It is absolutely a thing among conservative circles. I’ve known young women whose own mothers scared them away from using tampons because they said it would break the hymen and then you could no longer prove you’re a virgin (or some claim that you truly aren’t a virgin anymore, as though you can lose your virginity to a tampon) so then you’ll be considered unclean and no decent man will want you anymore.
It’s gobsmackingly stupid but it is very very real.
It’s definitely “a thing” in the US, but the comment I replied to said only married women were “allowed” to buy them. I took that to mean allowed by law.
Maybe that was too much of an assumption.
Regardless, we’re talking about power structures denying bodily autonomy to women which, I think we can agree, is fucking disgusting.
It was not legally enforced but it was socially enforced trough stores refusing to sell them to you and mothers calling you a whore if they find them in your room.
This source is paired with multiple posts on r/XYchromosomes where their mothers associates tampons with being sexually active and an anecdote from Jo Brand on QI where she casually talks about having to use disgusting rags because the store would not sell her tampons.
It is absolutely a thing among conservative circles. I’ve known young women whose own mothers scared them away from using tampons because they said it would break the hymen and then you could no longer prove you’re a virgin (or some claim that you truly aren’t a virgin anymore, as though you can lose your virginity to a tampon) so then you’ll be considered unclean and no decent man will want you anymore.
It’s gobsmackingly stupid but it is very very real.
It’s definitely “a thing” in the US, but the comment I replied to said only married women were “allowed” to buy them. I took that to mean allowed by law.
Maybe that was too much of an assumption.
Regardless, we’re talking about power structures denying bodily autonomy to women which, I think we can agree, is fucking disgusting.
It was not legally enforced but it was socially enforced trough stores refusing to sell them to you and mothers calling you a whore if they find them in your room.
https://feddit.nu/comment/9831035
This source is paired with multiple posts on r/XYchromosomes where their mothers associates tampons with being sexually active and an anecdote from Jo Brand on QI where she casually talks about having to use disgusting rags because the store would not sell her tampons.