Who said the 'P' word?

Have you all seen the latest Tampax commercial? It's the one where a guy and a girl, both who look to be well into their 20s, are seated at an outdoor cafe table where the girl dumps out the contents of her purse. Her tiny and discreetly wrapped tampon skitters across the surface and into the grasp of her boyfriend, who picks it up and shakes it. The camera then captures the girlfriend's dawning horror as he asks what the item is (thank Christ, she's quick enough on the fly to come up with: "Sugar. Aren't you supposed to be on a diet?"). \nWhew! Crisis averted. The Dirty Little Secret is safe once more!\nUm, please tell me that grown women in the real world are not actually mortified when their boyfriends discover their tampon stashes. Do real women truly attempt to carry on some pointless charade that they are exempt from a biological function that affects all of us with two X chromosomes? Guys get the whole shebang in their elementary sex-ed classes, so how can they really be in denial about these rules applying to their girlfriends (and why is denial so very necessary in the first place)?\n"I don't know; I'm just not...comfortable with it," offered 26-year-old Wal-Mart patron Jason Gordon (hey, I figured it was as good a place as any to get a consensus). "I guess it's just weird to think about that stuff happening with my girlfriend's body."\n"He freaks any time I ask him to buy tampons," interjected said girlfriend, Gretchen Lee. "And he's the one who calls me into the bathroom to look at it every time he takes a dump!" she added, backhanding him hard against the arm. (Sounds like he deserved it!)\nI was in the break room one day talking to a woman I work with when the subject of chocolate came up. \n"That reminds me," I said, "I need to stock up before my period starts."\n"Oh, my God!" I heard the voice of a male co-worker exclaim from behind me. "Too much information!"\n"What?" I asked, honestly confused. I mean, the guy was my age. What had I said that was so disturbingly revealing?\n"I can't believe you'd say something so disgusting. Ugh. I'm not taking my break back here if I have to listen to this."\nI'm sorry, but exactly how is the mere acknowledgement of menstruation such a graphic account of an event too repulsive for even the least-squeamish guy on earth to stomach? It's one thing to be subjected to every last gory detail of some chick's yeast infection -- I can easily understand that grossing anyone out. But a little monthly blood flow? Come on! \n I won't bother to go on and on about how unfair it is for men to make women feel ashamed about their bodies and all the kooky things they do -- the issue here is maturity, or rather, a complete lack thereof. How can a man, well into his adulthood, be so completely spooked by such a normal part of a woman's ability to bear children? Especially disturbing is when these men are sexually active, therefore participating in the very act designed for procreation, wouldn't you say?\nAny guy who gets a kick out of his weekly farting contest with the guys, yet still bristles at the slightest mention of menstruation, has some serious growing up to do. And while they're getting older, bring some of that wisdom over toward the media and let them know that we're not embarrassed.\nWe're done making excuses for whatever we carry in our handbags.