Period Poverty – a male perspective
Scotland becomes first nation to provide free period products for all
Scotland has become the first country in the world to provide free and universal access to period products after a four-year campaign that has fundamentally shifted the public discourse around menstruation.
The Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act, which passed unanimously through its final stage on Tuesday evening, will place a legal duty on local authorities to make period products available for all those who need them, building on the work of councils like North Ayrshire, which has been providing free tampons and sanitary towels in its public buildings since 2018.
Look, I don’t have dog in this fight because I don’t have a bleeding uterus (is that transphobic to women without a uterus? I don’t even know what the rules are anymore, you may as well just cancel me now alongside JK Rowling because I’m sure to mortally offend someone when talking about biological periods) but it seems to me outrageous in the extreme that women (and persons who have periods???) are forced into period poverty.
It’s not as if Women (and persons who have periods???) have a choice about having a period, it’s a biological reality, trying to wrap that up as ‘personal responsibility’ is a fucking insult.
So.
As far as I am concerned.
NZ should provide free tampons and sanitary pads to EVERY school, university and sexual health clinic AS WELL AS every employer being responsible to provide those same products free as they would toilet paper, milk, sugar, coffee and tea AS WELL AS all tampons and sanitary products being free of GST.
Provide them free and bring the price down for all women using them.
The sisters put up with a lot of shit, removing high prices for a product they must use is the least we can do Comrades.
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They cynical might suggest that officials found it easier to solve period poverty than actual poverty … also great for consumerism with the sanitary products being made by massive corporations that benefit…
Prediction 1; As affordability of just existing gets more difficult and poverty spreads upwards we will need to see more government intervention.
So instead of solving the root cause of an issue we will more often be mopping up the problem by giving assistance as needed.
Prediction 2: As poverty spreads upwards people will need to consume less, therefore increasing prices for those who can afford something (for example electricity), which will in turn increase the number of those in poverty. We can already see this happening in the energy sector.
Prediction 3; As the system begins to crumble, this will bring about something of a master reset. We are seeing this with the tiny house movement already.
A quantum evolutionary change usually only occurs during periods of major disruption.