An Important Announcement

[miss_s_b]

My name is Jennie, and I use a mooncup. Like One Hot Crumpet, I am somewhat incredulous at the Clarkson-esque review that's been posted on amazon and linked around the internet. So, apparently, this lady had difficulty using a mooncup and decided to post a great long tl;dr full of hyperbole about how she couldn't get it in or out, and decided that because she couldn't do it anyone who said they could must be lying hippy earth mother types who want to make everyone else suffer.

Well, no.

Aside from the environmental and financial benefits, like OHC, I find it a lot less gross to have a mooncup than pads which stick to your pubes and stink or tampons which are uncomfortably drying and might give you toxic shock syndrome.

And, you know, the geek in me likes to examine consistency and volume of output. It's amazing the variation... Sorry, that was TMI, wasn't it?

Seriously though, why would anyone want to broadcast their incompetence with their own genitals so smugly?

Comments

[shishmish]

I freak whenever another friend of mine called Jen (whats with Jen's and mooncups xD) talks about using her mooncup. It's just the idea of it sitting in there collecting it all...like a cup...that squicks me.

That and I doubt I'd be able to use it myself as (shock horror in this time and age) I'm still a virgin.

[tajasel]

I started using a Divacup (which are slightly smaller than Mooncups) before losing my virginity.

Also, uh, tampons and pads collect the blood too. The only difference with menstrual cups is the material/method of collection. It's not like the cup has a handle similar to the mug you drink your tea from ;)

[telegramsam]

that's the same reason I've never bothered with them - I can't even deal with tampons properly, FFS.

I hate sanitary pads but they're better than they used to be. I mostly just don't like the idea of having to wear a freaking ladydiaper every month. It bruises my ego...

[freddiefraggles]

I keep thinking I might try a mooncup then change my mind. I think it is something I'd want two legs (and therefore two free hands while walking to the sink) for.

And shishmish- I don't think your being a virgin would prevent you from sticking anything up there competently.

[missdiane]

Huh. I just read the original review and thought it was pretty darned funny, actually.

Then again, I don't see myself ever bothering with a mooncup. I'm nearly a couple of years over 40 and haven't ever used tampons so the chances of me cramming any man-made device - bpa free or no - up my girly canal that I wouldn't have a pretty good outside hand hold on is slim to none. At least science related people have found ways to make maxipads be less smelly and moisture-wicking than in the past.

So the universe will just have to deal with my use of terrible environment-slaughtering maxipads until the blood well runs dry which can't come soon enough for me.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't use a mooncup, but my wife does and has for a number of years now. Aren't they clear in colour now? Hers is a hardcore looking brown chunk of rubber. Her motivation is financial rather than anything particularly hippyish (she's a vegan, but about as far from what people might imagine when picturing a mooncup-wearing vegan).

Also, she's found it very easy to use and very easy to have space in her bag for, wrapped in a piece of clean cloth, ready to go when the need arises. It's always seemed like a decent little idea to me.

[chrisjc]

I don't use a mooncup, but my wife does and has for a number of years now. Aren't they clear in colour now? Hers is a hardcore looking brown chunk of rubber. Her motivation is financial rather than anything particularly hippyish (she's a vegan, but about as far from what people might imagine when picturing a mooncup-wearing vegan).

Also, she's found it very easy to use and very easy to have space in her bag for, wrapped in a piece of clean cloth, ready to go when the need arises. It's always seemed like a decent little idea to me.

[tajasel]

Depends on the brand. Mooncups are brown, Divacups are clear. Not sure about other brands.

[miss_s_b]

My mooncup is clear...

[tajasel]

Yeah, I'm being dense. Mooncups and Divacups are clear, it's the Keeper that's brown.

http://www.keeper.com/aboutkeeper.html

[miss_s_b]

I like clear. It helps me in my examination of the contents. Damn being brought up by a biology teacher...

[yoyoangel]

I found the review quite funny, but yes, would be horrified if it put anyone off using a mooncup.

I've been using one for five or six years and I love it: feels much cleaner and much less leak-prone and I'm happy to go swimming wearing it, which frankly I never was with tampons because who wants their bits full of chlorine-soaked cotton wool?

[miss_s_b]

* nodnod *

I feel the same way about swimming and sanitary products.

[lizw]

Seriously though, why would anyone want to broadcast their incompetence with their own genitals so smugly?

Loudly blaming the cup rather than herself helps her to repress the thought that it might in fact be her fault. Classic cognitive dissonance response. If anything, the fact that it's about something so intimate makes that reaction more likely - the dissonance is harder to bear when it's about something so personal, so the response has to be more extreme.

[sevenhelz]

Oh piss off. Some of us are smaller than others. She never said everybody would have the same problem, and if you actually read the review, she decided to keep going with the damn thing. That's more than I can say. Are you going to tell me I'm incompetent or uncomfortable with my genitals? Then you can piss off. You haven't a clue.

[miss_s_b]

I don't mind people having disagreements. I DO mind when disagreement starts to get uncivil. Just, you know, saying.

