At only 25, Nadya Okamoto has already been on the Forbes 30 for 30 list and is the CEO of a feminine hygiene company, August.
I’m truly blown away by the Harvard grad’s drive, follow-through, and passion.
And I’d like to say, sincerely: You go, menstruator!
Sound ridiculous and dehumanizing? I’m simply borrowing Okamoto’s own parlance.
This week, the August CEO appeared on a “CBS Mornings” segment to talk about August — but she excluded and demeaned her lone customer base: women.
Throughout the interview, Okamoto repeatedly referred to females as “menstruators” — reducing 50% of the world’s population to one, albeit one very important, function of our bodies.
All the while, host Gayle King gave enthusiastic exclamations of affirmation.
It seems like a strange marketing tactic — treating your one target demo like the Harry Potter villain Voldemort, who “must not be named.”
Even August’s website says its products are for “everyone who menstruates.” Everyone? Even apes?
In one breath Okamoto recognized the beauty of monthly cycles — saying periods “make life possible” — but then fumbled by adding: “And yet history and society has built up this stigma that makes menstruators feel so ashamed.”
Later in the interview, she revealed why she wasn’t uttering the “w” word: “I think especially in this age of transphobia it really means a lot to us to be a proudly gender-inclusive brand,” Okamoto said.
Oof. If we were previously in the fourth wave of feminism, then this is the goodbye wave to the entire concept.
But Okamoto isn’t the lone guilty party here. Places like CNN, NPR, and even the White House have tried to change our language and refer to women as “individuals with a cervix,” “birthing people,” “menstruators” and “uterus owners” — all to make men who would like to buy a vagina feel more comfortable.
Even the Centers for Disease Control is now giving tips to trans women on how to “chestfeed” babies. No ma’am, we can’t call it breastfeeding anymore.
If we’re going to reduce women to one basic function, then in the name of equality, we should call men “ejaculators.” It’s only fair.
Call me old-fashioned, but I grew up in an era where companies advertised their innovation, high-quality materials, craftsmanship, and edge over their competition.
According to Target, a 16-pack of August tampons is $9.99 while a box of 24 Tampax will cost $10.19.
So why is August worth the extra scratch? Sure, it’s “sustainable,” but Okamoto’s essentially saying it’s because the brand has far-left “inclusive” values.
Cool. But progressive ideals aren’t going to reliably absorb monthly periods.
On CBS, Okamoto also bemoaned society’s “stigma” about our monthly cycles and “young menstruators” not knowing enough about their own health.
‘It makes us feel like there’s something wrong with our bodies. We’re taught that period blood is this ‘contaminable’ disgusting thing,” she said.
I don’t remember this being such an issue in the 1980s and ’90s, beyond the initial embarrassment that comes with your first few periods. Girls learn to navigate pool parties and sports with surprise visits from Aunt Flo — all rites of passage on the way to womanhood.
Perhaps if some schools and radical trans activists didn’t teach our children that they can be any gender they’d like, there would be less confusion when nature starts taking its course.
As for August and Okamoto, I don’t trust my health to a company that refuses to even acknowledge a simple biological fact: women alone, bleed.
However, we are not bleeders. This is a massively important distinction.
