OMG! o.b.s r kewl!

I bought some o.b. tampons yesterday. When I got them home, I noticed something weird on the box:
There she (?) was, a little cartoon dog on the side of the box with flowers and in crayon-y writing it says, "visit hiobie.com" So I did.

This is what greeted me:


Holy shit. It appears that my tampon of choice has been officially co-opted by tweens. On the home page we can mouse over the various "rooms" and with each one, a little animated Obie (the dog) peeks out to join in the menstrual fun. We can go to school, the movies and my favorite place when I am on the rag: the mall!

What bothers me first: All the writing is dumbed down online-speak.

...and I was like, ttly, like, OMG! Did U, like, take the period test? U can learn that like, it's ttly norm if U get ur boobs before ur "little visitor"...if U have yours and U tell me, I swear I won't tell any1. Having ur period is so ttly embarrassing. OMG!

What bothers me next: obviously girls are starting their periods younger and younger. Several factors contribute this: better nutrition (as compared, say, to the 1800s) all the way around the circle back to poor nutrition and an excess of fat; and something that freaks me out completely -- an "excess of estrogen in the environment". The average age is like 11 or 12 now and falling toward 9 or 10 by 2015 according to several articles posted at the Museum of Menstruation (who knew there even was one?!)

I totally get that if younger and younger girls are starting their periods that pads and tampon companies are going to market to them. It seems like they are making a (somewhat pathetic ) attempt to make it fun and cool and all peppermint candies and downloadable (period themed?) ringtones for girls only, but they miss that mark completely and the overall feeling is that you should treat your period like a dirty little secret and they encourage an underlying hatred of this function by "swearing not to tell anyone!" and having a place to post "period horror stories". Just to be clear, I am realistic about the drag of having a period and I am not suggesting that we build bonfires and eat Luna bars and dance naked under the full moon in a sisterhood menstrual frenzy, but I do know that the way society looks at the biological functions of women has a lot to do with how we are treated and valued and how we treat and value ourselves.

What bothers me most is that starting the self-hatred training so young is a tragedy and SUCH a missed opportunity for this company to be on the right side of bringing girls up to be strong, smart and confident and comfortable with their bodies. Personal Products Inc. (the makers of o.b. the tampon "made by a woman gynecologist",) is the one who should be ashamed, not the little dog who has her period.

Go here to tell o.b. what you think of "obie."