Ewwwww, girl blood, gross, get it offa me!!!

[serene]

Seriously? Grown men still think it's hilariously, cringeingly embarrassing to buy tampons??

(My comment, which may be removed -- I don't see much but "Har, har, you're totally right, it's embarrassing!" responses there:

It’s a health product, like band-aids. Only people who think menstruation is some kind of icky gross thing (aren’t those only fourteen-year-old boys?) should make a big deal about buying them for someone they love. I don’t fuss if I have to buy band-aids or jock-itch cream or an enema for my partner — their health is more important to me than some prurient “ewww” reaction that I outgrew in the fourth grade.

(As to why there are so many absorbencies, it’s to prevent toxic shock syndrome (TSS), which, though relatively rare, is fatal. Fatal is bad. Much worse than someone thinking you might be partnered with someone who — EWW! — menstruates.)

My partner says this when we occasionally have to deal with menstrual issues (say, blood on the sheets because of a surprise onset): “Well, I could solve that by not sleeping with women. I like sleeping with women, so I guess I just accept that a little blood is part of the package.”

)

Comments

[onyxlynx]

Some men fail to be rational.

(Come to think of it, if we put it about that buying tampons for women [if one is not a woman oneself] es muy macho, soon a). all those insecure dudes will be buying them for every woman in sight and b). Republicans will claim tampons are patriotic.)

[maize]

Yeah, I don't see the hilarity either.

I've bought tampons before. Not often, because I haven't been asked to buy them often, but when I've been asked I have. The experience was pretty much exactly like buying any other product, with surprisingly little added hilarity.

I *will* say that the number of varieties are daunting, but provided with the name and/or description of the exact one I'm to buy, there's no particular issue. I'm also at a loss as to why having a cell conversation about it while standing in the aisle would be so awful. Is it that different from calling up to ask if the other person needed crunchy or smooth peanut butter?

[serene]

Okay, I did not need the image of crunchy or smooth tampons. ;-)

[maize]

I'm surprised by how many of the, "OMFG HILARIOUS!!" comments are from women.

This comment (also from a woman) really surprised me, though: "What’s as bad as having to buy tampons for your wife? Getting to the checkout counter, and it’s a guy (you had no choice) and you put the K-Y jelly on the counter. And you do NOT look at the guy. Ever. Ever again. We all have to suffer a little to show love to our partner…"

Really? I mean, I recognize that buying sexual products was embarrassing for most people *AT SOME POINT*, but I thought most people got over it eventually. Mortifying enough that you never want to ever see the person again ever?

Then again, I've also once checked out with just a bottle of lube, a pack of C batteries and some Polaroid film, and our society doesn't have the same hangups about the idea of men being openly sexual, so my perspective on that may be all wrong.

[maize]

I used the same analogy on his blog, so hopefully he'll be terrorized by the mental image also. ;)

[snippy]

I don't really get the embarrassment factor. I mean, it's no secret that I'm a woman, and a logical corollary of that is that I have a menstrual cycle and flow (that is, so long as I'm not clearly post-menopausal).

I posted that buying tampons for your partner, like holding her purse, just means you're getting laid. That's nothing to be ashamed of.

I know my attitude was different (more anxious) before I had kids, but having every random intern "check my dilation" and then deal with the nurses and stitches and hemorrhoids and baby diapers and...I just got over it at some point.

[firecat]

I posted that buying tampons for your partner, like holding her purse, just means you're getting laid.

That's what I would have said.