We’ve all been there. You see a bobby pin on the sink or a hair band in the drawer and think: ‘Is that mine?’ You could have left it there weeks ago - but for a millisecond the accessory becomes critical evidence that proves your partner is cheating.
TikTok is once again alive with debate after a 23-year-old named Lois shared how she sent the code from the side of a dust-covered tampon she discovered under the wardrobe in her boyfriend’s university house to Tampax to see if he was cheating on her.
In her video, she told the camera: ‘I’ve just found a tampon and a mascara under Fin’s wardrobe and he’s in denial that he’s had a girl here…There’s not enough dust on it.’
While Fin laughed nervously in the background, Lois emailed Tampax’s customer services. asking: ‘Hello, what is the code on the side of the individual tampon for?...I found it in my boyfriend’s drawer so I am doing some investigation.’
A Tampax employee called Grace, who frankly deserves a pay rise, responded that the code on the wrapper indicated the date the tampon was manufactured. Based on Lois’ code, the tampon under her boyfriend’s wardrobe was made December 11, 2019 — which proved Fin’s innocence, since he moved in to the room after that date.
The comment section to her TikTok quickly erupted, with Tampax heralding Lois an ‘international superspy’ and other women adding: ‘Men really don’t realise how smart we are though.’ Predictably, however, people were also branding Lois ‘psycho’ and telling her boyfriend to ‘run’.
Feeling the need to clear a few things up, Lois explained in a later video: ‘It was my first time in Fin’s house, and I wasn’t looking around…I could see under the wardrobe and was like what the hell is that and so obviously I looked. Prior to this he’d said he’d never had a girl stay in that room. So then, I was like I’ll take things into my own hands.
‘Fin was just sat there like “what the actual f*ck you’re actually nuts”… I went on the Tampax website and I clicked on the “contact us” section not thinking they’d reply. I was staying with Fin for a few weeks in his house, so I thought if I got the reply quicky then I’d be with him, which is what happened.
‘At this point we weren’t together we were speaking kind of seriously for a couple of months so obviously I wanted to make sure everything was fine. Then Tampax emailed back, and we were laughing about it because, obviously, it was a bit of a joke. He just said there were girls that lived there before him… He says it wasn’t him and we actually are together to this day. So, a very happy ending actually.’
Notably, the majority of people calling Lois ‘psycho’ for the investigation were men. The word is in itself misogynistic because, often, it’s used to label women who are showing proportionate emotions as crazy. In many ways, it’s our century’s version of hysteria.
Something that started off as ‘a bit of a joke’ morphed into commenters attacking a 23-year-old’s relationship, personality, and mental health. They branded her ‘sad’ and ‘embarrassing’ over what was clearly all in good spirits, which leads us to question: why is it that deep?
Controlling or paranoid behaviour can, yes, be the downfall of a relationship. But when you’re laughing about the sleuthing together in the early days of dating, it does seem harmless.
If we ever get kidnapped, we definitely want Lois solving the case.
READ MORE: Breaking The Infidelity Pattern: 'How I Finally Gave Up My Cheating Habit'
Is It Actually 'Gutsy' To Stay With A Partner Who Cheated On You?