Periods are revolting: getting the CSP revolution into women’s minds

Modesty v information

As a blogger, I find myself going to talks about blogging. During the most recent one, the Blog Lady pointed out that we don’t share news about anything “embarrassing.” She’s right, Facebook may be full of complaints about the weather and ill children, but no one ever seems to be excited that their piles have cleared up.

This is probably a Good Thing. There is such a thing as privacy, not to mention the fact that we’re often not that discriminating when it comes to Facebook friends (!).

But there is a downside to this modesty. When we keep things we consider “embarrassing” or “too personal” off our blogs and social media accounts, we’re robbing people of valuable information too.

I think this is what’s happening with CSP. CSP stands for cloth sanitary protection, in other words, reusable sanitary pads. Now, some of my friends know I’ve been using CSP since 2005 but to be honest, it’s not something that tends to come up in conversation. I think I’ve mentioned it once on Facebook (only because I found someone who could make me TARDIS pads!) and never on Twitter. 

Because reusable menstrual products aren’t mentioned, online or offline, women aren’t informed about them. So when it comes to keeping clean during our periods, all the information we have shown to us is paid for by the only companies who can afford it, i.e. the large pharmaceuticals. And they’re making a killing because their products are disposable, meaning women need to buy a new pack every month. Hence the big companies have got the money to advertise...and so it goes round and round.

The period revolution

In fact, there’s a period revolution going on. It’s going on pretty quietly, on a few websites, a handful of Facebook pages and at the dining tables of some enterprising women who run up cloth pads on their sewing machines. If we want to find out about this different approach to menstrual products, we won’t see an ad in Cosmopolitan or in the commercial breaks on TV. Women will have to somehow find out CSP exists before they can even start doing their research. Articles (often excellent) can be found in the online versions of the broadsheets but they’re often spoiled by narrow-minded comments and questionable statistics.

Reusable pads are important

It’s a shame that this revolution is so quiet because what the CSP revolutionaries are doing is really important. They’re reducing waste, reducing carbon footprints and reducing the power of the large pharmaceutical companies. They’re offering products that stop you ruining your knickers but don’t carry a risk of toxic shock syndrome. They’re saving their fellow-women money – after all, pads, tampons, Mooncups and CSP are only a necessary outlay for half the population and anything reusable constitutes a saving. How would you feel if I told you I haven’t bought any menstrual products (disposable or reusable) for over five years?!

The way forward

Cloth sanitary protection and reusable menstrual products like Mooncups are the way forward for us and our planet. Before women are going to start using them, they’ve got to get used to the idea and that’s only going to happen if it’s in the public consciousness.

So everyone, talk about this! Get the idea of reusable menstrual products into women’s minds and let’s start to normalise it. 

What’s worth more: time or money?

I heard a British sheep farmer on the radio a few winters ago. He’d been armpit deep in the snow, digging out his sheep...and consumers were all down Buy N Large, picking up imported New Zealand lamb while the hard-won British meat went out of date. He was asking one thing of the listeners: serve up his lamb for Sunday roast and make his demanding job worthwhile. 

I think this is something that work-at-home mums experience too. 

I’m a full time mum and a part time freelance copywriter. I feel the same eye-rolling frustration when a client has commissioned something, paid me for it but never used it.  I charge the going rate for ghost blogging; that’s because if I charged for what it really takes to deliver some blogs, you couldn't afford me! Of course, many things I write are quick and easy. But for every few like that, there’s one that’s been written in spite of everything conspiring to prevent it. I’m talking about the pieces I've only been able to write because I've parked an ill, off-school seven-year-old in front of a DVD. The pieces I've cancelled a school holiday outing to complete.

Now, in some ways, this is Fair Enough. I signed up to combine motherhood and copywriting – I went into this with my eyes open. I write what I say I will and (somehow!) I make my deadlines. But if I have written something for you, and you've liked it, for goodness’ sake USE IT. Post it to your website, splash it all over social media, send it off to the paper like you said you were going to. Then – and only then – it will have been worth what I might have gone through, and the sacrifices I might have asked of my family. I may not have been up to my armpits in snow but I probably have been up to my eyes in present-wrapping, Calpol, meetings with teachers and Tooth Fairy duties...and all while I’m trying to get my work done too. For my work to sit, ignored (but paid for!) in your inbox, is heartbreaking.

Many parents have turned a hobby into a business to fit in around their families. Show them the respect they so heartily deserve: if you buy something from them, whether it’s a blog, a plant pot or a hand-knitted jumper, please, please use it.