WARNING: Photos may be NSFW; they may be too graphic for some people as blood can be seen.
Recently, the popular imageboard website, 4chan has been on a mission to convince women that feminine hygiene products are a form of oppression and they should not be utilized. What started out to be a bunch of teenage boys sharing a couple of silly hashtag trends have influenced feminists to fall for it and now, a highly disturbing “feminist trend” is born.
“Operation Freebleeding” or “Free Bleeding” describes an act in which a woman who is menstruating chooses to let her blood flow freely out of her body, staining her clothes and thighs, flowing to wherever it may end up, instead of using feminine hygiene products.
The idea behind this trend consists of two ideas – First off, a woman’s menstrual cycle should not be considered unclean or unnatural, and it surely shouldn’t be considered as something to be hidden before it offends or irks out anyone. Secondly, pads, tampons and other feminine hygiene products are man-made inventions, thus, furthering the point that women are living in a world run by men.
These two reasons combined, have led some women to make a stand against wearing products which absorb, collect and discard the menstrual flow. By letting it run freely, they believe that it is nature’s way intended for them to deal with their periods.
However, for regular women like us, this idea is nasty and extremely revolting. Not to mention, the conservative and traditionalist Malaysian community would eminently reject the slightest thought of this impractical act.
Dismissing hygiene and health as the least of our concerns when it comes to letting our blood flow freely, we highly doubt that this filthy trend would be of any help to advancing our human species.
What do you think of “free bleeding”? Yay or nay? Let us know in the comments section below!
[UPDATE 11/2/2014]
As mentioned earlier in the article, this trend was merely a hoax started out by trolling teenage boys who decided to create fake social media accounts and fake pages by using the hashtag #freebleeding, with a mission to make fun of the feminist movement and create fake outrage over the use of female hygiene products. These boys sure did garner the attention of people worldwide, and although this is pretty much just a fabricated fad, we still find the need to discuss the issue as we believe that it somehow or rather, did harm feminist ideals. Your thoughts?
