Jennifer Derwey of ProWomanProLife posted a link this morning to an ad for HelloFlo, a “care package” service for girls and women to help them discreetly handle … the monthly perk of being female. While I appreciate the idea, the explicit nature of the commercial held my attention longer than the description of the service itself. A girl, who appears to be about age nine, appoints herself the official gynecologist and expert on feminine matters at her summer camp. Women, even the youngest of us, need to learn how their reproductive system works. The first step is calling things by their proper names. The young camper uses the word “vagina,” as she should. She also uses slang terms that are unbecoming and artificial if used anywhere other than a Grey’s Anatomy clip. They certainly should not be heard from the mouths of our nine-year-old sisters.
This ad promotes an idea that quite a few women are grateful for, even if we do not need all the ways we “treat ourselves” during that time to be in one neat and decorated box. Yet somehow, HelloFlo has been made an excuse for the know-it-all attitude and almost-sexy swagger of a 16-year-old to be transferred to someone much younger. Claire Chretien of the conservative blog CounterCultured has similar concerns, which you can read here.
Taylor Hyatt is a Summer student at The Interim.
