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The Indian sanitary pad revolutionary

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241–250 of 273 posts

Re: The Indian sanitary pad revolutionary

#241

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Not to offend anyone but Christianity is basically just a crazy death cult. I've been fighting the ignorance of this religion my entire life.

That sounds like a very nuanced view of a complicated and diverse belief system with many different interpretations practiced by different people. No; actually, it sounds like the sort of ignorance and stereotyping that people generally accuse religion of generating.

It doesn't bother me if someone that thinks the Earth is what...6,000 years old and that someone who is gay is a subhuman thing thinks that I'm the ignorant one. It would be like if an otter thought I wasn't a very nice person. The thing is that I've not seen any evidence of someone who has my set of beliefs willfully causing harm to anyone else. But it's pretty easy to see people willfully harming or contributing to the harm of other people in the name of the good book.

Re: The Indian sanitary pad revolutionary

#242
post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to offend anyone but Christianity is basically just a crazy death cult. I've been fighting the ignorance of this religion my entire life.

Try travelling around the world a bit and see for yourself that there's more than to it than the "american brand" of Christianity. European Catholics are more "lightweight" when it comes to their belief and when science and reason contradicts religion they'll take the science/reason way in 9 out of 10 cases. Orthodox Christians in Eastern Europe and Russia have a similar mindset and and they also take things with a g…

I'll agree here. The American brand that has spawned the tea party and is super racist is a crazy death cult. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that somewhere there are good Christians. But I just don't see it in my experience with thousands of then in the USA.

Re: The Indian sanitary pad revolutionary

#243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should also consider the culture these myths create. It forces women to depend on one-another for a significant portion of the time, which, among other things, is a good anti-rape mechanism. Certainly, these are crazy and superstitious, but given the realities of the times they come from, many of them were a net benefit to their rural society (or have minimal impact) - which is how they've survived to this day. W…

I've got to dispute this - India has appalling rates of abuse, rape and mistreatment of women, and I don't believe any systems in place there are helpful. Have you got any citations that might change my opinion?

It is a myth that India has appalling rates of rape. Rape is appalling, but it is fun nowadays to portray India as particularly bad when in reality it is pretty average statistically.[1] For example, rapes per capita: USA (27.3), Sweden (63.5), India (1.8), Canada (1.7). The counter argument generally is that India has lax laws, but to me that is a non-argument.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics#Rape_statistic...

Re: The Indian sanitary pad revolutionary

#244
post #24

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The article mentions that commercial napkins sold for 4 rupees despite cotton being 1/4000th the cost, but also says farther down that the locally produced ones sell for an average of 2.5 rupees each. That's a 38% discount: significant, but it doesn't seem like a game-changing difference to me. I imagine that if this catches on, the larger manufacturers will likely just cut their margins to compete. On a more general…

The 2.5 stayed local and made jobs. Its a huge difference. In essence, he gave the locals "permission" to produce these things for themselves. Wealth disparity is an interesting animal. The rich don't consume 1000's of times more resources than the poor despite having 1000's of times more 'money'. The wealth divide seems to function like an insidious form control wherein the uber-rich are able to deny local markets p…

It is a giant ponzi scheme, what are you gonna do :|. One of the most expensive things one can own is a house, but the house of a poor person is many times cheaper than the house of a rich person. Add the race to have a bigger house and you have got inflation - just when you start to earn 1000 times more you need to pay 2000 times more if you want to live with people of same status.

Re: The Indian sanitary pad revolutionary

#245
post #206

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>> ideas like this are incredibly common in not-so-rural places like in the US. I've never heard of this happening in the US at all, never mind being "incredibly common". Evidence?

I don't want to make assumptions about gender on HN, but if you grew up female it was kind of hard to avoid. You can just search for "tampon virgin" and come up with a ton of sites and people that try to reassure girls that using a tampon doesn't mean you lose your virginity. I also grew up in LA and not in the middle of some super conservative area, but my girlfriends used to freak the hell out when they needed to d…

This is one of those unusual posts to which I have nothing of value to add, but feel compelled anyway to take the time to say that it's one of those insightful perspectives that I find inspiring.

