Maintaining your hygiene while on your period is crucial, but it can cost a lot of money. Even though the reusable menstrual cups have become more mainstream nowadays, they still aren’t a viable alternative to tampons and pads, and they require a more significant investment upfront.
Even though it may not seem like that in the country you live in, a lack of access to menstrual products is an issue in many places around the world, and getting their period can even keep some girls from going to school.
The debate on how menstrual products are taxed as “luxury items” in the U.S. is on the rise, and for a good reason. These items are clearly necessities, so they should be treated as such. The New York Times reports that there’s currently a push for “menstrual equality”, which means equal access to hygiene products, and activists are also pushing for laws that will obligate schools, shelters, and prisons to provide free menstrual products.
Even though most people aren’t necessarily affected in menstrual equality in their everyday lives, anyone who has experienced it knows what it means to not be able to afford these products.
Twitter user @oonskie recently shared a photo that gained a lot of attention, and it features a shelf in a grocery store that has a card that reads: “Help us build safer communities – report shoplifting to a member of the staff”.
The card is placed over the tampons and pads:
The caption of the tweet read: “We really need a genuine conversation as a society about what ‘safety’ means”, and they’re absolutely right.
There were many responses to the photo, and most of them came from women that are angry at the system for not providing menstrual products to every woman that needs it.