[trialia]

Wow. This is the most offensive, belittling, condescending post I've ever seen you make.

By the way, not being able to use a menstrual cup is not usually about "incompetence" regarding one's own body. FYI.

[miss_s_b]

I was just responding in kind to the offensive, belittling and condescending tone of the original post.

* shrug *

[anisiriusmagus.livejournal.com]

I've been using a Mooncup for a few years now, and I wouldn't be without it. I find it at least as easy to use (if not easier to use) than tampons, and the financial savings are another big tick from me.

[von_geisterhand]

Because my views are important! Very important! The internet... nay, the world and all coming generations (Past ones, too, once they figure out how to post via time travel) need to know. If I cannot figure something out, nobody can! I am the alpha and the omega, the yardstick and the gauge.

And so on and so forth....

(You can tell I had to deal with people like that recently, can't you?)

[miss_s_b]

I get it at the pub quiz every week. There's this one guy who pisses and moans and bitches through the whole thing that it's too hard and how we're "not on fucking mastermind" and everybody else in the pub is doing fine... Drives me nuts.

[neohippie.livejournal.com]

Like missdiane, I am not really into the inserting-into-vagina method of menstrual flow containment.

So I use Gladrags! I suggest missdiane, and anyone else using pads, look into those. They're reusable cotton cloth pads. They have snaps that hold them in your panties, and they are soft and comfy. When soiled, you rinse and/or soak them a bit to get most of the fluid out, then they go in the laundry. I usually soak them in a little hydrogen peroxide before laundering, and they come out clean and fresh.

I understand that this is all Personal Preference, and I'm sure Mooncups are awesome too if you are ok with stuffing things up your hooha. Just saying that, if you are not, then there are other opitions besides filling up landfills with even more plastic.

I'm also glad to have a partner that is ok with what he calls my "special devices". My boyfriend before him was totally disgusted by the whole concept of any sort of reusable feminine hygene device, saying it's like having "reusable toilet paper." Thankfully, current partner has his priorities in order and thinks it's great to be "green", and when I asked, "You don't think it's gross to reuse them?" he just said "But you wash them first, right?"

That said, I think the Amazon review was kinda funny. Comical Amazon reviews seem to be a genre in their own right, so I do wonder if this is even real, you know?

[missdiane]

I'd consider the reuseables if I didn't work in cubeland with a good deal of catty women where we have bathrooms with multiple stalls. It's embarrassing enough on days where my lack of a gallbladder causes upset stomach and people make snarky commentary.

Additionally, for other reasons besides concern for landfills, I'm hoping in several months to be allowed to go off medication that forces me to go through monthly dysmenorrhea hell as it is and shut down the works. So hopefully I'm in the homestretch as it is. LOL

[neohippie.livejournal.com]

Ugh, yeah, I've never had to deal with coworkers who are nosey enough to make any sort of snarky commentary about things that happen in the bathroom!That sounds awful.

Though, the Gladrags come with this discrete bag you can put the used ones in before you get a chance to get home and wash them. It's not like I stand around rinsing my "special devices" in the public restroom's sinks.

Though I admit that I'm lucky enough to have a prety light flow, so I usually don't have to change my pads at all during the day. A fresh one before I leave for work just about always lasts me the whole day until I can get home and change it. This is probably because I'm on the pill, which give me the desirable side effects of my periods being super light and super predictable.

If I'm traveling and will be away from home longer than a day while it's that time of the month, I admit that then I usually go for the disposable ones, so I won't have to be lugging dirty pads around for long. I still have the same package of disposables from way back when I first got the G-rags and still haven't used them all up yet.

So, you know, you do what you can in your own unique circumstances.

[sevenhelz]

uh... if you read the whole thing, which I did because I found it *hilarious* and pretty much exactly what happened to me, you'll see she actually does recommend the thing.

so cheers for saying I'm also incompetent with my own genitals, actually I'm fairly certain I just have a smaller/more sensitive set-up than many women. I'll stick to my reusable pads, ta.

[miss_s_b]

You know, that's fine. I don't want to enforce anything on anyone. And my comment about incompetence with her own genitals comes FROM reading the whole thing; I'm not saying that Mooncups are suitable for everyone, nor that people who find them uncomfortable are incompetent, just that this particular person clearly was.

[neohippie.livejournal.com]

She did give the product a one-star review. So... even though I think it was mostly a joke, I wouldn't say she "recommended" them, in the end. She still portrayed the product in an overall negative light, and her one-star review will bring it's product review star average down to some extent.

So I can see why SB, being a fan of the device, didn't find this joke particularly funny.

Maybe someone can retaliate by writing a hilarious 5-star review singing it's praises to kinda balance this out or something.

[bagfish]

When I read the review I thought it had been written by someone who has never used a Mooncup (man or woman) and it really pissed me off. It was getting such a huge "Bravo" from so many people I never said anything about it; your post has made me feel better that I'm not the only one that disliked the mocking tone of the review. Thanks!

[miss_s_b]

That's OK; I should have been more careful how I worded it, though.