Commercials targeting women suck. A lot.

Recently I saw this Upworthy post about tampon ads.  The tampon ad they show is pretty great - it's about a little girl who gets her period at a summer camp, and she's the only one with pads and tampons so she gives them out to every girl who gets her period.  But then, the other girls start receiving products from Hello Flo, which is apparently a tampon delivery service. 

But the part that made me think was the text that the poster wrote.  Tampon and pad ads completely obscure periods.  They show happy women going for a jog or a swim, and they drip blue liquid onto pads.  It totally stigmatizes periods.

And then I started thinking.  Just about every ad for women's "issues" completely ignores the real issue, avoids the topic, and therefore stigmatizes things that women experience.

Hair removal ads suck.  The legs that they shave to demonstrate the product are already perfectly smooth.  How are you supposed to know how well a razor or shaving cream works if they don't actually show it working?  More importantly, why can't they show a woman with at least stubbly, if not hairy, legs on TV?  What's so terrifying about that?  It's not like it's a dirty thing that kids shouldn't know about.  Obscuring meds for erectile dysfunction makes sense because people don't want kids asking questions.  But leg hair is totally natural and not harmful or sexual.

As a young teen with no thoughts about sex outside of "I hope I'll never hear my parents doing it," I saw a commercial for the birth control patch.  But of course I had no idea what it was.  They never used the words "birth control" or "pregnant."  All I remember about it is stuff like "don't worry about it falling off" and "it goes on your hip so it's very discrete!"  I assumed it was a quit smoking patch that was for women.  It was actually years before I learned about the birth control patch and connected the dots.  That one is a little more understandable, because like ED meds, birth control is a topic that most parents don't want to discuss with young kids or preteens who are curious.  But still.  Why is there such a stigma around women's concerns?

The only commercials involving products for women that never dances around the issue is makeup and skincare.  "YOUR SKIN SUCKS, DOESN'T IT?  BUY OUR PRODUCT TO MAKE YOU BEAUTIFUL!"  "HOLY CRAP YOU'RE GETTING WRINKLES?  ABOMINATION!  BUY OUR PRODUCT!"  "LIPS TOO SMALL?  BUY OUR LIPSTICK THAT MAKES YOUR LIPS SWELL UP."  "HAIR GRAYING?  BUY OUR PRODUCT!"

Moral of the story: society thinks anything natural is gross.  Society wants women to feel ashamed for having leg hair and periods.  But don't buy into it.  Remember that periods, leg hair, wrinkles, gray hair, and various skin imperfections are natural.  You don't have to like any of those things (I don't, except for my leg hair), but for your own sake, accept them as part of being human and consider not being as insecure about yourself as commercials and TV want you to be.