Girls get periods. Women get periods. It's a monthly part of life for us that men just don't have much insight into. That, plus a general fear of blood (how many times have you heard that 'joke' 'sorry, but I just don't trust anything that bleeds for five days and doesn't die'?) means that there's a fear of menstruation. Even though if men had periods, well, they'd probably high-five each other for it. As it stands, periods are generally something we don't talk about and keep secret, even from other women.
READ MORE: Let’s All Get Over Being Ashamed Of Our Periods, Shall We
Well now these two female coders, known only as Andy and Sophie, are here to change all of that through a game called TamponRun. Coming at exactly the right time (and who can say that of a period?) just as women in gaming are a hot topic of conversation/trolling (it's 2014, FFS), guns are swapped for tampons in the 8-bit game you can control with your keyboard.
Play it here! www.tamponrun.com
If you can't right now, read on.
The intro, set across a red background and a massive red wave, explains the premise. 'The taboo that surrounds [menstruation] teaches women that a normal and natural bodily function is embarrassing and crude. Tampon Run is a way of discussing the taboo in an accessible way. Instead of holding a gun, the runner holds tampons, and instead of shooting enemies, the runner throws tampons at them.'
And the part that got us doing our airpunching was: 'Although the concept of the video may be strange, it's stranger that our society has accepted and normalised guns and violence through video games, yet we still find tampons and menstruation unspeakable. Hopefully one day menstruation will be as normal if not more so than guns and violence have become in our society.'
READ MORE: Things That Come Up When You Discuss Period Sex At Length
The best part of the game? It's pretty fun to play (you jump to grab boxes of tampons, you kill enemies by throwing tampons at them and if they catch you, you're out of tampons so you lose) and it takes some skill to get very far at all.
Some might say that using tampons as weapons doesn't send the greatest message, but the game is not about to pretend that people aren't freaked out by menstruation, and how else could they figure tampons into an 8-bit game? Plus, it's about 85 times less stressful than an actual tampon run, even if you haven't muted that irritating jingle music playing in the background.
Like this? Then you might also be interested in:
A Few Minefields You Had To Deal With When You First Got Your Period
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.