A mighty albatross perched majestically between my thighs

Disappointed…..I thought this was a Jacqui Lambie follow up story 🙁

I remember a time when sanitary napkins and applicator tampons were sold in supermarkets wrapped in plain green paper. The shelf space or bin space was allocated and filled with large hand wrapped parcels which were the napkins, and small sharp edged rectangular packages which were the tampons.

The idea was that women of a certain age knew what they needed and they went to the shelf and got them. In Chemist shops, they were kept under the counter, still wrapped in green plain paper, but hidden from view, as were condoms, which were also wrapped in green paper.

Gradually, and without fanfare, they came out of their green paper packaging and appeared on the shelves, bill boards appeared and advertising stands, many different brands were born and began to compete via packaging and advertising.

I was a small boy at the time, yet I knew what the packages were and so did millions of other people, not all of whom had a use for the product. There was no need for public discussion, no desire to “tackle the taboos of periods and vaginal health head-on by demonstrating the reality, and normality, of periods”

Then, as today, almost everyone was aware of the functioning of the reproductive system of the adult female human being.

I hope the toilet roll manufacturers don’t take the same enthusiastic approach to tackle the taboos of defecation and anal health head-on by demonstrating the reality, and normality of taking a dump.

@ A harsh trifle : great comment, along with the headline without doubt the best lines of the day. However Mumbrella I do believe it was a swan.

@Richard Moss, I hope someone takes an enthusiastic dump on your favorite pillow.

Imagine an ad for, I don’t know, anything male specific, where some guy came out and said ‘hello, I’m here to guide your penis’.

Wrong.

Take that chick from the Palmer United Party, saying men need to have a good package between their legs and in their bank account.

Fucking wrong.

Stuff like this makes me gravitate towards conservative misogynists like Allan Jones and Tony Abbott. Not because I agree with what they say, but I’m sick of being a maligned male in a society where women think it’s ok to treat men like it’s the 13th century.

Grow up feeble minded twats.

@Richard Moss – I could tell that it was a middle-aged white man who had written that comment before I even clicked through to your website.

@Emily

Really? Middle aged would have taken no effort , since I have written about memories of the distant past as a young man. But why White man? how do you see a black man viewing things differently by virtue of his skin colour?

@Claire

This is an opinion page Claire, I have given mine based upon the topic. Why on earth do you feel the need to attack me by wishing me personal discomfort?
I have not claimed to be against advertising these products, I have not made anti female statements, I have simply joined the discussion with an “on topic” opinion. I used toilet paper and taking a dump as a comparison with another bodily function that we all know about but do not feel the need to tackle the taboos.

Great work DDB. Loving the work lately

My favourite recent DDB work was some print stuff for Maccas.

@ Steveo… ooh tell me more, i dont think ive seen it anywhere

IN defence of Richard Moss, I really cant see anything offensive in his comments here. There WAS a time when these products were sold as he describes. Possibly because menstruation was deemed shameful – but as far as I can tell he is not saying that this attitude should be adopted today. Just does it have to have gone quite so far in the other extreme? Anyway – if the other commenters would like to explain their opinions in opposition to Richard, without the vitriol, I would be interested. Otherwise – why were these comments not moderated? To my mind they dont seem to add any intellectual rigor to the topic???