Boys can find uses for menstrual pads, but not in a good way

#TamponTim is in the news, tweets Kira Davis. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz requires schools to provide free menstrual products in all school restrooms, including boys' rooms. She describes what happened at her child's California school when pads and tampons were placed in all restrooms for "people who menstruate."

Boys were thrilled to discover the maxi pads had a stick-on backing. "In short order maxi pads were everywhere - stuck to lockers, chairs, the floor. Boys were sticking them to each other's backs or phones. Some even used them to spell out messages. The janitors -- who already rightly hate public school teens -- were furious. They spent days unsticking maxi pads from every corner of the school."

Tampons were "more of a curiosity" and a way for boys to "gross each other out."

Washington Post columnist Monica Hesse advised teenage boys to offer menstrual products to female classmates who are people who menstruate. "In high school, any boy who casually was like 'Oh you got ur period? I stashed a pad from the bathroom in my backpack in case one of my friends needed it' -- that boy would be king stud. That boy would be drowning in prom invites."

Has the definition of "stud" changed that much? That boy would be shunned as -- in the word of Davis' 16-year-old daughter -- "creepy and weird."

Girls carry an extra pad and/or tampon for emergencies, and share with other girls in the sorority of the girls' restroom. Sisterhood is powerful. Girls do not want boys (people who do not menstruate) to know they have their period, much less to provide menstrual supplies.