Women are asking their boyfriends what the letters on tampons mean and the responses are outrageous

Editor's note: This article was originally published on October 1, 2021. It has since been updated.

Back in 2019, Twitter user Evan J Worthen took to the platform with what he thought was a clever joke about the letters 'R' and 'L' on tampons. "My girlfriend left a tampon at my apartment and [I don't know] where the left one is. Anyone know where I can get a single left tampon to keep a set here for emergencies?" he tweeted, along with a photo of an 'R' tampon. To his surprise, with over 22k retweets and 3k responses, Worthen's innocuous joke ended sparking a viral trend of women asking their boyfriends whether they knew what the letters on tampons mean.

In case it isn't clear, the letters on tampons stand for their absorbency level. 'R' means 'Regular,' 'L' stands for 'Light,' and 'S' stands for 'Super.' Unsurprisingly, a only mere handful of men were able to answer the question correctly. Others came up with a wide variety of ridiculous answers that, although hilarious, highlighted an important issue about society. Here are some of the most atrocious responses:

Speaking to Bored Panda on the topic, Worthen said: "I grew up in a conservative religious culture in which I internalized messages thrown at me of the body being sacred to a point of non-discussion. We (at least my fellow male friends/classmates and I) didn’t talk about things like periods and tampons. In fact, we avoided talking about bodies — especially those of women, and I worry that boys in other communities experienced this too."

"Men have a tendency to not care about the inconveniences of women even if they are a product of our own oppressive actions. The attitude of “well it sucks that half the population has to deal with this but at least I don’t have to worry about it” is one that we unfortunately perpetuate," he added. Sharing one thing he wanted men to know about women, he said: "Every female body is different and all-female bodies experience menstruation differently (period lengths and associated bodily functions vary, different menstrual care products work better for different people)."

"While some women aren't affected much out of the ordinary by their periods, some others have it harder, such as one friend who describes her period as a monthly 'vicious carnival ride,' and every female body faces disadvantages in this world because of its patriarchal nature and structure," Worthen explained.