OK, full disclosure – sometimes PMT is bad. Really bad. My housemate once found me curled up on the floor of my bedroom in the fetal position, in the dark, howling with tears because I was pre-menstrual and couldn’t find the key to our garden gate. No clues for guessing it wasn’t really access to our garden that was making me break down in sobs.
But however bad some bouts of PMT can be, they’re usually pretty rare and in the vast majority of cases, women make it through that time of the month without succumbing to their so-called ‘tidal wave’ of hormones and turning into screaming, weeping, raging banshee-like creatures. In fact, I’d hazard a guess most of the time we don’t even notice we’re about to come on, let alone any of the people around us.
Not that you’d know it based on some of the frankly ridiculous products on offer at the moment. PMTea, is a new herbal tea which, for £9.99, promises to cure you of all your PMT stereotypes, including ‘mood swings’, ‘raging hormones’ and ‘weeping’ to make the week before the painters and decorators come in less stressful.
Here’s a clue – we’d be a lot less stressed without people trying to flog us these passive-aggressive kinds of products.
Predictably, the packaging features images of three different women looking respectably sullen, world-weary and tearful and it got us thinking – what other outrageous stereotypes of women with PMT are being pushed in stock imagery online?
PMT stock shots
1 of 4Stereotype One: The Weeper
'Woe is me,' she wailed, desperately clutching a bar of Galaxy and a DVD of the Notebook in one hand and a bumper box of Kleenex in the other. 'However will I make it into work today when the tears that are constantly streaming from my PMT-riddled body are obscuring my vision?!'
Answers on a postcard please...
2 of 4Stereotype Two: The Hot Water Bottle Hogger
'I don't care if you're freezing, I need a hot water bottle IMMEDIATELY or else my womb will involuntarily implode!! And it better have a pink furry kitten on there for good measure, otherwise how will anyone know it's for a delicate woman in the midst of her "curse" and not just a regular, run of the mill hot water bottle like other "normal" humans use?'
3 of 4Stereotype Three: Fire Pit Groin
If your women spontaneously combusts into flames every time you get PMT, it might be time to go and see a doctor. Just saying.
4 of 4Stereotype Four: The Raging Bull
'How dare you interrupt me when I'm curling my hair?! You just wait until I take these curlers out and I'll open a can of PMT-related whoop ass all over you. You brute.'
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.