Couldn’t have said it better myself. As Eve Ensler said in The Vagina Monologues:
“It’s a vagina, it’s supposed to smell like that.”
The new Tampax Fresh “scented” tampon is being marketed to teens.
http://theedge.bostonherald.com/teenNews/view.bg?articleid=95118 (article has been archived, and can only be viewed for a fee; the headline pretty much tells the story).
http://www.beinggirl.com/en_US/pages/articledetail.jsp?ContentId=ART711
As the father of a 13-year-old girl, I am annoyed.
My mother gave me this advice, feel free to give it to your daughter: “Seriously. If it smells like fish, you have waaaay bigger problems on your hand than a fresh smelling tampon can fix. If that is ever the case, get your ass to the doctor.”
Aw, mom 
Okay, boy with hygiene product questions here (and furthermore I’m gay, so I’m seriously clueless as to the anatomy of the girly region): Just a few months ago, a friend explained tampons and applicators to me - before that, I believed the whole contraption was shoved up in there and left their all day (and I’d always been sorta puzzled that you could comfortably fit that big cardboard doodad in there!) So my friend took a tampon out of its applicator, and it turns out a tampon is basically just a wad of cotton attached to a string. I think I have the basic idea of how to put an applicator tampon in - you just shove the cardboard tube in and then retract it, and it shoves the tampon itself into place. Right?
The question is how can you put one in without an applicator? It seems like it’d be quite hard to shove what (on casual inspection) appeared to basically just be a piece of cotton fluff into position without it falling apart. How precise do you have to be positioning it? I know OB is a brand of tampon - they don’t have applicators? How far up inside would you have to stick your hand, anyway? Are many women seriously that squicked by their own bodies? I’ve seen The Vagina Monologues, but I never knew that was the rule rather than the exception.
Guys’ natural fascination with our own bodies (and the, ahem, natural drive to ‘explore’ the naughty regions) is obviously not something women share.
Umm, gay guy here, too, but isn’t the “cardboard doodad” much smaller than the average penis?
Just, umm, wondering.
(I mean, my penis is bigger than the cardboard doodads I’ve seen, which aren’t many.)
Uh, do you generally keep a penis stuck inside you all day long, when you’re walking down the street and stuff? One episode of boy-on-girl intercourse averages like ten minutes, and I’m guessing when a woman’s upright with her legs together the vagina is much more constricted. A vagina, as I understand, isn’t all that big when it’s not in use. But the cardboard doodad is only to help insert the tampon anyway.
Right. It’s a plunger - hold the outer tube around its lowest part, with that barely outside the body, shove the inner tube so it pushes the tampon in, then pull both tubes out.
The tampons aren’t as fragile as a cotton ball or anything - or else you’d be getting cotton fluff stuck inside and that’d be unsanitary. They’re compressed fairly firmly into a cylindrical shape. To insert an OB tampon or any other no-applicator tampon, simply hold it between two fingers to “line it up” with the vaginal opening and begin insertion, then place your forefinger on the end and slide it in. Probably you wouldn’t get your finger any deeper than the first two knuckles, at most. Wipe any involved fingers off with toilet paper while in the stall, then wash well at the sink.
I suspect that yes, many women are that squicked out by their own bodies, especially while they’re bleeding. I know men love to explore theirs, but most are content to stick with the outside, easily-accessible parts. 
The cardboard applicators aren’t all that big, typically. And the manufacturers recommend you change tampons every 6 hours or so, to reduce the risk of toxic shock syndrome - plus some women need to change more often due to “filling up” the tampon faster than that.
Tampons are a pretty solid block of cotton. OB’s open up a little on one end to fit the tip of a finger. You would then push it in with a finger until you get it in the right spot.
I always used applicator tampons, it just seems more sanitary. I’m not icked out by my own body, but I still don’t want period blood all over my fingers.
And I think the Pearl tampons look like they’re worth trying out just for the fact that the string is extra absorbant. I’ve had regular tampon strings get messy.
Man, I am really glad I never have to worry about that again.
Tampons with applicators have a plunger. You shove the applicator into your vagina (until the base of it (not including the plunger) is about flush with the entrance. You push the plunger down which pushes the tampon out of the applicator and a bit further up. Then you remove the applicator and little strings dangle down from the tampon so you can pull to remove.
No-applicator tampons are a bit different. Here’s a picture of a tampon with applicator:
http://blogsimages.skynet.be/images/000/394/949_tampax.gif (yes, it’s a humor picture, but it does have the tampon in it)
An o.b. applicatorless tampon looks like this:
http://www.albatrosoutdoor.de/outdtips/pics/1210-01.jpg
o.b.s still have a (blue) string but it’s wound up at the bottom for easier packaging. In my experience, the no-applicator tampons are a lot firmer than the usual Tampax, Playtex, etc. You unwind the string at the base and use it to flare the base out a bit. Keeping the string free, you use your finger to shove the tampon into place and then wash your hands like normal.
It sounds harder but it really isn’t. If you look at an applicator, it’s about the length of your finger, and I’ve found I have more control over placement with o.b. tampons.
Good lord. You make it sound so violent.
Heh, I would say “gently insert.”
Just IME, everyone’s MMV, of course, but I’ve never gotten any period blood on my finger while using o.b.s. However, I don’t flow too heavily when I use them (I use the Insteads during the heavier days, and I don’t leave those things in for 12 hours - found out the hard way what happens when… shudder let’s never mind that for now). Everyone’s flow will be different, so experiences will be different.
Of course, I still wash my hands thoroughly after, but I do this regardless of what I’ve been up to in the bathroom.
I’ve never had any luck getting applicatorless tampons in, and it’s not that I’m squeamish about putting my fingers up there. They just won’t go in is all. I’m still upset that ob quit making them with applicators because those things were fabulous, but I can’t get the regular ones in.
I only need a couple a month anyway, pads do for the majority of the time, but still. Arrrgh.
The walls of a woman’s vagina rest together when it’s not, uh . . . in use. It’s not “open” like a nostril, in other words.
Though it really goes without saying, inserting a tampon is not like inserting a penis. When a woman is aroused, her vaginal walls lubricate and loosen. Inserting a tampon can actually be painful for some women-- they have to lube the applicator before insertion. It’s even worse if, anticipating discomfort, a woman tenses up without realizing it.
Some tampons are really uncomfortable. Some of them have sharp edges at the tip, or seams along the applicator’s side.
I have had the misfortune recently to learn about this device. The user in question would save the, er, byproduct in the belief that it would benefit her plants. Said plants were not doing very well.
That wouldn’t happen to be you, would it?
Yeah, the penis-tampon analogy just didn’t really seem like a good comparison to me, either. Vaginas change size and shape depending on circumstances - did you know that girls squeeze babies out through them? Yeah, apparently that whole “stork” thing is way off.
. . .
. . .
:eek:
Heh heh. Well, it was either that or that “you cram it up your cramhole”. I went for the more socially acceptable term.
Cramhole? I think I’ve discovered a new insult.
Hmm…I’m a lousy gardner (seriously - I’ve killed MINT!), but I do know that you’re not supposed to put meat in the composter 'cause it’s bad for the plants. I don’t know if it’s the protein or the nitrogen or what it is, but “no meat in compost” signs are everywhere here in Hippieland.
Maybe menstrual fluid is enough like meat (chemically) that it’s similarly bad for plants, at least small plants on a large volume?
OTOH, I’ve known plenty of people who bury their placentas and plant a tree over it, and they grow just fine. So it’s very possible I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about…
You got a way with words, I must say!