"Survivor" Feminine Hygiene

[Chanteuse]

@Johnny L.A.

Tampax. The official tampon of Survivor.

Now there’s a commercial plug.

And a plug commercial.
d&r

[singular1]

I seem to recall someone on the first Survivor used a tampon for fire somehow. Sorry, no cite, just remember it from an interview. I’m sure they changed up a lot of rules after seeing how creative people could be when left to their own devices.

[Mahaloth]

I think the women are also given razors to shave their legs/armpits so as to maintain their “beauty”.

Isn’t that right as well?

[PunditLisa]

@Mahaloth

I think the women are also given razors to shave their legs/armpits so as to maintain their “beauty”.

Isn’t that right as well?

Nope. There have been a few women who’ve had visible pit hair. (Stephenie?) I believe that the reason we don’t see more of it is that the women contestants have gotten wiser and have gone in for a good waxing prior to the show.

[Gfactor]

@Quiddity Glomfuster

Before the days of manufacured products, women used cloths that they washed out.
I’ve seen suggestions that sea sponges and sphagnum moss can be/have been used but nothing definitive about that.
Here’s some other possibilities.

Women have crafted tampons and pads for their own use for thousands of years. In her book Everything You Must Know About Tampons (1981), Nancy Friedman says:

[T]here is evidence of tampon use throughout history in a multitude of cultures. The oldest printed medical document, papyrus ebers, refers to the use of soft papyrus tampons by Egyptian women in the fifteenth century B.C. Roman women used wool tampons. Women in ancient Japan fashioned tampons out of paper, held them in place with a bandage, and changed them 10 to 12 times a day. Traditional Hawaiian women used the furry part of a native fern called hapu’u; and grasses, mosses and other plants are still used by women in parts of Asia and Africa.

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mtampons.html

OTOH

@Green Bean

Those women weren’t expected to perform remarkable feats of athleticism clad in string bikinis.

This seems to go to the heart of the matter, so to speak.

OTOOH, after the first week or so of starvation, it’s probably not much of an issue.

Some of the causes of primary amenorrhea can also cause secondary amenorrhea – strenuous physical activity, excessive weight loss

https://www.healthatoz.com/healthatoz/Atoz/common/standard/transform.jsp?requestURI=/healthatoz/Atoz/ency/amenorrhea.jsp

OTOOOH, some of the women are menstruating when they arrive.

As the site indicates, the unintended use rule was developed after the Survivors unrolled tampons and used them for toilet paper.

[Gfactor]

@Leaffan

Do they show anyone taking a dump? Urinating? OK, maybe they do, I don’t know because I don’t watch them.

They did more of this in the earlier seasons. They also show puking (especially after someone wins a decadent feast). Once a contestant brought razors as his comfort item. The camera followed him to the spot where he had buried them so we could all watch him shave his chest.

[Leaffan]

@CaerieD

… If pressed, I could probably come up with a list of fifty ways of using tampons …

You just slip out the back, Jack
Make a new plan, Stan
You don’t need to be coy, Roy
Just get yourself free…

There must be 50 ways to use a tampon… la la la…