The new This Girl Can advert features a woman’s visible tampon string, which shouldn’t be revolutionary, but it kind of is. (NOOO, it's NOT.)

(These people have gone totally BAT-SHIT crazy. I can remember back in the day when nobody wanted to see your tampon string, even the people who understand completely how a woman’s body works and understand there’s NOTHING unclean about it … it’s life and the cycle of life.)
Sport England celebrated the fifth anniversary of its groundbreaking campaign to get more women and girls active with the release of another ridiculously inspiring TV advert, and the moment with the tampon is one of the highlights.
The aim of the ad is to promote diversity, normalise the unfiltered reality of exercising and shine a light on the barriers that prevent many women from getting into fitness – from motherhood to period pains.
Hannah Johnson is one of the real women chosen to feature in the campaign, and it’s her tampon string that we get a glimpse of towards the end of the film.
‘Recently, I have become so unapologetic about my periods, and what I go through with my period pains every month.
‘But there was definitely a moment where I was like – “do I really want to be the one with my tampon out on a national TV campaign?” Of course there was some trepidation,’ Hannah tells Metro.co.uk.
‘But I just had to put my money where my mouth is. Being open about this stuff and normalising the what the female body goes through is so important to me, it’s something I believe in. So I had to do it. I wanted to do it.
‘We’re all so scared to even say the word “tampon” – but it’s not a dirty word. Periods are incredibly natural and normal, everyone knows that they happen, so it makes no sense that we have to hide that.’
Hannah’s period pains have been incredibly debilitating ever since she first started getting them. They leave her in intense agony every month, and for a long time, fitness was the last thing on her mind when she was suffering.
She has always been shocked by the complete lack of empathy when it comes to period pains and PMS symptoms – and she thinks that comes down to the fact that nobody talks about it.
‘I would go in to work and just be in the most intense pain, and nobody would care. I just had to be there, and suffer through it. There’s no consideration and I think people don’t appreciate how bad it can get.
‘But I thought to myself, if I have to be here at work then I can at least do something for myself as well. That’s when I began to research about exercising on your period.’
Hannah thinks it’s vital that we see real images of women working out, facing real obstacles and overcoming them in normal ways. And periods are just one more taboo to be tackled.
‘If men had periods, it would be completely normalised. We would never hear the end of it. Everyone would be talking about periods all the time,’ says Hannah.
‘There is literally nothing to be embarrassed about. Now, if I have to walk around with my hot water bottle at work I’ll just say straight out if people ask me – “it’s because I’m on my period.”
‘If anyone wants to say anything negative or mean about the fact that you’re talking about your period, that’s embarrassing for them – not you.’
Women online have been loving the new advert, with the tampon string shot really hitting home for many.
‘Tampons and tits are still regarded as taboo mostly by men who just haven’t grown up yet. All power to This Girl Can,’ said one woman.

https://metro.co.uk/2020/01/15/im-proud-show-tampon-string-girl-can-shouldnt-taboo-12061161/