I am a father of two. Wife was working today. It is very warm today, so I wanted to go swimming with my kids. My son was oke. My daughter also wanted to go, but she was on her period. She didn’t want to go swimming in this situation. But for her it is also a very warm day. How can she find cooling? Any tips?
Would “females” be a better term? It’s more accurate to be sure, but using the word “females” - in (American) English at least - has a weird connotation that I don’t always like.
“people with vaginas” encompasses everyone regardless of sexual identity, gender assignment, or anything else really.
My spouse is non-binary, has a vagina. Two of my male best friends have vaginas, although one had a historectomy and no longer menstruates. A few other friends have vaginas although I’m not sure if they menstruate anymore. One is gender fluid and has a vagina.
“male/man female/woman” is gendered language, and insisting that only women have vaginas and menstruate is 100% just saying a whole group of people isn’t important enough for consideration, and that is inherently transphobic.
And for the record, yes “female” has a weird connotation in the US because right wing weirdos and incels seem to be unable to say “women” and don’t view women as people.
But can we not do better than “people with vaginas” and “people who menstruate”? Those terms are overly cumbersome and in fact I would argue that they otherize trans people by pointing out the fact that they’re different. Man/woman is gendered but we have lots of other terms for the different gender identities people have. Male/female are “gendered” terms because biological sex is binary.
Bleeders?
Bahaha you win ;) As a bleeder, I respect OP for asking for advice in supporting his daughter. A lot of men are weird about it. Only conversation I had with my dad about it was him yelling at me when I accidentally leaked on the mattress as a teenager.
I’ve never understood the weirdness.
When my wife and I were dating in high school, she was over at my house on her period and leaked through her pants. I got her clothes to change into, got out the Shout, and washed and dried her clothes.
The alternative would have been ending the date, which made no sense to me.
I’m sure that made her feel much better. Leaking is awkward enough on its own. My husband has also received comments for being progressive at the grocery store because he was buying tampons lol. Hopefully it keeps being normalized. Basically half of humanity experiences it.
The only thing that bothers me about buying feminine hygiene products is all the boxes look the same to me. There’s 10,000 options, and all I have is a small, blurry picture on my phone that doesn’t quite match any of them.
However, that’s more related to the struggle of working someone else’s grocery list.