7 Times TV & The Movies Showed What It’s Really Like To Get Your Period
Modibodi leak-proof underwear for periods, pee, perspiration and post-pregnancy - the eco-friendly alternative to pads, liners or tampons that keep you dry and comfy every day of your flow.
Hollywood doesn’t have the greatest track record when it comes to matters of menstruation. That period gag from Superbad? Pretty offensive and frankly kind of inaccurate. The locker room scene from Carrie? A bit much, really.
But, every now and then, we’re delivered an honest take on what it’s actually like to ride the crimson wave: often painful, occasionally messy, and mostly just a bit of an inconvenience. From those turbulent PMS emotions to the ways you improvise when your monthly visit arrives ahead of schedule, here’s seven times TV and movies showed what it’s really like to get your period… complete with blood, sweat and tears.
#1 When Vada grappled with the injustice of it all on My Girl
Ah, your first period. It can, as Vada from My Girl taught us, feel confusing, scary and distinctly like you’re haemorrhaging. The I’m-about-to-die feeling passes but the realisation that “It’s not fair, nothing happens to boys” is an eternal mood.
Imagine, for a second, if Vada was living that experience in 2019, when high-tech products like those made by Modibodi make the whole experience decidedly less daunting. We’ve come a long way since 1991, fam.
#2 Jessica’s uncontrollable emotions on New Girl
Ladies, if you find yourself brought to tears by the sight of a puppy in a teacup, odds are Aunty Flow is on the way.
That’s what happens to Zooey Deschenal’s Jessica in this New Girl scene – she has a job interview while hardcore PMSing, is shown an unbearably cute photo of a now-deceased dog and promptly starts blubbering. Because, honestly: “This cup is so tiny. How did she fit in the cup? I don’t understand. Just physically, how did she get so small?”
#3 The everyone’s-synced-up scene from No Strings Attached
Men should heed the moral of this scene from 2011 romcom No Strings Attached: don’t enter an apartment full of menstruating women without cupcakes.
Ashton Kutcher’s Adam proves himself when he brings baked goods and a period-themed mix CD (featuring, um, ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’, ‘Red Red Wine’ and Leona Lewis’ ‘Bleeding Love’) to Natalie Portman’s place, where all three female housemates are currently synced up and feeling very sorry for themselves.
An extra tip of the hat to Greta Gerwig for declaring that “it’s like a crime scene in my pants”.
#4 The toilet paper trick on The Runaways
It is an undeniable fact of life that your period always – ALWAYS – comes at the worst possible moment. So, when Dakota Fanning’s young Cherie Currie in The Runaways gets hers before a night out, she’s forced to resort to the time-honoured emergency method of shoving a bunch of toilet paper in her undies. We’ve all been there (though, now that we’re a little older and wiser, we can circumvent the need for said emergency methods by whacking on a pair of Modibodi period undies when we’re due).
#5 When it came at a really, REALLY bad time on Broad City
No-one does menstruation quite like the girls from Broad City. First, there was the time where Ilana put on her “period pants” – a pair of jeans with a blood stain on them – to smuggle a little something green through airport security.
Then there was the episode where Abbi got her monthly mid-flight. Without a sanitary product available, the girls are forced to improvise and construct a device made out of random objects from the plane – you know, twine, shoelaces and “heavy-duty scissors”. Next, a flight attendant overhears her and Ilana discuss the situation (“Any second there’s gonna be blood like, everywhere”) and thinks they’re planning a terrorist attack. It’s classic Broad City misadventure gold.
#6 “You’re bleeding” from The Blue Lagoon
Brooke Shields yelling at the nearest man to “just go away” is about how we feel once a month, too.
#7 The I-get-really-bad-nosebleeds blag from She’s The Man
We may not all have disguised ourselves as a male sibling to play soccer à la Viola in She’s The Man, but we’ve certainly all been in a situation where we didn’t feel like admitting to an audience that we’re on our period. The ad-lib cover story here is iconic (and is actually a very clever way to deal with nosebleeds).
This article originally appeared on Junkee.
—
If you haven’t tried Modibodi period and pee-proof undies and swimwear yet, check out the Modibodi website to get your first pair. The reviews for these are so good (you can see them onsite) and Modibodi believe you will love them too, so much so, that they offer a 30 day money back guarantee if you don’t love them*. *T&Cs apply and are on the site.
—
(Lead image: Modibodi)