Where has the ides of Period Poverty come from?

[woollysocksforwinter]

What is period poverty, exactly?

I can't see how it differs from actual poverty.

Speaking as someone who has been too skint to buy tampons at a previous point in my life, I made do with what I could, I had bigger issues at the time than what to stem my menstrual flow with. Wouldn't people concerned that women don't have enough money for sanitary products, be better off fighting the causes of actual poverty?

AIBU to question the link between period poverty and the ultra fucking wok who want to push the term "menstruators"

There was the women's march last week, then this lot, this week calling women menstruators.

Also, it's an issue TW like our old friend Lily, like to align themselves with, isn't it.

Is the idea of Period Poverty being used a front for the larger campaign to erase the word "women" as a description for us adult human females?

I was thinking about this today, as a friend shared an article about schools having red boxes of Sanpro available to tackle period poverty. I'm not unfamiliar with the concept as I volunteer at a food bank and I vividly remember being without access to sanpro when I was a teenager with a mum on benefits.

But I've come to see this slightly differently. I welcome boxes of free sanpro in schools. Not just because some women and girls cannot afford it, but because can you imagine what kind of a social shift it would if, instead of individualistic capitalistic, largely misogynist thinking, we were part of a society that acknowledged and valued every woman enough to recognise that periods are a thing that need to be dealt with and provided sanpro like many places provide free paper cups and water?

Just the shift in consciousness that would mean? Like, instead of 'period poverty' being the latest football to knock about, the idea that women would have to pay a premium for sanpro would be laughable, and we would consider it as significant a need as decent nutrition?

what FloralBunting said

I had horrifically heavy periods as a teen, can't imagine having to use rags or whatever. I don't know who has hijacked what cause, but I agree with the pp who says it helps bring it home to people even more about poverty being a problem.

at my old workplace, we collected for the Homeless Period. I'm sure it made a few people wince at the indelicacy of it, but glad if it made people aware.

Washable and cups may be suitable for some girls. I wouldn't exclude them as options but I wouldn't rely on them either.
I remember at school there were some girls who couldn't use tampons, others who could, some who liked applicators, others who couldn't use them.

Period poverty is never just about period products, the poverty clearly affects people in far more ways. However, there are easier solutions to this than poverty overall.

I do just sometimes think that poverty being packaged as supposedly separate issues eg food banks, fuel poverty, period poverty, school meals, prevents us considering the root causes of poverty in an integrated, holistic way.

Of course I appreciate that doing something here and now to help women and girls suffering from period poverty is immensely valuable.

It was discussed in depth in full council in Leeds earlier this month. The Labour Group were all over it like a rash. Notably, the two female Labour councillors who had savaged WPUK and got the meeting cancelled last year. It all felt very tokenistic and back patting. One said that 50% of the population menstruate. Yes, there are two words for those people - women and girls. Considering the bashing they’ve been getting for the “managed area” and the defamation of WPUK, it stuck in the craw and just felt very off. It’s like a thing which can be easily co-opted to make you look like a champion for women, but can ultimately be an easy and empty gesture.

Yes, I think this is one of the things that has really made me look quite askance at it as a phrase in currency. 'Period poverty' being championed by people who don't actually seem to think of women as whole people but can trot out a few packs of Always in a plastic crate or write on their palm in black marker and get some adoring head pats for their condescension.

I mean, it's a catchy, alliterative phrase. Wouldn't it be so cool if it became part of a movement that actually liberated women? Face up to the period poverty caused by the young mum who has to choose between going to work in agony or staying at home and losing holiday or being penalised for too many sick days.

Argh. I'm bloody knackered and fecking irritated today, but I am done with crumbs from the table. Don't patronize 'poor' women and girls with your free tampons for the destitute. Women, rise up and be liberated from this shitty system that makes your cycle a dirty, shameful, sniggering joke, hides and dismisses the consequences of it, taxes the means to accommodate it and then has the bloody cheek to use it as a badge of their own righteousness.

I wish I could find better evidence for this than my own memory but this will have to do. I think it was first used by aid agencies to describe the problem of girls not going to school in developing countries because of a lack of sanitary protection. It is a particular problem in countries like India and Kenya where girls don't have their own income and where families can prioritise spending on boys and men. Then as food banks became more common here they adopted the phrase too. There was a thread on mumsnet a while ago where somebody was at a TRA meeting where I think talking about period poverty was included as a tactic to come across as more sympathetic - hence the infamous pen scrawl on a hand. That's my vague memory anyway.

I have to agree with you. When I was a skint student I used rolled up roulet paper from public loos. It wasnt really a masibe issue, not compared with trying to find money for rent and food.

toilet paper!

As an aside, why can't someone design a tampon which breaks up like toilet paper so they can be flushed

If a tampon broke up on contact with liquid it would break up inside the vagina.

Actually lack of access to education to girls IS a systemic cause of, and if it’s putting of girls from being educated then this is a pretty easy fix comparatively.

