Free period protection products: yay or nay?

[MsVanillaRoseAuntof7]

As in: would we be better off calling for an end to poverty? Or is there room for both approaches? I am inclined to think there is room for both - wondered what other feminists thought.

They should be made freely available to women only, while we tackle poverty. Women who can afford to buy them wouldn't have to take the free ones.

Hi Aunt Lydia,

There are some people on your other thread who would appreciate answers to some questions, probably before they're willing to entertain your plopping again,

thanks.

Thread Here just in case you've "lost" it.

I'm guessing this is in response to the fascinating new statesman (I think) article posted by redtoothbrush (I think) on a thread yesterday? I can't remember which thread it was but there may already be a discussion going there

Hi, Mel, it's kind of mean of you to call me "Aunt Lydia". Not everyone who cares about children happens to be a mother.

Hi, stillathing. I think I saw a banner about it. It seems like only a few years ago the concept of no VAT on sanitary protection was revived. (It was popular circa 1990 and then seemed to fade away.)

Why have you name-changed OP?

EU law means that, once a product has had VAT applied to it, it can't then have VAT removed. The Govt of the time (Brown?) set the VAT to the EU minimum rate of 5%, and there isn't more that can be done to relieve VAT.

In an era of austerity in which single mums are the whipping girls of society because they dare to have kids whilst not being de facto property of a man, with their children's suffering as acceptable collateral damage, poverty isn't going away soon because of this state and social sanction. Because only women and girls have to use sanpro, and because sanpro is a lower priority than food when money is tight, girls end up missing out on education because they have their periods and nothing to catch the blood. How can a girl ask for money for pads or tampons when she knows that her mum is skipping meals to feed her and her siblings?

Consider also the situation where the father is still present but is financially coercive and denies the mother enough money to feed the kids. Under the old system of Child Benefit paid to the mother, the mother had at least some money that she controlled and could spend on the kids and save as an escape fund. Universal Credit is paid to one account and in abusive relationships it's going to be paid to the abuser. If we hand that family more money, it will be controlled by the abuser who will deny the children what they need as part of the abuse. If we hand sanpro to the girls, the girls are guaranteed access to it.

We cannot end state- and socially-sanctioned abuse and poverty, but we can at least make sure that every girl gets full schooling.

Yes, free sanpro would be helpful. Of course we need to tackle poverty but it would be nice not to bleed all over one’s clothes in the meantime.

I heard this on the radio the other day. Through the whole add/promotion they refused to say the word woman or girl. Apparently sanitary products will be available to every single student! Wtf?

they dare to have kids whilst not being de facto property of a man

By "have kids" I mean "be a mother at any stage of the children's childhood". Many single mums started being mums whilst married, and are punished by society and the state for not having perfect clairvoyance to realise that their marriages would not last.

Red Box Project say "young women".

Hi Aunt Lydia,

So, you're not going to reply to your post then? Cool, you could have just said that. And yes, why the name change?

cheers again.

I think there needs to be drastic action on this, tbh. I see period poverty all the time in the work I do, and only a few years ago was one of the voices that meant our food bank started supplying San pro. I recall the arguments I had with men who thought it was entirely superfluous and would take up space in the store room, and food was more important. They were thought having a supply of razors was cool, though.

Took me right back to school days, and Mr fucking Powick telling us girls that women made too much of periods, and men had to deal with wet dreams and shaving without complaining, so we had no reason to complain about anything.

Anyway, yes, I think it is a socially responsible thing to make sanpro as accessible as possible to girls at school, emphatically yes. My mum was on benefits when I was a young teen and we really struggled financially and I often made do with ripped up rags that I rinsed out when I could, which often meant soggy knickers either way. I kept quiet from a mixture of shame and not wanting to ask mum for anything because I knew she didn't have any cash left.

It's already in place in Scotland. Free sanitary protection available in all schools and colleges. Came into being a few weeks ago.

Has anyone used any of the free sanitary protection available in Scotland, etc?

I always wonder what the quality will be like, any time I've used a free sanitary product somewhere like a plane (on the occasions they've had them) they've always been a bit scratchy or very fragile which isn't really a problem if they're a temporary measure but I imagine over time they could really irritate

I’m not sure. The school were given a budget and guidance over what to buy. We bought a selection of decent products; tampons and pads, which seem fine. I think we ordered in bulk from Amazon.

There are a variety of official providers in Scotland, I believe. This organisation is one of them and looks like a great enterprise.

www.heygirls.co.uk/hey-girls-delighted-to-be-a-major-provider-in-scottish-sanitary-product-scheme/

In answer to the original question, well of course it is part of a bigger problem, but calling for an end to poverty doesn't help those girls who right now can't go to school when they're on their period.

I do also wonder, however, why the sudden flurry of thread starting today, Vanilla? Especially as they're all of the "Statement. Discuss." variety, a la A Level Psychology exams circa 1999.

Women and girls should be able to access free sanitary protection should they find themselves in a position that they are unable to afford it. It's well documented that the present raft of deliberate austerity measures are causing the greatest hardship to women and girls, especially in single adult homes.

Now, maybe you could stop posting random threads and then never engaging on them again. You might believe you are being clever. You would be alone in that assumption.

I would rather give girls (some start in primary school) and young women the chance to get a good education, which will help to end poverty, rather than having them miss school due to lack of sanitary protection. It's an excellent programme to put in place.