Tampax Somehow Angers Both Right And Left With 'We Are Not The Same' Meme

In yet another example of corporate memeing gone wrong, feminine care company Tampax has somehow managed to anger people from across the political spectrum for different reasons with a We Are Not the Same joke.

Yesterday morning, Tampax tweeted, "You're in their DMs. We're in them. We are not the same."

You're in their DMs. We're in them.
We are not the same.

— Tampax US (@Tampax) November 21, 2022

Without thinking about it too deeply, one can almost see why this would be an on-brand joke for a tampon company. It's technically true that tampons are literally inside their users, so the tweet can generously be viewed as a clever little bit of wordplay.

Twitter has never been thought of by many as having a "generous" readership, however, and the backlash led the hashtag "#BoycottTampax" to trend on Twitter.

Interestingly, the tweet seemingly rubbed many conservatives, TERFs and feminists badly for different reasons. First, some feminists took issue with the tweet, noting that young girls menstruate, so it was inappropriate for the company to make an apparent sex joke when children use it.

You do know it's not just hot 22-year-old women who get their periods, right?

Replace "their" and "them" with 13-year-old girl and see how this reads.

— Jess 🍆👀🤢 (@anonotanon) November 22, 2022

This is vile. The objectification of women & female children (girls may start their periods at 11) continues. #BoycottTampax https://t.co/MJkdsWeAHD

— Dr EM (@PankhurstEM) November 22, 2022

I have 13 & 11 year old girls. You’ll never be ‘in them’. I’ll make damn sure that every mum of every girl I know hears why you shouldn’t be ‘in them’ either. My eldest & her mates were already grossed out by the creepy bloke you call a brand ambassador. Misogynistic creeps.

— Babooshka Jaja Humble-Bragg KPSS (@WilfredsGang) November 22, 2022

Reactions from TERFs and conservatives followed, taking issue with the fact Tampax used the pronoun "their" instead of "her," an apparent acknowledgment that some people who use tampons are transgender.

"Their" instead of "her."

At this point, I blame the Mayans who didn't have the decency to follow through on their promise to wipe us all out back in 2012.https://t.co/nFllRvDcwO

— Amadeus III (@AmadeusXLO) November 22, 2022

Sexualizing tampons while also making them gender neutral

Who tf thought this was a good idea https://t.co/6CmGvgi5fv

— Lauren Chen (@TheLaurenChen) November 22, 2022

Notice they didn't say "her" https://t.co/aJbubnKEfr

— TheQuartering (@TheQuartering) November 22, 2022

While Tampax has been getting a decent amount of heat for its tweet, the people behind its Twitter account don't seem too bothered. The brand quickly tweeted that it "refused to let Twitter shut down before we shared this tweet" and riffed about its joke in the tweet's replies.

refused to let twitter shut down before we shared this tweet https://t.co/XVHHOcaZIK

— Tampax US (@Tampax) November 21, 2022

Others have tweeted that the backlash is overblown and that the tweet was a decent joke and didn't need to be read as so salacious by some of the most aggrieved commenters.

The ones using #BoycottTampax probably buy their daughters purity rings and take them to those creepy balls.
Meh.. I thought it was funny 🤷‍♀️ https://t.co/JzLPhtGHsK

— Jo (@Tooter_Me) November 22, 2022

Can't believe #BoycottTampax is trending.

This shit is funny. We need to destigmatize female sexuality, periods, and period sex. Tampons go in vaginas. Chill out.#Tampax https://t.co/HZF535VXlX

— 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@napqueen3000) November 22, 2022

people are really tweeting #BoycottTampax in response to this LMFAOOOO https://t.co/lViyymfQbT

— i’m meeting Ari Lennox for my bday (@mellymellz_____) November 22, 2022

In perhaps a related bit of information, Tampax recently ran an ad campaign with Amy Schumer, who now serves as the company's Twitter header image.