As American activists embark on a journey to end the so-called “tampon tax,” they’ll want to look to activists in countries that have successfully lifted similar taxes in recent times. Canada happens to be one of those nations. According to canadianmentruators.ca, Canadians collectively spent $519,976,963 on menstrual products in 2014 (before tax). With a 5 […]
Menstruation and Menstrual Equity
How the ‘Period Paradox’ Keeps Women Down
It’s been a red-letter couple weeks for menstruation-related media. First came Olivia Goldhill’s call for funding for period-pain research in Quartz, followed by news of a policy in China’s Anhui province to institute a “paid menstrual leave” program. In many ways, stories like this are positive, simply because they challenge the notion that periods are inherently […]
Menstrual Products are Taxed in 40 States. Here’s What You Can Buy Tax-Free
Cosmopolitan dubbed 2015 “The Year The Period Went Public” and NPR called it “The Year of the Period.” Here at the Ms. Blog, I predicted that 2016 would be an even bigger, bolder year for menstrual equity: “The Year Period Policy Prevailed” (which I swiftly reconsidered to “That Time President Obama Talked About Tampons”). Yes, last month the Leader of […]
The Not-So-Secret Life of a Career Tampon Thief
I turn the crank of the tampon machine until its empty sign appears. My brown leather bag is now plump with free tampons. It’s a pretty Fossil bag and you would never guess that it belongs to a compulsive tampon-taker. I look over my shoulder at a stunned undergraduate onlooker and give her a “don’t mess with […]
Periods Went Public in 2015: Here’s What’s Next!
From Cosmo to The Guardian to BuzzFeed to the Times of India, there has been resounding consensus that 2015 was “The Year The Period Went Public.” NPR’s “Why 2015 Was the Year of the Period” called the year’s period positivity an “epic” phenomenon, calculating that the number of times the word menstruation was mentioned in five national news outlets […]
Stop Taxing Menstruation: It’s the Fair and Equitable Thing to Do
Since when are tampons a luxury? In recent weeks, hundreds of thousands in the United Kingdom responded with outrage after Parliament failed to muster the votes to abolish the national Tampon Tax—a 5 percent surcharge on “non-essential luxury items,” feminine hygiene included. The debate took a curious turn last week, with the announcement that the £15 million in annual […]
10 Reasons to be Thankful for Birth Control
Tuesday Nov. 10 marked Thank You, Birth Control Day, and social media users celebrated by using the hashtag #ThxBirthControl to share the reasons why they’re grateful for the Pill, IUDs, contraceptive injections, condoms and more. We asked Ms. readers to share their stories of gratitude—take a look below for 10 reasons our readers are thankful for […]
The Syrian Refugee Struggle No One’s Talking About
Yesterday’s New York Times ran a story about how migrants rushing to cross Europe, though resourceful and adaptable, are facing a new threat they can’t evade: winter. But there is another thing that the girls and women among the migrants cannot avoid, and that is their monthly menstruation. Few among us would grab extra underwear and sanitary pads […]
Meet the Women Supplying Refugees with Menstrual Products
Imagine being uprooted from your community and having to flee for your life with just a few of your belongings. Imagine that, on top of having to navigate such hardship, you’re also menstruating. Where would you access pads, tampons, liners? It’s not exactly something that those managing refugees camps would think to prioritize when already attempting to provide […]
Period Positivity: New York City Leads the Way
Last summer, Feministing founder Jessica Valenti’s “The Case for Free Tampons” ignited an Internet firestorm, rife with vitriol and misogyny, at the mere mention of menstrual policies. What a difference a year makes. In 2015, period positivity is capturing headlines. Kiran Gandhi’s bold, tampon-free run of the London Marathon was widely celebrated (and just may catapult the phrase “free bleeding” into […]