You know how when you put rubbing alcohol on cut, it kind of hurts? Now imagine if you were to take a wad of cotton soaked in alcohol and shove it into a sensitive bodily orifice. That’s gonna smart. Who would do that?
Actually, they probably aren’t doing that at all. The online mythbusting website Snopes reported literally just last week: “We haven’t encountered a single documented case” of anyone actually doing this vodka tampon thing.
Neither did WDIV reporters. Or at least they didn’t report finding any documented case of this thing that’s totally not a thing. They did interview an anonymous teen (we’ll just call him “Full Of Crap”), show footage from YouTube videos purportedly about this non-trend, and air stern warnings from Dr. Frank McGeorge.
Snopes, on the other hand, reports that email chain rumors about this practice have been floating around since 1999, that tampons absorbed in liquid are difficult to insert anywhere, and doing this would hurt worse than you can possibly imagine. Also, it was the subject of a very special CSI episode in 2008.
But just because something isn’t actually happening doesn’t mean it won't start happening. There are rumors, after all.
“With all the buzz about this bizarre method, more and more videos are popping up online—teens showing other teens how to carry out the alcohol act—Dr. McGeorge says the mainstream attention can potentially turn this into something teens may experiment with as more of a dare,” warns reporter Marc Santia.
That assertion, we should remember, was presented in a report bringing mainstream attention to this vodka tampon thing that no one is actually doing.
Fortunately, there are warning signs overly-concerned parents can look for.
“If you have a son who has a box of tampons in his room, that should raise flags,” says a very animated but unidentified teen whose warning appears lifted from an online video.
Sad but true, we no longer live in a simple, wholesome America where young boys are free to keep feminine care products without raising parental suspicion.
