Reddit Women Fight Trolls With Hilariously Gross Period Talk

Over the last week, Reddit’s front page has erupted into a veritable geyser of menstrual blood, thanks to the trolling efforts of denizens of the site’s female-focused subforums.

The problem started not with Eve’s original sin, but with Reddit moderators’ decision to make TwoXChromosomes a default subreddit. Default subreddits automatically appear on the front page of every Reddit user’s homepage, unless those users specifically unsubscribe. For some subreddits, being made a default is good news; it means that many, many, many more eyeballs are on content posted to that specific forum. But other subreddits prefer the relative anonymity afforded by being able to fly under the radar. Users of TwoXChromosomes had particular reason to be alarmed by an influx of new members; while many users of Reddit are mild mannered normal dudes who aren’t jerks (NOT ALL REDDITORS!), the site has a reputation of attracting a strain of sexist dick weedery that could have proven an unwelcome headache to women who rely on TwoXChromosomes for a sense of community, safety, and support.

So, rather than sitting back and waiting until their subreddit was overrun with MRA trolls, the TXC users went on the offensive. Starting last weekend, users began posting and upvoting the hell out of posts that went into graphic detail about “period shits” and possible new nicknames for menstrual blood clots. Their aim was to get the sort of person who was grossed out by ladytalk to manually unsubscribe from the subreddit, thus leaving them alone to attend to their normal business of talking about girl stuff without being interrupted by a NOT ALL MEN opinion swooping in on a fedora.

It got pretty graphic.

Thus far, TXC users haven’t succeeded in getting their forum removed from Reddit’s defaults, but they have had a helluva time making up fun nicknames for their blood clots.