Roughly 1 year ago a friend recommended to me that i read the book Cunt: A Declaration of Independence. I took her advice and proceeded to receive the feminine education of a lifetime. This lovely, lovely book brought to my attention the concept of environmentally conscious replacements for the standard pad and tampon; an idea that had not once crossed my mind in my experience as a menstruating girl/young woman.
Upon first hearing about menstrual cups and washable menstrual pads, I found the idea interesting – but maybe not for me. A year later I picked up an issue of Bitch Magazine and – flipping through the glossy pages – found an ad for Lunapads. Here again was this idea of washable menstrual pads. I opened my laptop, typed in the URL, and was greeted by a fantastic and informational website made for women, by women. Never before had I been so excited about my own period! I decided I would give it a try. If I didn’t like the products then at least i would be supporting a really awesome company, and if I did – well, then I would be able to save hundreds of dollars over the years AND help the environment, too.
Happy Holidays from all of us at Lunapads! As part of the festive winter season, we would like to focus on Pads4Girls, about which we happen to have two very special announcements.
We are so proud of our beautiful new video. In partnership with our generous customers, individuals and NGOs, Pads4Girls continues to make a difference by helping girls in developing nations stay in school. Please share it with your friends!
December 6th is a painful day for any Canadian old enough to remember the horrific events that took place 21 years ago on this date. The murder of 14 women at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique (an additional 14 men and women were also shot, but survived) by a lone gunman shocked and devastated the nation, and engendered a disturbing debate about the state of violence against women overall.
Whether one looks back on the incident as the work of a random lunatic or as an extreme point on a continuum of violence against women that continues to permeate our culture, to me the point is to honor the memory of these innocent young women whose lives were so tragically cut short. Please take a moment to read their names, and consider that we have not only lost them as sisters, daughters, friends, and partners, but in the case of the 12 who were engineering students, as women who bravely sought to create their careers in a traditionally male-dominated profession.
My daughter turned 1 year old on a sunny Saturday this August and we threw her a backyard party. Our closest friends came with a great group of children. We danced, laughed, ate delicious food — all while making a difference in the lives of a few girls.
We purchased 10 Pads4Girls Kits through Lunapads. Rather than give traditional loot bags at her birthday party, we donated these meaningful kits. All the children and their families were told that they donated pads for girls in less privileged communities in the world. These girls would likely miss school without such necessities. Imagine giving a washable, reusable pad to a girl that has never had such a “luxury!”
Our family hopes to set a trend for parents and children alike. Rather than spend $100 on simple things that often get trashed, why not make a young woman smile across the globe.
We chose Pads4Girls because one day our little one will grow to be a young woman herself. The pads she will be introduced to by her mama will be washable. We will tell her as she grows that she helped other young girls achieve their goals and feel good about themselves.
The Girls Rock Camp Alliance is a volunteer-run, non-profit organization where girls 8 to 18 can learn an instrument, form a band, write music, and rock out with other girls. If that’s not awesome enough for you, it’s also a place where girls attend self defense, body image, zine making, screen printing, and other self-esteem building workshops led by female mentors.
The very first ever Rock n’ Roll Camp for Girls took place in Portland in 2001 — since then, camps have sprung up all over the world, and now more than 700 girls are mentored every year. This year, we’re sending gift certificates and Teen Booklets to the Girls Rock Camp Vancouver campers, and gift packs for the volunteers and organizers, too.
My own experience of being so profoundly influenced by the riot grrrl movement as a teenager makes it easy for me to wax poetic about how heartening and inspiring this all is.. but I’ll let the girls speak for themselves:
I’m guessing that most of you will by now have seen one of the videos by the U by Kotex marketing campaign, in particular the widely circulated “Apology” video and television commercial, in which a young woman delivers a hilarious deadpan skewering of feminine hygiene advertising clichés.
I’ll be upfront in admitting my initial shock and mildly jealous irritation at seeing what has essentially been our message for the past 10+ years being trumpeted by a disposables manufacturer. Realizing that widely broadcasting these kinds of messages to the mainstream is simply not within our financial means, I was consoled by the fact that at least somebody is doing it.
I had decided not to give the campaign more airtime than it was already getting until I happened to view the TV ad for the Australian version of U by Kotex – “Platinum”. The ad, in which a young woman (whose hair is “great”, an attribute mocked in “So Obnoxious”, another of the video series) breathlessly sighs “Only U can take me there”, is completely absurd and falls squarely within the tradition that the other videos nominally seek to confound. The ad is so bad, in fact, that it made The Frisky’s “12 Stupidest Menstrual Advertisements, Period” list. If Kotex is genuinely sincere about presenting “a whole new attitude in protection”, why create a different message for Australian women? Is it because Australian women are still falling for the same old message, or is this an attempt to play multiple sides of the field: those who can still only deal with blue liquid and leaping around in white spandex, and those who are ready to call a spade a spade?
