The Blossom Brush, designed to “help women feel fresher” during their period, has been causing a bad buzz on social media.
- The product is sold as a bristleless brush, which can be used daily during menstruation, and up to three days after, to remove blood residue and vaginal debris.
The new Blossom Brush, a small brush designed to clean the vagina during menstruation, made American gynecologist Jennifer Gunter jump. In a post liked 16.5 million times, she is indignant: “Every day it seems someone comes up with a new, totally useless and harmful vaginal cleansing product, but marketed as a breakthrough. The vagina is not a wardrobe.”
Every day it seems as if someone comes up with a new and thoroughly unnecessary, yet harmful vaginal cleaning product marketed as empowerment. I present to you today’s entry: pic.twitter.com/0onrVLc9mv
— Jennifer Gunter (@DrJenGunter) July 17, 2020
The product is sold as a bristleless brush, which can be used daily during menstruation, and up to three days after, to remove blood residue and vaginal debris. “As you can see, the brush has no bristles but grooves that slide along the walls of the vagina. It helps women feel fresher and makes their menstrual cycle more manageable.” praise the designers. Since then, faced with the controversy raised, the Instagram account of Blossom Brush has been removed.
58% of women say they feel ashamed during their period
Jennifer Gunter was supported by gynecologist Brooke Vandermolenwhich also underlines the uselessness and dangerousness of the product: “TheVaginal cleansing or douching has always been singled out as harmful. Organisms in the vagina carefully regulate themselves to maintain ideal conditions to prevent infection and maintain the balance in the vagina.” According to her, “there is no evidence that the vagina needs to be cleaned internally. There is no need for a tool to physically clean the blood, and I urge women to avoid purchasing products like these which may cause more harm than benefit.”
Many Internet users also criticize the image that the Blossom Brush sends back of periods, put forward as something dirty of which women should be ashamed. Even today, 58% of women report feeling ashamed during their period. According to a survey conducted by the sanitary protection company Thinx, 42% of women say they have been teased or degraded about it by men or family members. Seventy-three percent also say they hide their personal protection when they go to the bathroom and 70% have asked a friend to walk behind them to check their clothes for stains.
Changing mindsets
“Abnormally heavy or irregular periods affect 20 to 30% of women and considerably affect their quality of life, even their health”, also recalls the service of Professor Hervé Fernandez, at the Kremlin-Bicêtre University Hospital (AP-HP). However, he laments:They hesitate to talk about it when treatments exist, medical and surgical.”
In France, the feminist collective It will bleed seeks to change mentalities, by standardizing the representation of rules in the public space. “The goal is to take a picture of our spots. Whether you are a menstruating person or not, stain your clothes, stain your floor, stain your story, stain your cat, stain the walls of your street with your blood #çavasaigner”, writes the association on its Instagram account.
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