“The last of usundermines what the audience considers to be important elements in a post-apocalyptic scenario.
In episode 6, the show’s central characters Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) are introduced to Maria (Rutina Wesley), a woman who is revealed to be the wife of Joel’s long-lost brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna). .
In one scene, Maria leaves fourteen-year-old Ellie a few essentials on top of a bed that will likely help her in a post-industrial world filled with fungal zombies. This includes new clothes and what appears to be a DivaCup.
What makes the scene significant is the show’s decision to handle this lesser-known, reusable vintage product in a very understated way. Ellie takes the menstrual cup along with a pamphlet and reads the instructions.
“Oh,” she says, seemingly a little surprised and moved by this. He then squeezes it a bit before folding it as indicated and jokingly says, “Gross.”
“The Last of Us” showrunner Craig Mazin explained to Vulture because the hand that was held during the menstrual cup scene was missing.
She told the entertainment website that they used a real DIvaCup brochure for the scene and used special effects to slightly enlarge the words “menstrual solution” on the documents so the audience could read the fine print better, but she decided to end it. further explanations. Besides this.
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“It goes by really fast,” he told Vulture. “The intention was that if you don’t know what it is, you can ask someone or Google it. It’s more for people who know what it is.”
He added: “We always do that in shows with things like guns. People don’t know how to load guns and we don’t explain it to them. Why should we explain?
This is not the first time that the series, adapted from the popular video game of the same name, suggests that feminine care products are as important during post-apocalyptic food as, for example, medicine, weapons or canned food. This differs from the game, where a player can increase their stats if their characters earn “collectibles,” including add-ons, tools, and even comics, according to a guide posted on IGN..
In episode 3, Ellie finds a dusty package of Tampax Pearl tampons in an abandoned convenience store, remarks “Hell yeah!” when he grabs them and proudly shows them to the hyper-masculine Joel.
Ellie’s unabashed take on a period is pretty revolutionary, especially in a story that appeals to so many male fans.
Advertisements for menstrual products on television were banned until 1972. After that, commercials for absorbent pads and tampons used blue liquid to demonstrate the products’ effectiveness. The idea of periods on TV was so taboo that it was considered unsavory when Courteney Cox, before her “Friends” fame, was the first to use the word “period” in a commercial during a Tampax commercial in 1985, points out The cut . Popular brand Kotex became one of the first major menstrual product companies to use red blood-like liquids in their ads in 2020.
Mazin explained to Vulture that he was inspired to add vintage products to the already established canon of things he’d find handy after zombies took over the world while buying tampons for his wife and daughter at Target during the pandemic. COVID. He told the site he was thinking about how many boxes to get when he realized it would be an interesting new level to add to the video game adaptation.
“These are blocks that we would need or want,” he said. “In a post-apocalypse, it’s annoying to have to deal with all of this and to have a lack of options. Why shouldn’t we show? Especially since our colleague is a 14-year-old girl. This is part of his life!”
