Is san pro appeal offensive?

[DrSeuss]

I work in a secondary school in the London area. I am currently running an appeal for Red Box, an organisation which provides sanitary towels and other toiletries for those in need. (Please check out their website and maybe start your own appeal). I made posters today and put one in every department office, then tried to put one in the main school office where about six women work. I was told that this was not possible as a member of the public might see the poster there. I pointed out that fifty per cent of the public use san pro but the answer is still no. AIBU in finding this reasoning odd?

Why would there be young children at a secondary school?

Why would you run a secondary school orientated towards the supposed “needs” of the occasional small child that might briefly visit, as dictated by the most repressed adults?

You wouldn't go and browse the tampon range in Boots while with your 5 year old DS because they'd start asking all sorts of questions

I would. Because periods are normal. I'd also get my husband to pick up san pro if he was heading to Boots and I needed some.

I dont see why its a huge issue. There are billions of women all over the world who get periods. It should be treated as normal as brushing your teeth.

Interestingly, the objector is female. I would have assumed male if I were reading this too but no. I suppose I could ask someone senior to them but I already have a group email that went out and the rest of the posters in the other offices.

Not offensive at all.

Calf thats just weird! Why wouldn't you buy tampons in front of a 5 yr old boy? Why is that terrifying or inappropriate?

Periods, blood and sanitary towels are part of the essence of life, like sex, sperm and where babies come from and they are as normal as eating, sleeping, weeing and shitting.

My DS was around me and my DDs when we bought tampons or even changed them, (not in an ostentatious way), dont they need to know all about the realities of life? If they have relationships with girls or women won't they need to? Or is it throwback to the 50s?

So because someone can’t be arsed to parent a 5 year old who shows natural curiosity about life, young women have to suffer without adequate sanitary products and clean underwear.
Misogyny in action

You wouldn't go and browse the tampon range in Boots while with your 5 year old DS because they'd start asking all sorts of questions.

I would. Then answer the questions as they came. Why on earth wouldn't you?

Good work OP I'd like to do the same at my school (which I suspect would also object to a poster in the front office - it wouldn't go with the corporate image they're trying to project).

Oh come on, what kid hasn't pulled out his /her mums Sanpro products from the bathroom cabinet and had a nosey?

Reminds me of Ric Mayal in Bottom? The young ones? pulling a tampon out of a woman's bag and not having a clue - then deciding it was a 'mousey mousey'.

Calf123, are you on glue?
I find in necessary to buy sanitary products with my children. For a start, one menstruates, so she needs them too!
The younger ones have asked questions, know what they are, and are completely accepting.
My periods are incredibly heavy. If I run out unexpectedly, In an hour I can soak through a Super Plus tampon, with a night pad, and tissue in between. If I need them, I need them!
Far better scenario than letting them see Mummy bleeding all over the place, don't you think?

They also see me naked, so know what a grown woman's body looks like!

Don't you think it's better to normalize the facts of womanhood for both female, and male children?
The girls have to experience the situation, and the boys will probably have relationships with women who menstruate. Because, you know, that's what a woman's body does!
The later that children learn, the more confusing, and frightening it can be.
I know of girls who only learned about it when it happened. That is so wrong, and unnecessary.

We’ve had a san pro collection at work. Notices were put up about it on the staff internet.

You wouldn't go and browse the tampon range in Boots while with your 5 year old DS because they'd start asking all sorts of questions.

...and then you would answer those questions age in an age appropriate manner, surely? A 5 year old is not going to be asking literally about the ins and outs of your reproductive system.

Heaven forbid a male person asks about a perfectly normal body function that 50% of us experience

I browse the tampon section for ages, actually, because DH usually picks them up for me with the shopping.

• The later that children learn, the more confusing, and frightening it can be. I know of girls who only learned about it when it happened. That is so wrong, and unnecessary.*

In case anyone didn't know, the impetus for founding the Samaritans was when Chad Varah conducted his first funeral. It was a 14yo who had started her periods but didn't know what was happening and thought she'd got an STD.

Hopefully that doesn't happen in 21st century Britain, but ever since hearing that I've been convinced that there should be nothing taboo about periods.