Speaking of Vaginas…
Tuesday, June 5th, 2007 by Guest
Feminine hygiene product commercials have really pissed me off as of late. I’m pretty sure I know why. It all started in my Women’s Studies discussion section when my students were comparing feminine hygiene ads with masculine hygiene ads. One pad magazine ad was talking about how the consumer would be ‘fresher’ because the pad came with a scented (re: bleached) strip and a freshening wipe (which is what I can only assume is exactly like a baby wipe). All of the feminine ads were essentially telling their female consumers to CLEAN IT UP. That their bodies were ‘unnatural’ in smell, hygiene, and appearance. Our bodies are not OK by themselves and these products are NECESSARY to improve this ‘unnatural’ state. On the other hand, the male hygiene advertisements all stressed that the man’s body was perfect and ‘naturally’ great smelling. The hygiene product was there only to ENHANCE the natural attributes that the man possesses. TAG body spray is the overdone version of this typical kind of men’s hygiene product advertising. I guess bottom line, it’s f*’d up that the message to women about our bodies is that we’re not acceptable or natural as we are. These hygiene products are deemed necessary for women, but NOT for men according to the media. Men’s bodies can only be ENHANCED with hygiene products. What does this tell us from a young age: Women = unnatural, smelly, dirty bodies; Men = natural, healthy normal bodies.
In The Vagina Monologues, Eve Ensler talks about the fact that women are taught from an early age to NEVER talk about our vaginas. Consequently, this implies that our vaginas’ activities like menstruation should similarly never be spoken about. Why is it that we can’t TALK about our periods (other than in hushed conversation with a girlfriend)? My first memory of menstruation was at age fourteen waiting in my parents car while my stepmom went inside the store to get me some pads. She returns to the car and hands me her purchase. With a hushed voice she instructs me to be discrete about my period so no one ever KNOWS when I’m having it. She instructed me to wrap my pads in kleenex and hide them in the trash as if they never existed.
It was as if I was hiding a shameful terrible secret no one was ever to find out about, unless they followed my trail of unbiodegradable ‘discretely’ wrapped pads. The underlying message is that women are supposed to pretend that we don’t go through a natural process because it’s thought to be deemed ‘unnatural’ by various corporations and their media ads suggesting that we ought to ‘CLEAN IT UP’ with their various line of douches, sanitary wipes, pads with bleach and other harsh chemicals. Did the pioneer women have pads that came with freshening wipes? WTF?
