A recent episode of the German show Die Höhle der Löwen, also known as Dragon’s Den, featured two men that presented what they thought to be a revolutionary invention. Period gloves that make your experience of removing tampons and disposing it, blood-free.
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The inventors, Andre Ritterswuerden and Eugen Raimkulow developed this odd idea when they came to the fascinating realisation that there was no 'proper' way of disposing tampons and pads. Based on their experiences living with other women, they thought they had the perfect solution.
About the product
According to the official Pinky Gloves website, the disposable gloves have a two-in-one function. You can use it to pull out your tampon, without getting blood on your hands, and roll it up inside the glove before putting it in the trash. They expect users to pay €11.96—around £10.36—for 48 disposable gloves. Their pitch garnered the attention of investor,Ralf Dümmel, who put €30,000 in their venture.
After appearing on the show, the men have been receiving a huge amount of backlash from menstruators all over the world for creating a product that is essentially period-shaming—the very thing the men claim to be working against. Over the last week, Twitter has been exploding with rage after OB/GYN Jennifer Gunter tweeted about the brand. She wrote:
So these dudes designed pink gloves so tampons and pads can be disposed of properly and discretely. I shit you not.
Many menstruators are arguing that not only is this an unnecessary period product, it’s incredibly wasteful as well. One person tweeted:
I bet they didn’t even consider all the extra waste this brilliant, disruptive unicorn product was gonna cause. Not even once!
Pinky Gloves’ statement
The creators have since issued a statement on their Instagram page saying that their intention is to remove thetaboo around periods. They said that they will be considering all the feedback and implementing it into their product. They stated (translated by Google):
From the many comments you made, it became clear to us that there are serious points of criticism that we were simply not aware of, although we should have been. We have not dealt adequately and properly with the subject. That was a big mistake.
