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Wednesday 17 October 2018

Blood is normal.

I always hated tampon and sanitary towel adverts. All those rollerskating women. Why was it strange to be able to roller-skate when you were bleeding? It never occurred to me that it would be a problem.

But the thing that annoyed me the most was why was period blood always blue? Who would we be offending if it was the colour it really was: pink, bright red,  dark red, sometimes rusty brown, but never blue. Surely we wouldn't be upsetting women. We see our own blood every month, we're made of stronger stuff.

So it must be for men. Adverts for women written with men in mind.

I longed to write a TV advert that featured red blood.

And now there is one.

And seeing it made me cry.

These are real periods. Ones that make you feel hormonal and cry easily for no good reason and knot your tummy in pain. Ones that come with the relief of knowing you're not pregnant. Ones where you have to stick your sanitary pad up your jumper to carry it surreptitiously to the loos. Period sex with the less squeamish of your boyfriends. Real stuff. It touched a chord.


After watching it I feel more proud to be a woman. I'm not sure why. But perhaps its like finding acceptance to something that you've hidden because the world suggested it was dirty. 

But it's not dirty. 

It's normal.