I'm not sure exactly but the trussell trust have been pushing it in their donation campaigns. Of course if money is very tight it's going to be hard to find money but the amounts sanitary products cost are vastly exaggerated by the media - 59p a pack in Asda, most women only need a couple of packs at the most, and there's cheaper ones at 20p a pack even (old style thick, but we managed with them fine in the past).

I help run a hot food project and food bank - very few of our clients turn up without cigarettes which annoys us a lot when they are demanding shampoo or other extras, why don't they forgo cigarettes (and why aren't they even polite to the volunteers). Morrison's gave us a large number of packs of the thick style pads as the packaging had changed and they weren't selling them any more, clients refused them saying they were old fashioned (yes but we are giving them away). I don't usually go in during the project now as it's making be a cynic, there's lots of genuine poverty I'm sure but too many here are playing the system knowing we don't ask for referrals (unlike other food banks)

Lack of sanitary products and toilet facilities has long been known as a major reason girls drop out of school in developing countries
Maybe in some countries this is true however in some it is because parents can't afford the school fees. Which is plain old poverty. The children have to work. Sometimes a few in those communities it's because they feel it's wasted if they are going to marry them off at 16.

Reusable sanpro only works in countries where there is running water in toilets all the time. As someone said is going to be harder in some unisex facilities.

Ultimately I'm not so much in favour with schemes which leave people dependent rather than sorting out the poverty cause in the first place. Then again I'm definitely not against girls / women getting the help they need now.

I actually get really angry when people try to push reusable products on me. The mooncups don't work for me and I should be allowed the convenience of not having to wash bloody rags like it's the Depression era. I did that when I was homeless, sure. It was bloody disgusting, excuse the pun. I never want to do it again. It stinks. I mean, it really, really stinks. If you don't mind smelling and washing bloody rags, good for you but don't try to force other women to do it!

Please don't jump on my ignorance if I get this wrong.

I thought period poverty came from an excuse by school girls as to why they weren't in school? That's what myself n my partner Jane thought.

There was that advertising the end of last year by a sanpro manufacturer, when THEY (the manufacturer asked if any girls had missed school due tomorrow poverty) the makers would then donate 1 individual sanpro product (not a box mind!)

My fiancée no longer needs period protection, but she does wear "dribble" pads due to age and health (she is 55 and has Rhumatoid Arthritis) and even though we both rely on a single disability benefit, and have used food banks when we get bigger bills in (the food bank we use has barely any stock, so couldn't use it more often, as we'd go more hungry) but even still she hasnt used the food bank for sanpro, due to getting 2 packs a fortnight for 60p a pack.

As for tax, I think it should be similar to other stuff, in that premium versions are taxed (IE chocolate covered biscuits) but simpler/plain products aren't. On this basis, I'd say (I am a bloke thinking logically, so please don't get too excited) no wings, or non applicator, tax free (IE basic versions)?

Yeah, yeah, it totally makes sense to oppose austerity but not help woman and girls struggling as a result of it ... it's all one big plot by the trans people. Note sarcasm.

Austerity is terrible, but it is possible to both oppose it and to contribute to food banks (which also accept sanpro).

macblank I'd say (I am a bloke thinking logically, so please don't get too excited) no wings, or non applicator, tax free (IE basic versions)?

There is nothing logical about this. No-one in the history of commercially available sanitary protection has ever gone 'ooh, I think I'll treat myself and buy some applicator tampons'. They are not the luxury version. Some people find non-applicator tampons better for them, some find applicator more effective - many people can only use one kind or the other.
So yeah, please don't mistake ignorance for logic in future.

My "ignorance" is based on the wingless/applicatorless versions being cheaper generally speaking... how would I know? I've bought many a pack and sometimes when money was v v tight went for the cheaper versions.

I do accept now, that although previous partners have preferred the wings/applicator, that it wasn't a luxury choice.

I lived with my step mum and dad..I was allowed one shower a week.i saved my £1 dinner money each day to buy san pro ,shampoo ,toothpaste,deodorant,washing power to hand wash my clothes in the sink..then she started to want the change from the £1 dinner money so I had to buy the cheapest thing in the shop each day to give her some change ,and try to save some money..I also had thread worms and had to save up money to be able to buy the tablet at the chemist...so often I used toilet paper as San pro..
They were wealthy ,they had plenty of money .he just didn't care about me and she hated me.
For years I went without a school lunch ,they were way above the threshold for me to have a free lunch at school..there was no big supermarkets near me either ,so everything came from the corner shop and was expensive.having free tampons at school would of made a huge difference to my life.i can remember sitting in biology praying I wouldn't leak through the toilet paper.

I'm not trying to jump on you but if it's a subject you freely admit you know nothing about ("how would I know"), then perhaps don't offer your opinion?

By all means ask women about their thoughts and experiences to further your understanding of an issue, but coming on a feminist board and telling women sanitary pads with wings are a luxury item is a bit patronising.

As a single parent I sometimes had to resort to toilet paper when money was very short. Bread/Food or sanitary pads.