this international life

It's all well and good when your journalism teachers say "you must have a blog", but really what is a blog apart from self-publishing. A great opportunity, don't get me wrong, but without the self-promotion skills requisite to get anyone you don't know reading your work some validation is key.

At the moment validation seems to be the missing link in my journalistic job search, but I'm finally on my way to getting some thanks to the website International Life. A quirky, tongue-in-cheek website that offers "a hand-picked selection of the very best of everything in London and around the world".

I've been commissioned to write reviews of London eateries for the site, as well as news stories and who knows what else. So, if you've got a suggestion of somewhere good, or bad, that you think some attention needs directing to find me on Twitter, Facebook or add a comment below.

Do you loveyourvagina.com?

The daily underground drudge to work has been immensely cheered up for me, as I struggle to suppress titters whenever I walk past the new posters declaring lady garden, coochie, bajingo, fru fru or va jay jay.

It's a testament to how liberated we have become as a society, as well as to the power of marketing. Imagine if this idea was proposed in the offices of Sterling Cooper? Don Draper et al would have a fit.

The product this unbranded teaser campaign is advertising is the Mooncup- a re-usable device for collecting menstrual flow rather than flushing the 12,000 tampons a woman uses in her lifetime down the loo. The Mooncup was initially brought to my attention by an old housemate, who told me in a rather disdainful way about the hippie yoga teacher she met who used one. I was I admit intrigued, but from the disgusted reaction of another female friend, realised I'd have to keep my curiosity to myself for a while.




I think the main barrier to the uptake of the Mooncup is the belief that it is a messy and gross thing to use. Indoctrinated by tampon propaganda, one doesn't quite grasp the central point of the Mooncup - any blood will be contained within the cup. A BBC show called It's Not Easy Being Green broadcast about four years ago featured two women attending a Mooncup party, where users of the system pass on their experience and wisdom in an effort to spread the word. This is the sort of marketing that Mooncup has been using, along with presence at UK festivals such as Glastonbury, leaflets and stickers distributed with the product for friendly recommendations. And now there is this new campaign, the advertising bods responsible for Mooncup's strategies appear to be reflecting the nature of society's attitude towards menstruation in a suitably tongue-in-cheek manner.

As well as this most recent shift from a featherweight contender, big dog Tampax appears to be having a rethink too. In 2009, they created a viral campaign featuring Zack16, the trials and tribulations of a 16-year-old boy who one day wakes up with a vagina. His take on the harsher side of female life is over-simplified but he's at least not trying to sell the myth that periods are fun.