the mysterious sanitary napkin

disclaimer: the following post should be treated academically and with an open mind. **i have thought that it may be deemed offensive to some. but this disclaimer is used to give each reader a heads up that no offensement or in any way, was intended.

ever since i was a kid, i always have these fascinations with sanitary napkins. not because i want to wear them. but because i never really understood what they are for and how come they are being handed so discreetly and by women alone. i wondered how come my mom, aunts and older cousins would actually hide it from view. they would even ask the store to wrap it with brown paper.

so being the curious kid i was, one day, i climbed my mom's cabinet and reached a box of napkins to have a close look at it.i pulled up one from the box and it has an odd shape that reminded me of the bath soap we were using. it was also made of plain cotton that reminded me of my baby sister's diapers. but there is no belt nor strap: it was just there lying flat.

"nothing special," i thought.

then at the bottom part of it, i felt and saw a sticker cover. so i excitedly peeled it off. after determining it was indeed a sticker, i immediately went downstairs and stick it to our refrigerator, that was already filled with mostly lion king and pocahontas stickers (those that came in free in maggi noodles before), that my siblings and i are religiously collecting. my mom went hysterical when she arrived home and saw the napkin hanging on our refrigerator's door. she immediately ask us who put the napkin on there. no one was admitting it. my siblings didn't actually saw me. so they can't seriously blame me as well. then my siblings started crying and i was about to cry as well. so i raised my hand and bursted to tears. my mom gave me a spank or two and immediately peeled the napkin out from the metal box and threw it to the bin.
i cried the whole night, not because of the spank but because my mom never told me the reason why she spanked me or atleast, explain to me what the sanitary napkin is really for. ever since that moment, i never asked myself anything nor gained any interest/curiousity about it anymore. until i grew up, i have associated napkin with something forbidden. a thing that should never be discussed: like the character of lord voldemort in the harry potter series. in other words, napkin for me spells trouble. i was already in college when i came across with it once again. i lived in a coed apartment in baguio, which was basically consist of friends and org mates from school.
one morning, while i am waiting for my turn for the bath room. i saw camille, one of my housemates, infront of me in the line. i remembered i was drinking coffee and observing her while she was fixing her bathing stuffs: her undergarments, her tooth brush, her soap, facial cleanser, shampoo and conditioner. i even remembered she was just wearing a towel wrapped around her and it seemed like she woke up on the wrong side of her bed or probably she was already late for her class. then she gasped, she forgot something. she immediately ran to her room and even shouted at me, not to cut before her. ofcourse i didn't, being in an apartment were girls over numbering the boys, pissing them off is the last thing that you would do. there were even times while i was living there, that i actually no longer believe that our society is patriarch. just kidding!
anyhow, it didn't really took that long when she came back. she was carrying a small plastic box that was pretty familiar. i have just realized what it was when i saw the brand name, it was a napkin. she pulled a piece out of it and unwrapped it. she peeled the sticker cover at the bottom and carefully placed it on her underwear. i was amazed!
she saw me with the face and gave me a frown. uh-oh, i think i totally pissed her off. "what are you staring at? is this the first time you saw a napkin?" then the bath room's door opened and another housemate went out, his lips were deep red and trembling. smoke was even coming out of his mouth (from that moment, i figured out that heater was broke again). camille gathered her things and immediately went in. i was left there sitting on my chair, amazed and mesmerized with the fact that i have finally discovered what the napkin is for and how it is use.
four years after, i was standing inside the lrt-purple line station in cubao, waiting for the train. good thing that they have this jollibee board to give their passengers a heads up when the train will arrive. after 30 seconds the train arrived in a very odd paintcolor. it was a combination of blue, pink and what have you. there were also flowers and lady cartoons that accentuated the entire puv. then a huge brand name passed by me. it was the same napkin brand camille was using before.
the picture of the train was truly jaw dropping. the entire train was covered with the actual wrapper design of the napkin brand.
i was even quite hesitant to go inside at first. for even the inside was designed with various icons and designs: there were various women icons that were making up, biking, reading book, drinking coffee etc. from the moment i rode the train and dropped off from my station, the ambience made me realized what a napkin is inside its container. i have became a napkin for 15 minutes of my life.
there were so many things going inside my head after that ride. basically, with regard to the question, why women are discreet when it comes to buying and using napkins?aside from the practical reason that they don't want other people to know that they are presently having their periods and what have you. whats to hide? is it to hide it from people so that they won't know that one has her monthly period? well, i may sound pa-naive but i really don't understand? does somebody have an idea? is society has something to do with it again?
then i realized, my fascination to sanitary napkins seemed endless and i just can't stop asking for more. i thought if only i was in this gender class when i was still in college, where all the boys in the class were required to wear a napkin for one whole day and they discussed it afterwards, probably i now have an idea about this things.
but let me try. here is my thought about the subject in a social anthropological perspective. across some societies, menarche are often deemed as something unpure, dirty and even bringer of bad fortune. click here.

this concept mostly lived among societies of extreme patriarchy. although such belief is not applicable in the country, there are some that still believe that menarche symbolizes a woman's weakness and vulnerabiltiy. well everything that is deemed to be feminine or feminine in character in a patriarchal society is always deemed to be such. hence, menarche is not an exemption.
sanitary napkins, on the other hand, is an object that has a direct association with a woman's menstrual period. subliminally, a woman sees herself vulnerable and weak (especially if her period comes with dysmenorrhea for that matter) whenever she has her period. she is unable to move much and conscious in every movement she makes. thus, having or carrying a sanitary napkin can be deemed as something that shows her vulnerability and weaknesses on such occasion.and again, this is just my thought.