Reply #300: Nobody is forcing the choice on you.

[noamnety]

It's an informative OP. You should be happy that other women are given a broad range of alternatives, and in a rare instance are getting some education about that. You are probably glad you have a range of choices, even if you only selected one of them, right? So the OP was about giving other women a full range of choices, since the powers that be often restrict information about the noncorporate choices. The cottage industries, they don't have the money for advertising, so it's on us to make word of mouth advertising a reality. When I saw "the film" in school, they mentioned disposable pads and disposable tampons, end of story.

I don't understand why people felt it was necessary to respond with extreme rudeness to the OP. I don't understand why men no less, who don't even have a dog in this fight, felt it was necessary to come into this thread to tell women how they should or shouldn't take care of their own hygiene, or why a man would barge into the discussion specifically to say "menstrual blood is gross."

I don't know why anyone would respond to an OP that is educational just to say "the choices you picked are disgusting." I don't get the point of that. I mean I don't like pads at all for some of the same reasons others mentioned, but when I come across women who use them discussing them, I don't barge into the conversation merely to make a point of telling them I think they are disgusting for having made that choice. I don't understand why people have arrived here to say "this is the stupidest/incompetent/inane choice you could have made."

It's obvious nobody is limiting your choices, they are expanding them. I don't know why some people are acting like they wish the thread didn't exist, or like women shouldn't have access to these choices.

This isn't much different to me than a group of women having a discussion about home child birth, and having someone who's only had a c-section barge into the conversation to start yapping about how gross placentas are, and how it's gross to let your partner watch that come out of your body, and gross not to do it in a sterile environment on a stainless steel table. And I'm saying that as a c-section person who was not down with the whole birth-is-a-gift-from-god thing. I wouldn't want to do it at home - I actually prefer to be knocked out for the full 9 months and wake up when it's over. But I wouldn't walk into a room of home birthers and go "Grosssss (GAG) That's the ickiest thing ever, you all shouldn't even be discussing this." I would deserve a huge smack down, and not a very polite one, if that's how I acted.

They are making a more natural choice, I support them in that, and I'd encourage others to consider it, even if it's not a choice I would personally make. It's a choice with a lot of benefits, all women should be aware it's a choice, and they should be allowed to make that decision for themselves without the peer pressure of society (us) trying to bash it into their heads that more traditional and natural choices are taboo, and disposable corporate products are more "civilized." (Just like we're taught giving birth on a stainless steel table is more "civilized.")

Me, for instance, unless there's a medical reason I can't use something internal (like just having an IUD inserted) I wouldn't use pads except as a backup system, just because sometimes I'm trapped in a classroom for hours and hours without a bathroom break. So generally they sit there, no blood gets on them, and then I throw them away. They aren't any cleaner or dirtier than my underwear would be. So doesn't it make sense to just use washable absorbent fabric in that case? I can't figure out why it's insane to share a pattern for that, or why people are so angry that some other women might make that decision for themselves.

Nobody is forcing you to do anything, they are talking about ADDITIONAL options, so your anger is misplaced. The only reason I can see for you to be angry is that we aren't allowing you (or other women or men) an unopposed voice here for promoting the idea that opting for reusable environmentally-friendly choices makes women disgusting unclean humans, or for trying to convince others who are more matter of fact about blood that they should be more repulsed by it.