Thinx Underwear Ads Featuring Women On Their Periods Considered Too ‘Inappropriate’ For NYC Subway

Thinx advertisements aren’t your typical underwear ads. While they do occasionally feature lithe models in lingerie, they’re marketing a new type of panties — ones that protect women from spotting or leaking on their periods, acting as a form of built-in pad or tampon. Unique indeed, revolutionary even; yet the advertising contractor for the New York City MTA is preventing the ads from running on the subway, claiming they’re “inappropriate” and “suggestive.”

With sultry Victoria’s Secret and American Apparel ads gracing our subway stops, enormous billboards, and computer screens, why should a relatively tame Thinx advertisement be treated any differently? Perhaps because women’s menstrual cycles are still treated as a taboo topic, something “gross” that people don’t want to talk about. These ads are different from the male-driven ads that promote women getting beach bodies or lounging around hoping to capture male attention. Thinx ads are made by women and meant for women, however, which perhaps supposedly makes people uncomfortable.

As Thinx co-founder Miki Agrawal told Refinery29, “We live in a patriarchal society. The period conversation makes them uncomfortable,” which is why “there’s such a double standard with what’s allowed to be up there.”

Click on the slideshow to view the ads and see the double standard for yourself.