# Feminine hygene products - package design
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feminine-hygene-products-package-design/238650
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [April 7, 2004, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feminine-hygene-products-package-design/238650 "2004-04-07T00:03:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2004, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feminine-hygene-products-package-design/238650/61 "2004-04-09T12:12:38Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#):
>
> Tut-tut to anybody who flushes tampons. They don’t disolve (they’d not work very well if they did!) - they have to be filtered out at the sewage works. And come on, compared to toilet cleaners, those guys _really_ have a bad enough job without it being made any worse.
I apologise for the 20 plus years of tampon flushing. It’s a manual filtering job? eeekkkkkkkkkkk. I really didn’t know. We just always flush 'em.
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### Author:  [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2004, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feminine-hygene-products-package-design/238650/62 "2004-04-09T14:57:48Z")
Speaking of packaging, is it just me or did Kotex start using some kind of industrial strength adhesive for the pouches that pads come in? Used to be I could just open one like an envelope, but now any attempts to do so are just met with mangled plastic and I’ve resigned myself to just opening them from the end, which makes them much more difficult to reuse for disposal. Anyone else notice this?
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### Author:  [@ReverseCowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReverseCowgirl)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2004, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feminine-hygene-products-package-design/238650/63 "2004-04-09T22:54:57Z")
> [@TVeblen](#):
>
> It was an interesting–and germane–article, **ReverseCowgirl** , but reprinting the entire thing edges over into a violation of Fair Use.
> If you would provide a link to it that would be fine.
>
> TVeblen,
> IMHO mod
Oops. Sorry. I guess I was not thinking. Though I could not find a link to the article. I had to e-mail the editor of Haaretz and ask for a copy of the article. Still, I had no business pasting the whole thing into a thread.
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### Author:  [@ReverseCowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReverseCowgirl)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2004, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feminine-hygene-products-package-design/238650/64 "2004-05-13T14:27:08Z")
> [@ReverseCowgirl](#):
>
> Oops. Sorry. I guess I was not thinking. Though I could not find a link to the article. I had to e-mail the editor of Haaretz and ask for a copy of the article. Still, I had no business pasting the whole thing into a thread.
Somebody is responding to the OP’s concern, [at least in California](http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/8638400.htm?1c).
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### Author:  [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2004, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feminine-hygene-products-package-design/238650/65 "2004-05-13T15:18:04Z")
I was (pleasantly) astonished a while ago to see a pad commercial that actually used the colour red, and the word “period.” In fact, not only did they use the word “period,” but the theme of the commercial was this little bouncing red dot (“period,” get it?) that dissolved into the pad instead of the usual “yes, menstrual blood is actually blue” liquid.
**Lissa** : my dad finally tumbled to the trash-can thing after a houseguest, having no other way to deal with the problem in the downstairs bathroom, flushed it and backed the toilet up.
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### Author:  [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2004, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feminine-hygene-products-package-design/238650/66 "2004-05-13T15:54:13Z")
> [@precipitate](#):
>
> But lots of women are still under the impression that menstruation is somehow shameful. A group of (relatively socially progressive) people I spend a lot of time with recently had a discussion about how rude it was not to wrap used femprod in copious amounts of toilet paper before disposing of it, so as to prevent anyone else from getting the merest glimpse of blood.
At one point in time, I can remember being able to get little wax paper bags from a little dispenser next to the menstrual products machine in public bathrooms that were essentially like the wax paper bags or glassine bags you get egg rolls in. I always thought that was a neat idea. I carry the small ‘snack’ sized generic ‘ziploc’ type baggies to containerize my used product in…although maintenance personnel currently wear latex glove when cleaning the bathrooms, it is my personal go at lessening any possible contamination from any health problem I might possibly have that could be fluid transmitted. And yes, I wrap it in a couple layers of paper first=)
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### Author:  [@alimarx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alimarx)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2004, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feminine-hygene-products-package-design/238650/67 "2004-05-13T18:25:57Z")
> [@RindaRinda](#):
>
> I have granola tendencies, so I try to minimize the stuff I need to throw away.