I feel certain that the American campaign’s message was drawn straight from some pricey market research that told them that young women were (surprise!) pretty ok with talking about their periods and vaginal health, enjoy humorous online videos and are of the view that old school menstrual marketing clichés are kind of dumb and over. While it would be nice to think that Kotex is sincere about wanting to “Break the Cycle” (U’s social media campaign dedicated to eroding the decades of shame its own marketing has heaped upon women and girls), their mixed message to Australian women tells me that it’s more a clever move driven by the research speculated about earlier. What really gets me is that despite this new marketing campaign, the products haven’t changed, (unless you count sleek black boxes and brightly colored wrappers as meaningful innovation, which I don’t so much) – still the same, bleached disposable junk heading to a landfill near you.
Last but not least, a little sleuthing at Drugstore.com reveals that those bold, cycle-breaking neon colored wrappers are pretty pricey – while OB and Tampax are $0.19 and $0.18 each, U by Kotex are a whopping $0.30 apiece. I guess progress (or rather, fancy packaging and expensive marketing campaigns) has its price.
It’s not very often that a book dedicated to the subject of menstruation gets published. So when I heard about the impending release of FLOW; the cultural story of menstruation back in November, I was pretty excited to get my hands on a copy.
At first glance, FLOW is quite the aesthetically pleasing little book, filled with images of vintage pad and tampon adverts and other “feminine health products” dating as far back as the late 1800s. Due to its visually compelling nature, FLOW would make the ideal coffee table book. And hey, aside from rinsing your menstrual cup in a public washroom, what better way to get the conversation about menstruation flowing (couldn’t resist!) than to nonchalantly leave a book about its history lying about the house?
Few healthy bodily processes have had such an effed-up history as menstruation and this book covers a broad range of topics from the archaic “disease” Hysteria and the origins of the vibrator, to the medicalization of periods and the recent introduction of Menstrual Suppression drugs. I often hear women linking the origins of our collective shame surrounding menstruation to fem-care advertisers and the negative language used to hock their products. FLOW digs deeper into the sources of the menstrual taboo weaving a history that is biblical, medical, pre-historical, cultural, spiritual and political in scope. It’s pretty engaging if you aren’t already aware of the history of menstruation and even if you are, there are sure to be some surprising tidbits that leave you quietly scooping your jaw up off the floor.
I feel a bit conflicted about this post, as I am typically a huge fan of women-owned businesses. So what happens when the businesses in question are marketing products that I don’t feel are necessarily in women’s best interests? Let’s talk!
The products in question are basically cosmetics for your vulva – one to make your parts “clean, pure, soft and fresh” with the help of a 4-step collection of soap, lotion, spray and wipes, and the other to lighten the color of the labia. Leaving questions around the safety and rationale for these products aside for the moment, what’s particularly troubling about these new takes on what the marketers of Lysol and Massengil have schilled in the past is that they have adopted (some might say co-opted) the language of empowerment and enlightenment in order to do so, presenting the case for vulval “freshening up” as a bold act of savvy self-love.
While the cheeky brand name “I Love My Muff” on its own is eerily reminiscent of a Lunapads standby: “I (heart) my period”, who can argue with its wisdom? Ideally women “love” (or are at least at peace with) our muffs, but do we need these products in order to get there? Of course not, and yet ILMM’s copy tells us that “informed” (if only I knew the “truth” about feminine hygiene!) “modern” women are literally clamoring to make this “savvy and empowered” choice. And how’s this for courageously breaking the taboos that have kept the topic of “feminine care” locked away in the closet? “It’s no longer taboo and with it’s (sic) clean packaging and bold message these products are a statement of confidence and a must have for every woman.”
We are delighted to announce our deepened partnership with two amazing organizations (Shanti Uganda, Imagine1Day) who are doing groundbreaking work for girls and birthing women in Africa, and have an exciting update about another organization (Afripads) inspired by Lunapads.
Shanti Uganda
Last month, Madeleine represented Lunapads at the Shanti Uganda art auction fundraising dinner event which raised over $15,000 in support of the construction of a birth clinic, as well as supplies for birthing women. The image below is of Ugandan Midwives with donated Lunapads that will be included in the birth kits.
We have had such a 
We purchased 10 
It’s not very often that a book dedicated to the subject of menstruation gets published. So when I heard about the impending release of 
