Recently I had my "first" period in Costa Rica. It was a nightmare. You see, when I started having my period, I started using pads - like most girls who are still afraid of their bodies - which were uncomfortable, and which not once failed to properly do what's supposed to do, but thanks Hyne back then it was fashionable to wear your jersey tied to your waist. All the way to about after my first year at university... sometime around 20, I switched to tampons.
The first time I heard about tampons it was at 17, when I was attending my first year at University. since this happened in Costa Rica, the tampons I've got to see were the ones that come with an applicator, which are basically two tubes made out of plastic or paper that slid into each other much like a shot needle. I didn't start using those because I wasn't comfortable around them, had lots of questions and honestly, didn't want to spend my most painful an messy hours trying to figure out the workings and mechanics of a damned tampon.
Eventually - around two years later - I started using tampons... in Hungary, where tampons don't come with applicators. It was scary, and the first time around it was uncomfortable as hell, but eventually I worked it out and realized how much more comfortable and better working it was. So I switched and remained that way. With time I came back to live to Costa Rica, and devoted my time to hunt down tampons with no applicators. This was quite a feat, as in such a Catholic country it seems nearly scandalous to sell a product that "invites" women to stick their fingers inside themselves. You could find them from time to time at high end stores, but it was still hard to get, which is why at the end I started using my trips to Hungary to pack up on tampons. For the last... ten years maybe, I never used tampons that weren't sold in Europe, so this time around, when I totally forgot to pack up on tampons, I had to make due with what's available in Costa Rica, and this time around I couldn't find the type of tampons I like. So I had to go on the applicator ones.
First of all, the tampon itself was terrible. Too thin, too long an the ends weren's sealed well, and to top it all, it didn't expand well so it leaked. Putting it on was also a hassle, as the applicators are stiff an don't allow you to comfortably place the tampon inside, adjusting to the natural form of your body. Your finger slides gently and follows your contours, but a piece of rigid plastic or paper doesn't bend.
While struggling with this uncomfortable tampons during a period of time when I REALLY want no added complications in my daily routine, the tought came to me as to why are our choices reduced so, why is our comfort diminished because of prudish ideas? How come there's a whole society telling us, every single, individual women living in it, what part of ourselves can we touch, when can we touch it, or which parts can we never touch? Why do we allow this?
Matters of health, matters of comfort should be up to us to decide, without interfeering of third parties, without others telling us that our comfort or our body is forbidden, shamefull or dirty. We are people, women, and we shouldn't feel wrong for trying to feel better. We don't have to be forced to be statues, emulate virgin goddesses, and video clip temptresses, always playing both the part of the sexy femme fatale and the lady, and never being simply people. Lets take things in our hands, let's reclaim our bodies, our rights and cast away stupid fears and ideas.
I'll continue searching, and I hope to see soon the shelves of our stores lined up with products that remember that only women can decide which part of their body will they touch, when and when is someone else allowed to touch it as well. Women, by themselves, over their own bodies, and not third parties.
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