Stray thought on free tampons

Stray thought on free tampons October 1, 2016

Free tampons!  That’s the new rallying cry at universities, and refers to making tampons available for free in university restrooms (and in the men’s room, too, to be inclusive of male-identifying people who menstruate — see a recent article at Heat Street).

Now, readers who find such discussions icky should probably click away right now.

Still here?

OK, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Back in the day, when I worked at an office instead of at home, I was grateful for the free tampons at my workplace.  Frankly, it wasn’t about the cost, but about the awkwardness that it avoids — no one likes to have to either attempt to discreetly carry a tampon (what if you have no pocket in your clothes that day?) or carry your whole purse (what if you have no purse because everything’s in your backpack?) to the ladies’ room.

And I was relatively indifferent to the type of tampon on offer — which, it seems to me from memory, would have been the “regular” cardboard-applicator Tampax tampon.

Then I hit 40.  And became the prime demographic for the Super Plus tampons.  And not too long ago discovered that one of the brands makes an Ultra absorbency.  Woo-hoo!

Now, you men may not have given much thought to it, but if you head down the Feminine Products aisle, there are a lot of products on offer:  different brands, of course, but different absorbency levels, different applicator types, varying claims on “comfort” or effectiveness of the product, plus the private label brand.  And that’s just the tampons — then there are the pads, with different sizes, shapes, wings, etc.

The Free Tampons movement, on the other hand, assumes it’s one-size-fits-all.

Now, obviously “one-size” is better than nothing, and certainly is so as a back-up, but it just strikes me that these students don’t seem to be thinking of this at all.

Anyway, just s stray thought.


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