My wife sent me a video of a woman painting with a tampon. (cute result btw) I'm not logged into ins+agram on my phone nor do I have the app and I see this message. "Restricted Video. You mist be 18 years or over to see this video. We received a legal request to restrict this content. We reviewed it against our policies and conducted a legal and human rights assessment. After review, we restricted access to the content in the location where it goes against local law."
This is the state of the internet in 2025. A video of a woman painting with a tampon is being censored because apparently the knowledge that tampons and periods exist is too sexual to be seen by children under 18. A tampon is blocked because kids can't know what a tampon is! WTF!
Remember, most kids start between 10–15, some even younger. About 50% of humans will have periods, and need to know what the fuck is going on and what to do before it starts.
If the mere mention of a tampon is censored, then anything relating to periods, period health products, and safety is certainly also censored. You can't trust that parents are going to teach their children. Lessons on puberty have been pulled from schools if they ever had them to begin with. Books on puberty have been banned from libraries... Where is a kid supposed to learn what is going on?!
Resources should be available and easily accessible and out there so one can just come across it. That way if a kid needs to know, they can find out even if no one tells them. Imagine starting your period, having no idea what’s going on, not knowing that pads or tampons exist, and being too embarrassed or scarred to ask anyone. If the info is just out there, a kid can come across it and at least have an idea what to do, what to look for, or who to ask about it.
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If a mere tampon is blocked, any information on sex safety is also blocked. If that's blocked, then also the "disgusting" idea that LGBTQ+ people like myself exist is also going to be erased from the country!
I am a trans lesbian woman. I am a mother. And I exist.
I shouldn't have to say this, but I am just a lady trying to live my life like any other lady. It took me until I was 35 to fully realize that I am a lady. I always sorta' knew, but I didn't know growing up that there were options. If I knew trans people existed growing up, I would have known that I was a girl probably as early as 6. I'm not upset about it, nearly none of us knew at the time. But now, every kid deserves to know there are options. The idea that there are many people trying to hide that from kids and paint LGBTQ+ people as evil really really upsets me!
It starts with tampons, I don't want to know where it might end.