My daughter recently asked me “did you know women put real sponges in their ****”?
I forget what word she used. For all those not comfortable with the word vagina, I will use hoo-ha.
Yes, yes I did know that. Women are very resourceful. That’s not just a coincidence. We’ve had to deal with periods back to our neanderthal days. Probably anything and everything has been used at some point in lieu of a tampon. After all, the modern day tampon is pretty modern day.
This topic didn’t come up randomly, although often such topics in our house do. We had been discussing my recent purchases, which included a real sponge loofah for the shower. Which I will write about in greater detail later, but I LOVE that loofah. I love the abrasiveness of it- I get in the hot shower and scrub my back almost raw with it. Ahhhh
I got off topic, as usual.
According to The Atlantic, a man gets credited with inventing the first tampon. Well Earl, I don’t believe it. Women have been sticking whatchamacallits up their hoo-has since the beginning of time, and somehow a man gets the credit for inventing the first tampon.
Can someone say patriarchy?
According to https://www.bloodandmilk.com/brief-history-of-period-products there were a variety of natural materials used internally to collect menstrual blood. This included lint, paper, moss, even buffalo hide, among other things.
Buffalo hide? Whatever happened to just a straight-up wad of old fabric?
I think what may have freaked my daughter out was the fact that the sponge had been a living thing, and then it’s being used inside. Fair enough. It’s kinda weird.
There are so many other options now, from menstrual cups to period underwear… that your choices are wide open! So, you can decide that the only living thing you have in your hoo-ha is… well, you know…
If you’re into that sort of thing, that is.