So! Libra is a company that sells tampons and other feminine hygiene products in the Australasian region (they operate internationally under the name “Libresse”). They’ve rung in the New Year with a controversial new ad.
The ad, entitled “Tampons Drag It”, features two ladies engaged in some femmer-than-thou competition in front of a bathroom mirror, ending abruptly when one (presumably female-assigned-at-birth) lady brandishes a tampon like some sort of holy symbol, and the other (presumably male-assigned-at-birth) lady rolls her eyes and stalks off.
This isn’t the first time a tampon ad has set up drag queens as chumps ‘cuz they don’t menstruate; this one supposedly commissioned (but rejected) by Always went viral last August. Both also seem to confuse and conflate drag queens with trans women, some of whom do in fact wish they had functioning female reproductive parts (although more for the sake of bearing their own kids than having to avoid wearing white trousers one week out of every month), whereas drag queens would probably only want to do what Pandora Boxx would.
This most recent ad by Libra does a double-backhand slap of portraying female-identified women as appearance-obsessed and competitive, only to imply in the end that it’s the girls who can bleed for seven days and not die that are the “real” girls. The Wellington Young Feminist Collective and other Australia/New Zealand-based blogs have been pummelling Libra’s Facebook Wall with threats to boycott and demands for an apology until they retract this ad (which for the record, has run at least thrice on TV while I’ve typed this).
If Libra knows what’s good for them, they’ll do as HELL Pizza did last month and back off this unnecessarily divisive and thoughtlessly demeaning attempt to drum up business. Not just so I can order pizza and use tampons in good conscience, but so my trans girlfriends can stop being blindsided over and over by this sort of crap.
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Comments
Man I wrote this hastily—”female-identified women” was meant to read “female-identified people” or “feminine women”, as a way of distinguishing gender presentation from biological sex, but I kind of ran them together. This ad just ruins everything!
why would you want to celebrate having a period..why…how many women enjoy having their period every month, TELL ME.
having a period every month was what I LOATHED the most about having lady parts, it got to the point where I had to get on the pill because it was becoming a real problem for me health wise.
but yeah, giving out the message that you are only a real woman if you bleed out your vag is pretty stupid and in poor taste.
There are also many female-assigned-at-birth women who don’t menstruate. I’m 35 and had to have my ovaries removed last year due to complications with ovarian cysts. Even though I told my Dr. that I have no intention of having children via invitro fertilization, he still recommended I take hormones that would cause me to have a regular period. His reasoning was, and I quote, “Having a cycle will make you feel like you’re still a woman” Seriously. People really do believe women don’t feel like women if they don’t have periods. I was like, no thanks, having hellatious periods since I was 10 did not make me feel more like a woman.
And how insensitive is this ad for breast cancer survivors that have had mastectomies? I’m not trying to equate this to the experiences of trans women, but just pointing out that many women aren’t perfect biological specimens but we’re all still women.
https://twitter.com/#!/buckangel
Exactly, to everything said! Additionally, a trans woman on Twitter was pointing out that post-dilation for her bottom surgery, she’d need sanitary napkins to catch the blood, hello? Guess who she’s NOT buying from?
Also, some trans men still use tampons and napkins, but surely don’t identify as women. Buck Angel in fact got wind of this story and said on Twitter that he’s emailed Libra about it. Ruh roh! Looks like they should have thought twice!
https://www.facebook.com/Libra/posts/320487091307231
Libra has kinda sorta apologized and has the ad “under review”. Feh. Glad I mostly use a Diva Cup, and Tampax when I have to.