I have spent the last few days posing with a tampon as part of an international campaign to demystify the important issue of menstruation. I do not usually menstruate myself, although out of a wish to show solidarity with those who do I set aside five or six days each month to behave in a grotesquely irrational and bad-tempered manner, snapping at people for no reason and moaning a lot. As a man this seems to be the very least that I can do, an attempt at empathy which still recognises my privileged position as a male.
The campaign which I mentioned — and I would urge you all to take part in it — is called JustATampon. You take a photograph of yourself holding the tampon — either still in its little torpedo chute or liberated and held by the tail like a dead albino mouse — and post the selfie online. You can also make a donation of £3 to the cause which, I’ve been told, will empower women around the world. I’m not sure quite what it will empower them to do — go out and buy some more shoes? Sit at home with a box set of Wolf Hall? — but either way, it can only be a good thing.
I ought to add that this is a campaign led by women and about women and men shouldn’t muscle in and take it over — but a little bit of support would not go amiss. The eminent broadcaster Jon Snow has already posted his tampon selfie — looking very serious and holding the thing with its tail drooping down. It would not surprise me if other famous men, such as Stephen Fry and Baldrick and that actor who is married to Emma Thompson, are soon posting their tampon selfies on line.
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