“Most women menstruate for a large portion of their lives . . . it is by all means, normal.”
These words herald the start of Tampon Run, an 8-bit browser game designed to desensitize teenagers to menstruation by replacing guns with tampons. As the game says, “Instead of guns, shoot tampons.”
The game was designed by Andrea Gonzales and Sophie Houser, who met each other at the Girls Who Code summer program.
“Although the concept of the video game may be strange, it’s stranger that our society has accepted and normalized guns and violence through video games, yet we still find tampons and menstruation unspeakable,” say Gonzales and Houser. “The taboo that surrounds it teaches women that a normal and natural bodily function is embarrassing and crude” Gonzales and Houser added.
In Tampon Run, players are asked to collect tampons and shoot them at enemies. The challenge is for players to to conserve their absorptive “ammunition” until their minstrel cycle is over.
The game is free to play and is available here: http://tamponrun.com/