When I was a teenager, I really didn't know you weren't supposed to flush tampons, and I was VERY private about the whole thing.

Who says?

Plumbers. And experience. Esp. if you use the supermaxisupernova-sucking tampons.

That's not the only toilet I've seen clogged by a tampon.

Yeah, you're really not supposed to flush tampons. Clog-o-riffic.

My friends who are sea-faring type people are very anti-flushing too. They all have stories about tampons getting caught in their wetsuits etc.

Sexy Optimus Prime.

I switched to reusable pads...seemed like quite the initial investment, but you know, no more panicked drugstore runs, and washing them is not as gross as I thought...it's weird the things we just accept as normal, sometimes. Like, of course a civilized person wants bleached paper covered with plastic right up next to somewhere so personal.

Sexy Optimus Prime.

I can't decide if that's better or worse than the Sexy V For Vendetta costume

For those who want both xkcd maps in the same place, I have slaved and slaved for you: [link] vs. [link]

I've been poring over the new map, and I can't find the LOLcats. I am obsessed and pathetic.

Thanks big sis for telling me how to use the female stuff. Thanks mom for buying them for me and never making a big deal out of it. COme to think of it, that goes for birth control, too.

I didn't start using tampons regularly until I was in college, because my mother didn't like them. When I first started my period, I asked about them (having read about it in Are You There God, It's Me Margaret) and she said that they were bad. I found out I liked them when I was at a friend's house and started unexpectedly and all she had were tampons. Her mom was really sweet and explained everything, and then offered to go buy me some pads. I wore them once and thought "this is awesome", so I went home and asked my mother to buy them for me. She said "oh, I don't think you should use them" so she wouldn't buy them. I would sometimes save my allowance, but the damn things were expensive!

Yes, my mother has ISSUES. Don't get me started on the whole underwire bra issue.

Email her this and record her reaction when she sees it.

I saw that commercial after my dad died, and was a sobbing mess for a few minutes, because that WAS my dad. And it being a black dad and daughter just made it hit even closer to home for me.

Don't get me started on the whole underwire bra issue.

My mom is less than an A cup, and always has been. Her view on underwire bras has always been that they are uncomfortable, horrible, awful, why would anyone ever wear one??? Because, hey, she didn't need a bra for actual support.

So *I* never wore underwire bras (despite having a full B cup) until I got to college. On a trip to VS with my roommates, they talked me into trying one, and immediately I was all, WHY have I NOT been wearing these?!?

My mom is STILL befuddled as to why I would want to wear such horrible awful uncomfortable things, because her worldview is that her own experience MUST be true for everyone, ever, anywhere.