The Politics Of Purple And Menstrual Product Shame
Walk through a supermarket in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane and the menstrual-care aisle often looks carefully coordinated: soft purple, pale pink, white, flowers, butterflies and discreet promises of freshness. The colours appear gentle and comforting, yet they can also send a pointed message: menstruation should be softened, hidden and kept away from ordinary public life.
Packaging is never just decoration. It teaches shoppers how to interpret blood, vulvas and bodily functions, while signalling who is expected to buy a product and how they should feel about doing so. Looking closely at the politics of purple reveals how a familiar colour can support shame, gender stereotypes and silence, even when the product inside is practical and necessary.
Why Purple Became A Menstrual Signal
Purple has long been associated with femininity, spirituality, luxury and mystery. In menstrual advertising, it can make an absorbent product seem less like an item for managing blood and more like a beauty accessory. Lavender tones suggest calmness and cleanliness, while deep violet can give the package a premium appearance. The result is a visual language that turns a normal body process into a carefully managed secret.
This coding is reinforced by the way brands avoid showing menstrual blood. Advertisement liquid is frequently blue, and copy prefers phrases such as “fresh protection”, “discreet comfort” and “odour control”. The words are designed to reassure shoppers, but they can imply that menstruation is embarrassing, dirty or socially disruptive. Purple becomes part of that euphemistic system: pretty enough to display, indirect enough not to name what it contains.
Packaging Turns Biology Into A Secret
A packet of pads or tampons has to communicate useful information, including absorbency, size, ingredients and disposal instructions. Yet the front of the package often gives more space to decorative flowers than to clear explanations. The body disappears behind an aesthetic of delicacy, as though the person buying the product should not be reminded that they have a uterus, vulva or menstrual cycle.
This matters for teenagers encountering period products for the first time. A young person may learn from packaging that menstruation is something to conceal in a school bag, wrap in toilet paper and discuss only in whispers. Adults receive the same message in a more polished form. Exploring vulvar eczema guide can shift attention away from branding and towards the real relationship between skin, materials, hormones and irritation.
The language of “feminine hygiene” adds another layer. Menstruation is not a hygiene failure, and a vulva is not an inherently unclean part of the body. When brands frame period care as purification, they sell more than absorbency: they sell relief from an invented sense of contamination.
Australian Aisles And Everyday Choices
In Australia, the supermarket remains a major place for buying menstrual products, alongside pharmacies, convenience stores, department shops and online retailers. Shoppers in Perth, Adelaide or regional towns may have very different access to specialist reusable products, bulk buying and low-waste options. The purple package therefore becomes a familiar national retail signal, whether it appears in a large Coles aisle or a small chemist with limited shelf space.
Affordability is part of the politics. Australia removed the 10 per cent GST from menstrual products in 2019, but the products themselves still cost money, and prices vary widely between disposable, reusable and organic options. People experiencing period poverty may need to prioritise absorbency and pack size over personal preference. A decorative colour scheme does little for someone deciding whether a packet will last through work, school or a long commute.
Local habits are changing. Reusable cups, period underwear and cloth pads are increasingly visible at markets, health shops and online stores, while many people still rely on disposable pads and tampons for convenience. Sustainability messaging can be helpful, but it should not become another source of guilt. No single product suits every body, budget, workplace or stage of life.
Colour, Class And Accessibility
Purple is not universally shameful, and personal responses to colour matter. Some people genuinely enjoy bright packaging or find lavender calming. The problem arises when an entire category uses feminine colour codes and euphemisms so consistently that alternatives become difficult to see. A shopper who wants straightforward, unsentimental information may have to search beyond the dominant visual style.
Packaging also affects accessibility. Small type, low-contrast lettering, unclear absorbency labels and excessive decorative detail create barriers for people with low vision, dyslexia or limited English. A product can be aesthetically pleasing while still failing to explain whether it contains fragrance, plastic, latex or potential irritants. Inclusive design starts with legibility and honest information, not simply adding a rainbow or a darker shade of purple.
