{"id":35446,"date":"2011-04-26T10:12:29","date_gmt":"2011-04-26T15:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=35446"},"modified":"2013-11-11T03:20:26","modified_gmt":"2013-11-11T08:20:26","slug":"sparkly-kotex-pads-for-tweens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2011\/04\/26\/sparkly-kotex-pads-for-tweens\/","title":{"rendered":"Sparkly Kotex Pads for Tweens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Way back in 2008 Gwen wrote a great post using data showing the ways in which social context influences average age of menstruation<\/a>. \u00a0The average age is, it turns out, different across countries, across different groups within countries, and has been changing throughout history. \u00a0In the U.S., it has been dropping and the average age (note: average, not earliest) is now about 12-years-old.<\/p>\n

In response, Kotex has now introduced a website and a line of pads and panty liners for girls 8-years-old and up<\/a>. \u00a0Leigh, from Wherapy<\/a>, sent us a link.<\/p>\n

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Meant to appeal to tweens, the product is packaged with bright colors, stars, and hearts. It’s decidedly cute and girly:<\/p>\n

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And also a bit smaller than “regular” products:<\/p>\n

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I’m not exactly sure what to make of the whole thing. \u00a0The age of menarche (first menstruation) is <\/em>going down. \u00a0And girls need (as we called it in my family) “personal products.” \u00a0And I’ll give it to Kotex that tweenifying the products with sparkles, stars, and hearts doesn’t just sell them, but may help girls feel better about getting their periods (on the assumption that some have mixed or negative feelings about it).<\/p>\n

All that said. \u00a0This is a fascinating moment in U.S. history reflecting, simultaneously, capitalism, the social construction of youth, and the circular relationship between biology and society.<\/p>\n

Via Jezebel<\/a>.<\/p>\nLisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em>American Hookup<\/a>, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em>Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a>.\u00a0You can follow her on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Way back in 2008 Gwen wrote a great post using data showing the ways in which social context influences average age of menstruation. \u00a0The average age is, it turns out, different across countries, across different groups within countries, and has been changing throughout history. \u00a0In the U.S., it has been dropping and the average age […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[664,223,98,55,2099,23703],"class_list":["post-35446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-biology","tag-childrenyouth","tag-capitalism","tag-gender","tag-gender-childrenyouth","tag-marketing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35446"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58900,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35446\/revisions\/58900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}