Newsflash: This is a Problem. Period.

Link to Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/16/business/media/16adco.html

Link to Kotex Commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpypeLL1dAs

For most people, even the simple words ‘period’ or ‘menstruation’ are causes for cringing. For something that is so natural, there is a distinctly unnatural reaction that comes along with any mention or discussing pertaining to the topic—even females’ responses to the subject are reduced to giggles and uncomfortable groans. But why is this? And what role, if any, does the media play in perpetuating this idea? Only this past week, a new ad campaign for Kotex, a feminine care brand, has been seen on various television stations. The commercials in the campaign poke fun at the unrealistic clichés and often times uncorrelated images that have been portrayed in feminine care campaigns, using the tagline, “Why are tampon ads so ridiculous?” In this article, “Rebelling Against the Commonly Evasive Feminine Care Ad” from The New York Times, Andrew Adam Newman looks at this new ad campaign and recognizes the deeper problem that Kotex is now—albeit, jokingly—revealing. Why are feminine product ads so vague? Though it may seem like nothing, this advertising trend is actually playing a role in continuing the societal idea that women’s natural body functions are something inappropriate and gross that should be glazed over and properly hidden.

The commercial opens with a women saying, “How do I feel about my period? I love it.” She talks about how she enjoys frolicking on the beach and dancing and adds, “The ads on TV are really helpful because they use that blue liquid, and I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s what’s supposed to happen.’ ” The irony and obvious humor of the commercial is enough to entertain audiences, but it got Newman and many others to thinking—why is this the first frank admission about the silliness of tampon ads? And how can this admission change things? Kotex is not just poking fun at other brands; they are poking fun at themselves, too. Previous ads of theirs have featured these happy women running on the beach and dancing around, never directly mentioning or showing anything with any menstruation authenticity. As Elissa Stein, co-author of the book Flow: The Cultural Story of Menstruation says, “Fem-care advertising is so sterilized and so removed from what a period is. You never see a bathroom, you never see a woman using a product. They never show someone having cramps or her face breaking out or tearful—it’s always happy, playful, sporty women” (Newman 1). But why aren’t these things shown? Newman reveals that censorship has a lot to do with it, as “that approach turns out to be a bit too frank for some networks” (Newman 1). Many television companies feel it is necessary to censor and will refuse to run blatant and direct feminine product advertisements. Kotex’s ads originally included words like “vagina” which was then turned into “down there,” both of which were rejected by television companies. Merrie Harris, global business director for the company that is responsible for these Kotex ads, puts it best when she says, “The whole category has been very euphemistic, or paternalistic even, and we’re saying, enough with the euphemisms, and get over it. Tampon is not a dirty word, and neither is vagina” (Newman 1). Kotex is trying to defy the stigmas that have been associated with women’s health and body issues. They are not “dirty” or wrong, but society is demanding that they be censored as if they were. Though they are relying on humor to make a subtle point to this, Kotex has done this deliberately and is “vowing to defy societal pressures that discourage women from speaking out about their bodies and health” (Newman 1). It’s a small step in the right direction, but someone had to make it so that later steps could follow.

After seeing these Kotex ads myself and reading through Newman’s article, I think that this issue relates greatly to what we’ve been discussing in class. The idea that women’s bodies and functions are somehow wrong and dirty is an issue, and whether or not they have meant to do this, feminine product ads have been perpetuating that idea. Much of it has to do with this “elusiveness” that Newman points out. No one will speak about periods or menstruation or feminine products, so the silence makes it seem like it’s something to be ashamed of. Anne Fausto-Sterling acknowledges this in her article, “Hormonal Hurricanes: Menstruation, Menopause, & Female Behavior.” She says that menstruation is perceived as this “dark shadow” that is “cast…on women’s lives” (Fauto-Sterling 93), but the problem is that these female body functions are not understood! People—women and girls—are not told enough to know that what they are being taught indirectly by society’s silence is wrong. Getting your period shouldn’t be something that a female is ashamed of, but that’s the result of this silence. However, now that the silence is trying to be broken in some way, the efforts are being rebuffed. If Kotex commercials can’t say something as simple and frank as “vagina” or even the ambiguous “down there,” how can progress ever be made? It seems ludicrous to me that something like that could be censored, when so much on television is blatantly sexual and crude without any ramifications. This is not Ariel Levy’s raunch culture, this is a woman, her body, and its functions—there should be nothing dirty or scandalous about it. However, that’s not what society is advocating. They are turning menstruation into something that needs to be turned into a series of images of happy women in order to be made “decent.” And while yes, Fuasto-Sterling says, things like PMS and bloating and cramps happen, but they should not define these female functions and they shouldn’t cause menstruation to become something horrible. Another problem is that there is an inadequate amount of information and research sought for these things, which make them even more ambiguous and unspoken about. Until the judgments and censorship concerning women and their bodies is broken, how can anyone expect a female’s body image to be healthy? The truth is, I don’t think they can.

Kotex’s frank and humorous ads may seem like a frivolous jest, but they are actually a representation of an important issue concerning women’s health. When the product used to help women can’t even be explained or directly discussed, menstruation itself is never going to become a comfortable topic. The giggles and groans and cringes will continue until someone steps up and asks why they’re necessary. Kotex may only be calling out their own and their fellow competitors advertising follies, but their frankness could go a long way. Women’s health is not a small issue, so it shouldn’t be made into one with ignorance and shame.