Dude Raises $160K on Kickstarter for Horror Show Period Underwear

Some dude has created a Kickstarter for Period Panties, which are special underpants with lurid cartoons on them that you can wear when you’re on your period. Period Panties are meant to helpfully eliminate the difficulty of explaining to your significant other that you are menstruating (because saying “I am on my period” takes so much more effort than purchasing and donning undergarments with Evil Vagina jokes printed on them). As of now, 6 days into the funding period, he’s raised over $160,000.

The designs include a vicious werewolf (“Bleeder of the Pack”), a devil (“Bloody Hell”), a blood-besmeared vampire (“Cunt Dracula”) and Carrie from the horror movie (“Curse of Blood”), among others. The product’s creator, Anthony Hall — who is notably not Anthony Michael Hall — bills Period Panties as “fun underwear that high-fives you for being a woman and serves as a warning to others!” Because nothing says “high-five, you’re a woman!” like warning people away from your vagina with a pair of novelty underwear emblazoned with the word “cunt.”

I get it: it’s a joke. And it’s one that people love, clearly. To me, though, the fact that the humor lies in the idea that “something that regularly happens to most women’s bodies once a month is gross and hilarious!!!! LOL!!” sucks. Making stale visual puns about how periods are weird and scary is neither a cute lil’ jest nor a tongue-in-cheek celebration of womanhood — it’s just a repetition of the same old sexist garbage one encounters every day. “Ha ha, a vagina turns into a monster and/or an ill-tempered Internet meme once a month because blood comes out of it! Horny dudes, beware!” Wow, that’s one the world has never heard before. Anthony Hall is a true pioneer in his field of humor.

Another concern this Kickstarter raises: what does this guy think happens when one is menstruating? Does he think one’s feminine undercarriage turns into the lobby from The Shining? Also, has he never heard of period sex? And does he know that the whole “period underwear” thing has been done before — both by lingerie companies and by women everywhere who just purchase cheap, dark-colored underwear (without ugly cartoon beavers and “pussy” jokes on them)?