Re: The Indian sanitary pad revolutionary

#246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got to dispute this - India has appalling rates of abuse, rape and mistreatment of women, and I don't believe any systems in place there are helpful. Have you got any citations that might change my opinion?

It is a myth that India has appalling rates of rape. Rape is appalling, but it is fun nowadays to portray India as particularly bad when in reality it is pretty average statistically.[1] For example, rapes per capita: USA (27.3), Sweden (63.5), India (1.8), Canada (1.7). The counter argument generally is that India has lax laws, but to me that is a non-argument. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics#Rape_s…

... per 100000 capita. 27 rapes per person would be a bit high.

Re: The Indian sanitary pad revolutionary

#247
post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a myth that India has appalling rates of rape. Rape is appalling, but it is fun nowadays to portray India as particularly bad when in reality it is pretty average statistically.[1] For example, rapes per capita: USA (27.3), Sweden (63.5), India (1.8), Canada (1.7). The counter argument generally is that India has lax laws, but to me that is a non-argument. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics#Rape_s…

... per 100000 capita. 27 rapes per person would be a bit high.

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Re: The Indian sanitary pad revolutionary

#248

I am from north India and agree that menstruation is still taboo in our culture (mostly in villages). -During menstruation cycle women (mostly married) sleep in separate room, they are not supposed to touch anything and after 4 days all the clothes/bedding they wear/use (even mattress) will be washed. -Most of these rules are tied to religion. -I think when these "rules" were started there were no sanitary pads, so m…

I'm a bit tired of most of the taboos/problems of India being "mostly in villages". My entire family are city dwellers and every time there is an commercial for sanitary napkins on TV, the women have an expression of embarrassment and can't wait for it to get over (whereas scenes of violence from the movies are received perfectly fine).

Re: The Indian sanitary pad revolutionary

#249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very cool! I use cycle for this which only does averaging, which works okay but it's seriously old and clonky. I was wondering why someone hadn't done this already.

Yes...there are plenty of old and clunky apps out there for this =) We're hoping to change that. I really want this space to become something that men and women, alike, will talk about. Good UI and UX has been missing, and women definitely deserve better.

If your company can put out an Android app that can do everything Ovuview Pro can do and include Google Calendar integration (if I want to share my cycle calendar with my S/O), I'd switch immediately.

Re: The Indian sanitary pad revolutionary

#250
post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Worse myths exist around tampons--that a woman who uses a tampon is no longer a virgin. Lest someone believe this is a belief held only in rural areas, let it be clear that ideas like this are incredibly common in not-so-rural places like in the US. It's usually accompanied by some equally ridiculous beliefs about what virginity is in the first place (protip: it's about having sex for the first time, not about whet…

>> ideas like this are incredibly common in not-so-rural places like in the US. I've never heard of this happening in the US at all, never mind being "incredibly common". Evidence?

I'm a guy, and I grew up pretty rural and it was not terribly uncommon for some of these ideas to float around. Many girls I knew were not taught anything at all except all the various religious negatives about women's reproductive bits and as they hit puberty had no idea what to do.

A few teachers in my high school took it upon themselves to provide a sort of underground sex-ed for some of the girls who couldn't get parental permission for the official classes.

There was a fairly large Pentacostal group at my high school (you may recognize them as guys dressed like 1920s farmers and girls with long hair and all denim floor length skirts) and this group of teachers were a virtual life-line for those girls. [1] [2]

1 - To get an idea of what the mindset is read this page and the comments http://www.themodestmomblog.com/2012/07/why-i-wear-skirts-al... and then meditate on why women growing up in this have a terrible lack of knowledge and misunderstandings about their bodies.

2 - And another post on similar, but from somebody who escaped from it all http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2013/06/how-i-u...

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