DOWOCalifornia Politics Free tampons and pads should be accessible to students at schools and also youth centers. I believe that if men can get free condoms at schools to promote healthy, safe sex and to prevent teenage pregnancy, then women should get free pads and tampons in schools and youth centers to promote periods and clean vaginal health. I also think that this should be not only for women in schools, but it should also apply to homeless women as well. We should make feminine products available in community centers, firehouses, police stations, and most importantly women’s shelters and homeless shelters. It is every woman's right to have access to these products because we can not help having a period. It’s a natural thing that happens and we really should not be spending so much money on it every year. Unlike men who can control the urge to have sex by abstaining, women don’t have a choice because we can’t control our periods. Periods usually come every month for about 5-7 days, so the amount of money that women have to spend per year is ridiculous. If women have access to feminine products in schools, then the amount of money they can save is huge.
During the recent election, our current president, Donald Trump, sparked an a major outrage because he accused Fox News host, Megyn Kelly of giving him harder to answer interview questions because she was on her “time of the month.” Because of his comment, women all over the world started to talk about menstruation and even started a hashtag called #periodsarenotaninsult. Former President Obama didn’t even know that tampons were being taxed as a luxury item until it was brought up in an interview in 2016. President Obama also agrees that it is an issue and said that he doesn’t understand why it’s being taxes as a luxury item and said “I suspect it's because men were making the laws when those taxes were passed.” What Trump said at the time really shocked the entire country and women from all over the country started rebelling and participating more in women’s marches. Personally as a fellow woman, it’s inspiring to see all these women with different backgrounds come together for the same goal. I believe these supplies should be provided by the local government and sponsored by big name companies that sell feminine products like Always, O.B, and Kotex. It does not cost these companies that much money to make these products, so why are they charging women such high prices? Even the United Nations declared menstrual hygiene a global, public-health, gender-equality and human rights issue so why aren’t we providing free feminine products? I’m not saying that women should have access to free feminine products all their lives, but I believe that it should be available for them from middle school through college. I think that this time period is important for young women in particular because their bodies are going through changes and they feel the most uncomfortable. This period can be kind of awkward so having free feminine products at school would avoid unwanted accidents. Another reason why I think that feminine products should be accessible to teens and young adults is because it also saves the parents a lot of money. Think about it, parents are saving up for their children’s college tuition so not paying money for feminine products would really help them save up. According to Statistica, in 2016, Tampax Pearl generated nearly 289 million dollars in sales alone. These numbers are from one company alone talking about their tampon sales. Imagine how much it would be if other companies like Always, O.B, and Kotex were added in. After what Trump said in the recent election, topics like free feminine products as well as the tampon tax have been more talked about. In a way, I’m glad that Trump sparked that outrage because it became such a huge topic when it wasn’t before. In conclusion, I believe that feminine products should be free and available to all women in schools and colleges, as well as homeless shelters and women’s shelters. If these products were accessible to women, I believe that women would achieve much greater things in life as well as become more confident to do things. It would also bring comfort to young women all around and give them more self confidence. In the upcoming elections, more and more women are running for office and these women who are running are so inspirational because they aren’t afraid of speaking their minds or “letting the man do the job.” The future is female so let’s give these young women some inspiration.
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AuthorUndergraduate student generated content. Blog posting and updating done by Kristina Flores Victor, Assistant Professor of Political Science at CSUS Archives
March 2020
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