How Products Get Meaning? - Tampons

There are things that are inevitable for humans because of who we are: we need to eat, drink and sleep. We also need to keep ourselves warm and sheltered. We need to form communities among ourselves and feel that we belong. We need to love someone, make love and leave traces of our existence through our personal achievements and the baby.

Although sexual intercourse and conceiving a life may seem romantic and beautiful, preparing for the right moment is long and cumbersome, especially for women. Menstruation is a big part during a woman’s lifetime because it signals that the woman is ready to conceive a baby. As much as it is cumbersome and annoying, it needs to be respected in a similar level to conceiving a baby because it is a privileged opportunity that women have to symbolize that they are ready to be responsible for another life in their wombs.

However, on average, a woman gives birth to 2 children in her lifetime. For the 2 children, she suffers from her menstruation pains and the inconvenience of dealing with it every month for several decades.

There are a number of drugs developed to aid period cramps and sanitary products to help manage menses. Sanitary pads and tampons are two of the most widely used products used among women for their convenience and disposability.

In case of tampons, they are originally from the ancient Egyptians and further developed to absorb bullet wounds during wars in the 19th Century. They are commonly favoured for their convenient packaging, the ability to allow active body movements and comfort. Women can easily carry a few tampons around, play sports such as swimming and are not limited to choosing a certain type of outfit, which sanitary pads may not offer.

However, despite all the convenience of tampons, one can start to wonder the poetry of tampons. It is a little weird inserting treated cotton and rayon mix into a woman’s vagina, where the sacred act of love making happens and the result of love making and 9 months of patience and endurance comes out. Tampons are invented to absorb the inconvenience of menses to allow women to participate in daily activities without being bothered and they definitely satisfy many women who cannot afford to take their time off during their periods and constantly need to be active. One can argue that they serve their purpose of creation and that is the end of the discussion. Women love to use them and the manufacturers are happy to design new packaging and style constantly to attract more women. On the other hand, one can start thinking how strange and disrespectful to use tampons, treating menstruation as the same level to bullet wounds.

In the case of tampons, their utilitarian design satisfies many users that their poetic meanings are often overlooked and it may not even necessary to consider starting a conversation about a different idea since it is women, ourselves, who both give birth and use tampons, and happy about it.