The commercial market can also reproduce class assumptions. Premium packaging often suggests that natural fibres, fragrance-free materials and ethical production are luxury choices, even though many people need them for health reasons. Meanwhile, inexpensive products may hide important details behind dense text. Transparent labelling would make decisions less dependent on income, brand familiarity or time available in the aisle.
Signs Of Supportive Period Packaging
A more respectful package does not need to be plain or joyless. It can use colour creatively while treating menstruation as ordinary, varied and embodied. The important shift is from disguising the product to explaining it clearly and recognising that customers are not a single type of woman.
Useful design choices include:
- Plain descriptions such as pads, tampons, liners or menstrual cups
- Clear absorbency, dimensions and material information
- High-contrast text that is easy to read under shop lighting
- Images and language that include trans, non-binary and disabled menstruators
- Disposal or washing instructions that do not imply disgust
Brands can also stop presenting all menstruation as a beauty problem. A person may want leak protection, odour control or comfort without believing their blood is offensive. Educational copy can explain changing frequency, skin sensitivity and safe use instead of promising to make periods invisible.
This approach creates room for pleasure and self-knowledge too. Menstrual care can include rest, warmth, ritual, sexuality and creative reflection. A menstrual blood ritual offers a different cultural frame: blood is treated as meaningful rather than as evidence of failure or impurity.
What Brands Can Change Now
Packaging reform does not require removing every flower or banning purple. It requires examining what the colour is doing alongside the words, images and claims around it. A brand should ask whether a customer can understand the product in seconds, whether the design assumes a particular gender and whether its promise depends on making the body seem unacceptable.
Practical improvements include:
- Naming menstruation directly instead of relying on coded phrases
- Showing realistic product use without sensationalising blood
- Publishing full ingredient and materials information
- Offering refill, reuse and lower-waste options at different price points
- Testing designs with people who have different bodies and access needs
Retailers have a role as well. Menstrual products can be placed with general health and personal-care items rather than isolated as embarrassing contraband. Schools, workplaces and public facilities can provide free products in bathrooms, reducing the need to plan around a secret emergency. Several Australian schools and community organisations have expanded access initiatives, but availability remains uneven between states, councils and individual institutions.
For an advocacy project such as Cherish The Cunt, reclaiming a stigmatised word is part of a wider challenge to polite silence. Naming the cunt, vulva and menstrual blood can be confronting because it rejects the idea that respectability requires euphemism. The goal is not to dictate how anyone must feel about their body; it is to widen the language available.
Choosing Meaning Over Shame
The difference between common menstrual packaging and a more inclusive approach becomes clearer when the visual code is set beside the information a person actually needs.
| Packaging approach | Common message | More respectful alternative |
|---|---|---|
| Purple, pink and floral emphasis | Periods should look pretty and private | Colour can express personality without disguising biology |
| Blue liquid in advertising | Menstrual blood is too confronting to show | Use accurate, informative imagery where appropriate |
| “Feminine hygiene” language | The body requires purification | Describe care, comfort, absorbency and health |
| Tiny ingredient and disposal text | Details are secondary to brand image | Make materials, use and disposal easy to find |
| Narrow gender assumptions | Only one kind of woman menstruates | Include diverse bodies, identities and experiences |
| Premium “natural” ranges | Comfort and ethics are costly extras | Provide safe, transparent choices across price points |
The strongest alternative is not a single colour palette. It is a design culture that treats menstruation as a normal bodily function and the customer as an informed adult. That means honest claims, readable instructions, affordable options and enough visual variety for people to choose products without being pushed into a performance of femininity.
Education outside the packet matters too. Resources, workshops and body-focused inspiration can help people question the assumptions carried by retail design. When people understand how marketing works, they can recognise that shame is being produced around them rather than discovered inside their bodies.
Purple can remain beautiful, playful or powerful. It becomes a problem when it is used to make menstrual care seem secret, delicate and morally loaded. What readers should remember is simple: the colour on a packet does not define the body inside the conversation, and menstruation deserves clear information rather than coded shame.