Beginner's guide to the Mooncup - an interview
We at Mookychick heart the mooncup - it's a rubber thingy that collects everything a tampon does, but is better for the environment (doesn't fill up landfill sites with nasty little shrivelled cotton wool sausages) and lasts for years. Oh, and it's really comfortable too.
Unlike tampax adverts, the mooncup doesn't suggest that once a month you have to rollerblade on a beach behind a great big white bouncing poodle in order to have a non-painful period. We tracked down the fabulous Kath Clements, mooncup seller extraordinaire, and asked her to tell us more about her mission to change the world as we know it...
Did you actually invent the mooncup?
Afraid not! Mooncup - the hypoallergenic menstrual cup - was an old idea revisited by mooncup's most excellent boss, Su Hardy. Menstrual cups were invented in America in 1937 but the original cups were harder and made of rubber. They couldn't compete with the economic clout of diposable sanitary product companies, not to mention women being a bit less inclined to touch themselves in those days.
Is using a mooncup more of a health thing or a spiritual thing?
I don't know about spiritual, but it's good for health and the heart. Not having the moisture sucked out of you or pesticides leaching into you is definitely appealing. Being connected with your body, seeing what's coming out of you every month and dealing with it so easily definitely has an impact on your feelings. It's more positive and powerful to not be beholden to some enormous faceless sanitary product company that sells you ideas of discretion and being dragged around in white on rollerblades by a pack of poodles while you're bleeding, too.
Do you think there would be any way to make the mooncup a nice fashion accessory? (You know how animals that go to the vets come back with a big plastic collar so they can't scratch themselves? It might be silly, but we always thought they would make a nice skirt...)
Hmmm? A mooncup bonnet or bra, beneath a see-through mac... very 'Bladerunner' meets 'Bill and Ben' ( Bill and Ben were flowerpot men from British kids' TV. They were very stylishly made out of flowerpots - Mooky Eds ).
Did Su always want to set up her own business? Has it been an excellent adventure?
Su's from entrepreneurial stock, so I don't think she could ever have done any different - though she has several motorbiking trophies under her belt and has pulled bizarre stints as a railway operator, come to think of it. She's always kept that sense of pioneering and evolution in the company, and you can't help but get involved.
There are a few menstrual cup companies dotted around now. Is there enough room in the sandpit for all the kids to play?
Yep! Mooncup was the world's first silicone menstrual cup but there's definitely enough room in the sandpit for everyone, if you think of all those tampon manufacturers that may well one day be the stuff of old.
mooncups are now available in big nationwide stores but they used to be sold at festivals using punky cartoon DIY photocopied flyers. Discuss!
Would you believe it? Boots the chemist actually got in touch with us - the very same mooncuppers of festival fame - because women had been contacting them and pleading for mooncups... it's the stuff of small business fantasy!
Like many green businesses, we've definitely come a long way from photocopied flyers (though we still have a soft spot for that cartoon of old), but we're the same bunch of women at the core of it all. We have the same environmental motives and drive to make sure that women know their choices.
I admit I'm glad to be out of Su's spare bedroom - it was getting cramped for the five of us in there! We still do the festis. We're pretty lucky to be a bunch of women genuinely into coming to work, eh?
If you could have your own perfect festival what would it be like?
Between the five of us the perfect festival would probably be a psychedelic trance bender, a new age healing slot, a bit of outdoor sports indulgence and a family folk music village green type affair. Oh yeah, then there would have to be a blast of rock for a nostalgic head bang!
Have mooncup users have changed over the years?
Yep. They used to mainly be women with green issues at heart - festival goers and environmentalists. Now there are girls who read the glossies and are concerned with personal health issues, schoolgirls who have heard of Toxic Shock Syndrome and don't fancy it, new mums who have pondered the whole real nappy debate and are ready to think of themselves for a second and professional women who like the economic sense of it... all sorts are now using it.
Do any guys work in your company or are you all about the matriarchy?
Every day, there are 5 women in the office - and often Loopy the dog. Tom does the mooncup website once in a while, Scott sorts out the hardware stuff, and we have random husbands, friends and kids popping in throughout the day. So I don't know about matriarchy - with Su at the helm, it's a pretty democratic free-for-all at times.
If you could improve anything - really, ANYTHING - about having a period, then what would it be?
I'd want to have more of a clue that the changes in my feelings may be linked to my cycle, and not be as swept away by them sometimes.
Sell your mooncup to a girl who's never heard of them! What are the three best things about it?
A mooncup's so comfortable you can't feel it's there. You don't have to carry any spares in your bag or worry about disposing of bloody rubbish again. Oh, and you'd be supporting a right-on bunch of women from Brighton.
A classic fear for girls using a tampon for the first time is that they hope their first sexual encounter is a little better than that. Is using a mooncup better than sex?
You must be bloody joking!...Hmmm...maybe a vibrating one's a thought...though think of the spillage...
USEFUL MOONCUP LINKS
Irresistably funny account of wearing a mooncup for the first time from Ampnet.co.uk...
HOW TO INSERT YOUR MOONCUP
More Interviews with female icons
Mission statement
Mookychick believes that climbing trees and riding giant turtles is more fun and girly than worrying about make-up. But if you want to worry about make-up instead of turtles? Fine by us. Be you feminist, kitten, punk, emo, indie, goth, witch, vegan, horror junky, intellectual, christian goth, corset queen, geek, unicorn, sea monkey... be you into alternative style, alternative health, spirituality, comics, manga, j-pop, harajuku or jock culture... we will always love you.