[http://www.mooncup.co.uk/](http://www.mooncup.co.uk/)
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### Author:  [@jellyblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jellyblue)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2004, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feminine-hygene-products-package-design/238650/68 "2004-05-13T19:43:48Z")
> [@alimarx](#):
>
> [http://www.mooncup.co.uk/](http://www.mooncup.co.uk/)
:eek: ohmigoddess, that thing is horrifying. I almost hit the deck imagining trying to cramming that thing up there when I’m all crampy & miserable. I gonna go ahead and sacrifice the tree, or whatever, thanks very much…
(can you tell I haven’t given birth? 🙂 )
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### Author:  [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2004, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feminine-hygene-products-package-design/238650/69 "2004-05-13T20:01:22Z")
> [@alimarx](#):
>
> [http://www.mooncup.co.uk/](http://www.mooncup.co.uk/)
> [@](#):
>
> From the site:
>
> The Mooncup can be cleaned in the same way as baby equipment: with sterilising fluid, by boiling or by popping it in the dishwasher!
Popping it… in the dishwasher??? Sorry, some things should just be kept separate. Forever.
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### Author:  [@Audrey\_Levins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Audrey_Levins)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2004, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feminine-hygene-products-package-design/238650/70 "2004-05-14T11:40:08Z")
I have trained Mr. Levins over the years; he knows that Tampax boxes are mostly blue, and that they have colored “stripes” on the front to differentiate between absorbencies.
So now I tell him, “I need the yellow stripe, babe!” Or “I need green!”
I’ve always said that men should be proud to buy 'em; walking around with a box of Tampax means you’re getting laid.
Because any man who wasn’t getting laid would never freakin’ do it. I’ve never even asked any other man to buy me tampons; if you ladies have brothers who would do it, I’d like to meet 'em. And when I was still young enough to be living at home, I’d have died before I’d have even asked the men in my family to do it. (Of course, these days I have no shame; I was in my late teens before I thought of a period as anything but a horrible, embarrassing week’s worth of shame, but now I couldn’t give a rat’s ass.)
Sub-hijack–am I the only girl who, as a teenager/young adult, used to buy other stuff when I only needed tampons, just to avoid doing the Walk Of Shame to the register with just a box of Tampax? Like, “Yeah, I’m the girl who’s bleeding like a stuck pig, and all I need right now is a plug?” I’d camouflage the box under some other stuff, like “Hi, I’m just thinking ahead, no biggie, but that’s not really why I’m here.” God forbid I needed Advil, too. Then it was, “I’m bleeding like a madwoman and my uterus is continually contracting, too. I just thought EVERYONE should know.” And then I’d only ever go to a female checker; I was in hell if they only had male checkers.
Again, I’m over it now, but am I the only one for whom this was an issue?
I do agree though that the boxes could be more thoughtfully packaged…and the commercials could be less goofy and Victorian. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a big deal (for guys and girls alike) if we were all a bit more honest and real about it. But since it’s so “whispered” and hinted at and shit, it’s natural to assume that it’s filthy and women should be ashamed of it.
Having said that (since I’m in a chatty mood) I’ve always wrapped any tampon/pad waste before disposing of it in the trashcan. It’s just common politeness; I’m a girl who bleeds and I still don’t want to see some other woman’s bloody tampon/pad, anymore than I want to see crap-covered toilet or an unflushed toilet.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2004, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feminine-hygene-products-package-design/238650/71 "2004-05-14T12:13:33Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Sub-hijack–am I the only girl who, as a teenager/young adult, used to buy other stuff when I only needed tampons, just to avoid doing the Walk Of Shame to the register with just a box of Tampax?
I was embarrassed as a young teenager, until I realized the best way to fight the shame was to overcompensate in the other direction. You buy the biggest box you can find, plus some big ole maxi pads, then shuffle from one foot to the other as you stand in line, snarling at anyone who looks at you. I am woman!
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