Free Bleeding - another fad?

If youre happy to wear san pro throughout your whole periods do that!

Personally I have such heavy "heavy days" that take a lot of "managing" that by the time it tails off I can't wait to have the comfort of just pants again. I need to use so much san pro on heavy days that I do not associate san pro with comfort.

There's nothing indecent or unclean about it.

I think the free bleeders are on a scale, from the 'in your face' militant types, to people who just decide they can't be bothered on days when its likely to be very light spotting.

I don’t understand the correlation between not being ashamed and let it all run free
Surely you can plug yourself up but still be unashamed you wouldn’t stand and wee on the spot or poo in public but you not ashamed of those actions
Are you ashamed of your breasts, of course not but you don’t walk down the street with them hanging out
Are you ashamed of your nether region, of course not but likewise you aren’t going to show it to all and sundry
It’s about decency, cleanliness and comfort and it’s surely not decent to bleed all over the gaffe and it’s certainly not comfortable chafes your thighs
And don’t read any further if you have a nervous disposition Didn’t any of you guys ever have clots can you imagine them running down to your plates of meat
Well notanan it was as necessary as a pair of kecks for me and thanks to whoever invented tampons

so if free bleeding makes you feel better about the whole thing I suppose it is good for you

It was more the realisation that it just isnt necessary , heavy days aside.

I don't wear a lot of white so the stains do visibly wash out of colours and obv black so staining is not an issue for me and I dont need to do any extra stain removal so long as laundry is done promptly and its not left to fully dry...which is not an issue with one teen and one nearly teen: the machine is on daily anyway! So blood stains go in still dampish so machine wash right out.

I haven't read that one. Yet!

notanan your experiences have obviously affected you deeply,so if free bleeding makes you feel better about the whole thing I suppose it is good for you. Personally I was never made to feel guilty about menstruating just that it was a woman's thing and men didn't need to know about it. As there were so many other things like ironing and cooking men didn't get involved in either it wasn't a huge issue.
I do remember that removing a blood stain from fabric was much more difficult and needed salt. The invention of stain removers has made it much easier. The idea that staining was a problem was probably as much the result of such practicalities as of the prejudice and taboos surrounding the subject.

I think it was interesting just how many women perceived their own vaginal discharge to be abnormally heavy & felt it was abnormal to not feel dry.

The internal vagina hygiene regimes on the other thread were a bit eye watering

So many different, totally opposing views on that thread, and people just reacting in the strangest ways to others' opinions and experiences.
I loved it!

There was also one on vaginal hygiene that highlighted some strange views (the fossilized tampon thread)

I read that too. It was fascinating.

Its strange: I read the most fascinating discussion on mumsnet the other day about panty liners!
It became a huge long thread, with a whole myriad of strongly held views, misconceptions, and so on.

Its also cheaper to keep your san pro to just the days when you really can't do without it IMO.

MissAdventure

I imagine that kind of thing makes up the lions share of free bleeding. Just not bothering on light days.

Giving it a name presents it as an option
Growing up I pieced together my period education from a mix of product promotion and peer mythology. There are so many "light flow" products, combined with the way peers talked about periods made me think that any trace of blood must be caught in a dedicated san pro product, otherwise its "disgusting". I didn't know it was optional on light days. You may think that makes me stupid but I was muddling through puberty as best I could.

I think I've done some free bleeding, now I come to think of it.
The last few months before the menopause were very light, so, I often didn't worry too much if I was home.

*Today 20:27 Jalima1108

I think you and women like you are doing so many impoverished girls a disservice notanan. This will not help them, but donating to a charity to help provide them with sanitary products so that they feel able to go to school, get an education and look forward to a better life will help them.

Why not donate the money you save by not buying sanitary products to one of these charities, or any one which helps these girls?

www.mediaclubsouthafrica.com/youth-and-education/44-developmentnews/3718-project-set-up-to-give-girls-dignity
www.actionaid.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/womens-economic-empowerment/periods-and-girls-education

Or buy what you would normally have bought before you decided to do this and put the products into the food bank?*

What a bizarre post! In what way does free bleeding prevent me from giving to charity? Such a strange conclusion to draw.

And incorrect. I have been involved in a group that provides san pro to refugee camps as well as personally donating san pro to the local womens homeless hostel.

Thanks Jalima for the links, I have already added tampons to my food bank contribution.

I can’t believe this! I could never have not used protection. My periods were of the tap turned on variety!

Do these Free Bleeders travel on pubic transport? The thought of what some may leave behind. Eugh!

I think you and women like you are doing so many impoverished girls a disservice notanan. This will not help them, but donating to a charity to help provide them with sanitary products so that they feel able to go to school, get an education and look forward to a better life will help them.

Why not donate the money you save by not buying sanitary products to one of these charities, or any one which helps these girls?

www.mediaclubsouthafrica.com/youth-and-education/44-developmentnews/3718-project-set-up-to-give-girls-dignity
www.actionaid.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/womens-economic-empowerment/periods-and-girls-education

Or buy what you would normally have bought before you decided to do this and put the products into the food bank?

Still very angry!
I think that you need to get over yourself.

Menstruation is not a cut. A cut is a problem that needs to be fixed.

Do you let the blood drip everywhere, including when you're preparing food?

I dont prepare food between my legs. What kind of contortionist situations are you imagining?

Children of 10 having first periods in primary school, children who are too poor, or whose carers fail to provide them with sanitary protection are in a very different situation than entitled women.
*The idea that women who have the choice and choose to free bleed will somehow liberate poor kids or women-what a pile of nonsense.
signed, an old feminist*

I was one of those kids who couldnt acquire san pro from home.

I remember thinking that the prospect of leaking through my home made toilet tissue pads was a "nightmare" situation.

A girl in my class did leak quite significantly and people talked and joked about it for years. YEARS . The story followed her from primary to secondary school. Can you imagine? I was TERRIFIED that that might happen to me too.

A few years later I was at a sleepover and an older girl completely nonchalantly said "oh, there's period blood on my nightie, I'm going to go rinse it". I was blown away that she A. didnt hide it and try to quietly sneak off to clean it without anyone noticing, and B. That it wasnt "social suicide" for a leak to happen.

I think had a marathon runner leaked and not skulked off in a desperate effort to hide it, scared child me would have thought "wow, it happens and it doesn't have to be the end of the world"
If someone made fun of me I might have learnt to say "and? So what? Are you SCARED of a bit of period blood?" . It wouldnt have made day to day life any better, I still wouldnt have had proper san pro, but it might have made the prospect of potential leaks slightly less terrifying.

What do you do if you cut your finger notanan?
Do you let the blood drip everywhere, including when you're preparing food?

Just Yuk !!!