The Camp Gyno high-fives our periods

Menstruation demonstration! The Camp Gyno video shows that it can be simple to make the monthly “red badge of courage” seem pretty cool and laid back – even fun! 

I can’t decide what my favorite part of the video is, but it comes down to one of these two: when The Camp Gyno casually uses the word “vadge”, after she aggressively squeezes a ketchup bottle attached to a doll, or when, frustrated by the competition of care packages, she whines: “It’s like Santa, for your vagina!”

So, what are we watching? A commercial from Helloflo, a business who sends out period kits, based on whether you prefer pads or tampons, or are dealing with a small or big bottle of ketchup (light or heavy flow).

The awesome twist? It’s timed to your cycle! Oh, and they treat periods as something natural and straightforward, of course. We’ve got to love some entrepreneurship in the blood-coming-out-of-our-vaginas-department.

The hilarious Camp Gyno stomping around is a high-five to our blood-producing uteruses. It has the same “What’s the big deal?” attitude as the scene in HBO’s Girls, when Hannah mentions that her period always comes as a surprise and casually complains, “That’s why all my underwear is covered in weird stains.”

Our periods are rarely talked about in that relaxed way on TV and in films (or at all), so when it happens, it deserves to be high-fived back. Because in the end, even if period cramps, expensive pads, and weird stains can annoy us, they’re just our bodies — we might as well make it fun!

Siri Nybakk is a Norwegian journalist currently working on her Master’s degree at University of San Francisco. Her thesis is about how organizations and activism can spark a change to how women are portrayed in the media. As a feminist, she is especially passionate about how female sexuality is represented and the awesomeness of Swedish feminist cartoons.