The Tampon Incident: UPDATE

After writing that post about being encouraged to carry my used tampons in my purse, I received a lot of feedback!

It seems the person quoted in that last post is very much alone in her ways and that none of my female friends have ever been asked to do that, native Japanese or foreigners living in Japan. THANK GOODNESS.

Thinking about all the comments I got (on Twitter, Facebook, here), I don't know if she was lying to try to convince me to change my behavior because she is uncomfortable with it or if she genuinely practices what she preaches and she's got some kind of bloody mess in her bag. I'm not okay with either situation.

I didn't mention it in the other post, but she came to a "compromise" for us: if I want to throw away my applicators at work, I have to use these little black plastic bags that exist for the sole purpose of throwing away feminine products. Our normal garbage bags are big clear plastic bags and to have a bunch of little black bags in the big clear one is stupid. Everyone knows what's in them and they only serve as another level of shaming. As I said before, you can look at a tampon wrapper in a garbage bag and be an adult about it. Menstruation happens, it's a fact of life for most of us womenfolk. Get over it.

[I'd also like to go on a small tangent about how shops use similar black plastic bags when you buy pads or tampons. The only other products they use them for are condoms, which I can understand a little bit more since it's a sex product. But if I see a girl carrying around a bright yellow Don Quixote bag and there's a black plastic bag in there, EVERYONE KNOWS WHAT IT IS. The employees at the register always take forever to wrap those things because they're supposed to use the black bags, and everyone in line knows what you're buying since it's taking so long to bag. They do this in America as well, but most of the time they use a brown paper bag inside a plastic bag. It's not quite as obvious since they bag heavier items that way, too.]

The other situation would be that she actually does this herself. That someone probably told her, in her youth after her menarche, that all women should do this and if you don't you're stupid/awful/not a woman/etc. I'm less inclined to believe this situation, but I have no way to judge. I'd be more sympathetic and less angry if this were the case.

I will now go back to posting fun things for a little while, as I rediscovered some photos from weeks past and will be having more happy adventures soon. YAY.