privilege are not at fault--repeat--not at fault for being born blind.
But willfully maintaining their blindness amidst a veritable Garden of Eden of perspectives from "the other side" IS a fault, and is not acceptable.
Let me explain this as clearly as possible:
When one is a member of a group, that has been told, for centuries or millenia, that they are, must be, and ever will be "a certain way," it does one HARM to be targeted by advertisers and marketers only in a manner ever-consistent with that One Special Way That Your Group Was Born to Be.
Analogy:
Black Americans have been encouraged to be artists--singers, dancers, poets, actors/performers--for centuries, even during the eras of slavery. The world is certainly a better place for having had Martha Graham and Paul Robeson and Leontyne Price, make no mistake. Their callings represent the pinnacle of human artistry, and deserve all the attendant respect.
But Black folk can and must be engineers as well as acrobats, attorneys as well as artists, powerbrokers as well as poets.
Putting ONLY the phrases "Sing! Express yourself!" and "Shake it!" and "DANCE" and "Feel the Rythmn" on a product made excluusively for Black Americans has a far different CONTEXT than putting only these same messages on a European-American or Asian-American-targeted product. It is harmful, not helpful, to ONLY send messages to Black youth that continually pump up the socially-approved role of entertainer/artiste instead of or in addition to the socially undervalued roles of mathematician, attorney, architect, theologian and philosopher.
In this country, European-American men have always been "AND." They can be X and Y and Z and P and W."
But I, as a minority woman, have a script laid out for me on TV and in law and on my tampon wrappers. That script has changed little in five thousand years of recorded human history. It is a limited script, a proscribed one, full of "shoulds" and "musts" and "cannots."
We want our fucking chance to be ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING and not just What We've Always Been Good For. I want my chance to be competitive and fierce and aggressive on the soccer field AND/OR to be "relational" and communicative and "that's okay we tried our best."
Almost every single post this poster (doubleb) has made has dripped of WILLFULLY unexamined privilege. The fact that people like Fruminous have to link for you and that I have to post explanations for you is, at this point in your time on Feministing, inexcusable.
Your privilege is not what triggers our contempt.
It's your refusal to acknowledge it and your disingenuousness in so doing that has so richly earned our disdain.
*Fin.*
Amen!
I love it when commenters support the poster by adding their own kick-ass argument!
Yeah, I got fed up with the whole tampon/pad industry and got a menstrual cup.
"I understand that maybe some (especially young) girls are afraid to be "overly athletic" for fear of losing their femininity,"
Are 13 year old girls not the target market for tampons? I mean sure you might not need the encouragement, but these are marketing people, they say "our aim is women between 13 and 25 that play sports, lets put in some cute marketing so that they will buy "sports" tampons instead of regular tampons"
There isn't exactly a parallel product marketed toward men that could have inspirational messages on it.
Me? I got a menstrual cup, then became a free bleeder. I still keep the menstrual cup around incase I have a day that I think will be exceptionally heavy, but I always hated the way that tampons felt like sandpaper inside my vagina and the dampness of pads. I do have a separate set of underwear for my period, but I don't think it is too much less sanitary than the mucus that normally comes out.
And no, it doesn't smell and I haven't had it stain my jeans yet, but I have had it glue my vulva together.
Now, I laugh at the menstrual commercials that make girls feel ashamed of their periods, yeah the cramps suck, but other than that I don't mind my period.
Free bleeder? I've never heard of that. How does it work? Does that mean you use no sanitary products whatsoever? You must have a really light flow. Before I went on the pill, I had to get up in the middle of the night to change my tampon or pad to a new one otherwise my pajamas would get stained.
I know this thread is old but I'm really curious.
Best decision I have ever made with regards to my period:
Getting a Divacup. 30 bucks at the local health food store 6 months ago. Its already paid for its self and will continue to for years. Its more comfortable, creates zero waste and liberates me from dependence on "feminine hygiene" companies that are run predominately by men whose primary goal is to make us dislike our bodies and then profit from the results.
www.divacup.com
and a similar product:
www.thekeeper.com
On a more philosophical note, using it instead of little sticks of dry, uncomfy cotton, I understand and appreciate my body more. All its practical benefits aside, that alone was worth it.
Yeah, I agree it's sexist, especially the "you can play hard and still be girlie." The other sayings, about playing your hardest, like "that girl" said, ARE sexist in that they aren't presented to men as well. However Playtex probably can't remedy that being a company that only sells to women. However, as Okra said, we should be allowed to be several things at once. I believe in not only complaining about problems but in also offering solutions, so here are some sayings that I would add to the sayings currently on the wrappers (minus the one about being girlie)if I were part of their marketing department:
1)Go For the Gold!
2)In It to Win It!
3)Nothing Can Stop You!
Yeah, kinda corny, but you can't exactly sell "Kick their asses!" to a 12-year-old.
Anyone have other sayings that would work?
"In it to win it" on a tampon wrapper? Are you serious? Sounds like pun-from-hell to me.
Jeeez, tampons are just a service product. They are meant to do their job, nothing else.
Yeah Cat, I'm Serious!!
Lol, I don't know what a service product is, either something's a good or service, and a tampon is definitely not a service. And it wasn't even a pun. All I was trying to do was be constructive where saying it's a pun from hell is being destructive. And I acknowledged it was corny. I'll guess you're a young one so I won't be too mean. :D
Anyone have non-sexist sayings?
Sorry, English isn't my mother tongue, that might explain "service product" - what I meant was: a tampon is a product that is meant to make ones live easier... to be servicable.
And no, I'm not a "young one", so if you want to critcize anything I've written - do so. I can handle it.