A popular TikToker blew up the platform with videos reacting to his recent education into the biological processes involved in menstruation. The goofy boyfriend personality was shocked to learn that there's a lot more to it than some bleeding, and his followers took it upon themselves to educate him more.
His reactions and shout-outs to women were endearing, even if he should have known all this already.
Grown man learns what periods are
Connor of @connorsmellsbad recently went viral with over 11 million views on TikTok for a video discussing what he learned after his girlfriend started educating him on the realities of menstruation.
He knew about the bleeding, but was ignorant about how the human body makes that happen.
"I just watched a 3D representation of what happens inside a woman's body when she is on her period, and I just want to say: I apologize," he said. "That looks pretty rough. It looks pretty brutal."
"My girlfriend made me watch it, and I do feel kind of bad now."
Connor isn't wrong when he says that most cisgender men are largely ignorant about periods. They know that blood comes out, but don't know that the uterus experiences minor contractions (the thing that happens during birth) to tear the sticky tissue lining from the uterine wall and expel it out the vaginal cavity.
The hormones involved can also cause bloating, dizziness, headaches, nausea, mood swings, fatigue, insomnia, and loose stools. Cramping pain can be mild to severe, depending on the individual.
"I didn't realize that the whole system basically self-destructs," Connor added.
Period poops and jellyfish
Certainly, the U.S. education system doesn't teach boys much about this. Women in the comments, however, were happy to give Connor more details. He experienced a new wave of horror when they started talking about those loose stools.
"I just looked up what period poops were, because that's all I saw y'all talking about in my comments," he said in a follow-up video. "Period poop this, period poop that."
"What I'm reading about is, basically, it's just a demonic bathroom experience. Y'all are freaking troopers."
His latest video on the topic is on what some have come to call "period jellyfish." Sometimes, a larger clump of tissue comes out during that demonic bathroom time, with strings coming off all sides that look a little like jellyfish legs.
Connor started by imitating commenters telling him to research the jellyfish.
"In my head, I was like, 'jellyfish?'" he said. "'What does jellyfish have to do with periods?' So you know what I did? I looked it up—and I almost throwed up."
In spite of goofy, himbo personality Connor puts on, he does seem sincerely interested in learning more about what his girlfriend goes through each month. At the same time, women have a right to be annoyed at men who don't take them seriously until they see a 3D model or whatever.
"Why we gotta prove everything?????" asked commenter @kortneymadzzz16.
"We don’t need sympathy. We need more respect," wrote @royapakzad.
The Daily Dot has reached out to @connorsmellsbad for comment via TikTok.
The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s newsletter here.
