'It's to do with shame about women's bodies,' says Irish radio host Ciara Kelly after Tampax ad banned

Irish radio host Ciara Kelly has slammed the banning of a Tampax tampon advert in Ireland.

The Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI) said they are upholding complaints that the commercial caused "general offence".

But speaking on Newstalk radio on Friday, Ms Kelly expressed her outrage at the decision.

The radio host said the ad being taken down due to 84 complaints in a population of six million is "to do with shame of women's bodies" in Ireland.

Irish radio host Ciara Kelly has slammed the banning of a Tampax tampon advert in Ireland (Newstalk)
NewsTalk

She said: "I totally get that to most men a vagina and I'm going to say that word so many times today cause I'm a bit irked, is a sexual thing.

"But do you know what to the body I live in and the body the 51 per cent of the population live in, it's just a bit of our body and it does other things too.

"We give birth through it, we menstruate through it, it bleeds, it sits there, it's like having an elbow.

"We have vaginas and they do stuff and it isn't all about sex. So suggesting that anything to do with the vagina is sexual that's not the female perspective, okay?"

The Tampax ad has been banned in Ireland
Rich Pedroncelli/AP

Ms Kelly went on to talk about about the very low rates of breastfeeding in Ireland compared to other countries.

She continued: "To me, what this said and the reason I am concerned is, the only reason this ad was taken down and 84 complaints in a population of six million odd nearly, is it's to do with shame.

"It's to do with shame of women's bodies and let me say this, we have the lowest breastfeeding rates in the western world because our boobs are sexualised and even though they are designed to feed our babies 'that's disgusting'."

Ms Kelly also compared the attitudes with the UK where "no one cares" and the ad goes out every day.

"The ASAI say that they don't like to have these kind of ads about tampons if there's going to be people under 18 looking at them," she said.

Ms Kelly said this is an example of old anachronistic throwback in Ireland and there continues to be an inherent shame of women.

She said: "We get our periods at the age of 11 or 12 some at the age 9. Are they not supposed to think about them as normal for another 11 years? Like what is this?

"What is this? I don't know what to say about it other than it is an old anachronistic throwback in Ireland.

"We might be all liberal and we might repeal the eighth but there is an inherent shame of women in this country and if that ad of tampons, talking about putting a tampon into your vagina offends you, well half of us are doing it all the time.

"I'm not wearing one at the moment lads, but I wear one sometimes and I don't care.

"You can complain, the BAI is where you complain about me to, not the ASAI, but this is a nonsense."