Pinky Gloves – or: When the brainstorming session is stopped too early

Warning: This text may contain traces of sarcasm on the part of the author

Every careless glance into the bathroom trash can can inevitably leave you in a state of shock. Stuffy, red-dripping disgrace from your roommates stares back at you and almost mocks you. You don't know what to do, helplessness sets in. Emptying the bag doesn't seem to be an option, and enduring this hideously indiscreet sight certainly doesn't seem to be an option.

Since the uterus is unfortunately missing for solidarity-based bleeding, another solution is needed. You are a doer type, you can do it - but not alone. You collect your thoughts. Who is the best person to contact here? Who knows best about periods? That's right: your male roommate, your fellow sufferer.

Soon you'll even talk to those responsible about the problem and you'll find a way. Of course not you and your female roommates, no: you and your male companion. You who constantly have to endure this ignoble sight. Not only does this approach seem to prevent possible herpes and solve all shared apartment problems, it could even be lucrative.

As you do, as a “real woman understander”, you tinker and work on your idea. You ask friends, real people affected by menstruation, so to speak. But it would be going too far to involve them in the company, so you can work it out with your friend. You bring a product onto the market and want to make it big. After all, you have just revolutionized the feminine hygiene product disposal market and thus provided women with a valuable service. You know what women need! So: bring on the money! But somehow things turn out differently than planned.

What I have exaggerated a bit here happened in a similar way.

Two men, Eugen Raimkulow and André Ritterswürden, meet in the Bundeswehr, become friends and move into a shared apartment with women. There they find the feminine hygiene products in the trash can unpleasant. So André and Eugen develop “Pinky Gloves”. A pink glove (because women like pink best) with which women will be able to dispose of their menstrual products “hygienically, leak-proof, odorless” and, above all, “discreetly”.

They present this in a pitch on the television show “The Lions’ Den” in order to push their company and attract an investor. Here they talk about how the idea came about and what development they have had behind them and what the product can do - in style with a pink toilet in the presentation room that every woman knows from her own four walls. Discarded tampons and sanitary pads would smell unpleasant after a while and even when rolled up in toilet paper you would see the soaked piece of cotton. “It’s just pretty unpleasant,” say the founders.

The glove is also perfect for on the go. Optimal - This meant he had the “lion” Carsten Maschmeyer on the hook, who apparently often found it a thorn in his side when his female companion simply disposed of her tampon where she was standing during a walk in the forest. Who hasn't experienced this before? I myself constantly stumble across used tampons in the forest, hiding in the branches like mines. This is not only dangerous, but also harmful to the environment! Ugh Bah! (By the way, what also harms the environment are plastic gloves that are individually wrapped in plastic - just saying)

Where would we end up if women simply waited until the next time they went to the toilet to change their hygiene products? Draping beautiful patterns on the forest floor with the tampons sounds much more attractive.

The end of the song: An investor is found, Ralf Dümmel (also a man, by the way), the founders are happy that things can now really get started and then it happens: The shitstorm erupts over the inventors of the pink glove with the adhesive strip.

The criticism from many quarters is, among other things: pinky gloves are unnecessary, unsustainable and stigmatize menstruation. It suggests that menstruation is something to be hidden, something to be ashamed of.

And now here I come – a woman and a menstruator and therefore somewhat biased when it comes to this topic.

I don't actually want to accuse the founders of the start-up of anything bad, because I fundamentally believe in the good in people. But seriously: It's 2021. We don't have to hide our used tampons from the world in pink, opaque plastic tubes to protect them from their sight. As long as we don't use them as long-distance projectiles or Christmas tree decorations, everyone should be cool with them, right? So we bleed once a month, so what? Most women have had menstrual blood on their hands or other body parts and it hasn't melted us. Really not.

The fact that André and Eugen have now announced in a statement on Instagram that it was not their intention to give the impression that menstruation is something disgusting or unhygienic just shows that they have not dealt with what they want to do to make money . It's nice that you, dear Eugen, dear André, are dealing with the topic, but please don't tell women what they need, because they usually know that best.

I think what women could use much better than pink menstrual gloves would probably be the removal of taboos about menstruation, education and visibility (maybe even lead to trash cans in toilets being a matter of course). And maybe even involvement in things that concern them and a real say but no men to explain to them what solves their “problems” during menstruation. And above all, not another product that you should spend money on during your period. There really is enough. Some of them are even sustainable and well thought out!

If it weren't for this Bohei that turns us into bleeding aliens, things would be more relaxed for us too. Periods are neither disgusting nor something to hide. It is normal and part of us and in most cases we can deal with it well. And if not, we're more likely to ask another woman for advice.

But I would still like to thank you, dear André, dear Eugen. Thanks to your not fully thought out glove, a topic that is otherwise often swept under the table is getting attention.

Source:

TVnow.de

Instagram.com

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