{"id":328,"date":"2014-08-11T22:52:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-11T22:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/08\/this-wasnt-a-parody.html"},"modified":"2014-08-11T22:52:00","modified_gmt":"2014-08-11T22:52:00","slug":"this-wasnt-a-parody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/08\/this-wasnt-a-parody.html","title":{"rendered":"This *wasn’t* a parody?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The other day, I saw references to an article asking for free tampons. \u00a0I figured this was a parody, a Swiftian piece intended to illustrate the absurdity of demands that insurers provide contraception at no out-of-pocket cost for reasons of \u201cfairness\u201d by making other \u201cfairness\u201d demands, so I didn\u2019t pay much attention to it.<\/p>\n

But apparently it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the Slate piece<\/a> that made it clear that this is serious, and here\u2019s the original article<\/a> in The Guardian.<\/p>\n

The key paragraphs:<\/p>\n

In the United States, access to tampons and pads for low-income women is a real problem, too: food stamps don\u2019t cover feminine hygiene products, so some women resort to selling their food stamps in order to pay for \u201cluxuries\u201d like tampons. Women in prison often don\u2019t have access to sanitary products at all, and the high cost of a product that half the population needs multiple times a day, every month for approximately 30 years, is simply, well, bullshit.\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Women in the UK are fighting to axe the 5% tax on tampons (it used to be taxed at 17.5%!), which are considered \u201cluxuries\u201d while men\u2019s razors, for some baffling reason, are not. And in the US, though breast pumps, vasectomies and artificial teeth are sales tax-exempt and tax-deductible medical care, tampons are not even exempted from sales tax in some states (including California and New York, two of the most populous states).\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But this is less an issue of costliness than it is of principle: menstrual care is health care, and should be treated as such. But much in the same way insurance coverage or subsidies for birth control are mocked or met with outrage, the idea of women even getting small tax breaks for menstrual products provokes incredulousness because some people lack an incredible amount of empathy \u2026 and because it has something to do with vaginas. Affordable access to sanitary products is rarely talked about outside of NGOs \u2013 and when it is, it\u2019s with shame or derision.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, I\u2019m not going to address the reasoning behind the UK tax treatment \u00a0(does that mean that razors are not taxed? \u00a0that is admittedly odd) and I certainly can\u2019t address the cost of tampons in the UK \u2014 I suppose there could be some strange price support on wood products that artificially increases tampon cost there, but that seems unlikely. \u00a0But on the whole, tampons just aren\u2019t that expensive.<\/p>\n

But \u201cmenstrual care is health care\u201d and, hence, should be free?<\/p>\n

Of course the poor have trouble paying for their basic needs. \u00a0That\u2019s what it means to be poor. \u00a0And there are all kinds of items that fall into the category of \u201cbasic needs\u201d which aren\u2019t covered by food stamps: \u00a0TP. \u00a0Soap. \u00a0Toothpaste. \u00a0Sunscreen. \u00a0Over-the-counter medications. \u00a0Or, more big-ticket items: \u00a0clothing, housing, transit expenses. \u00a0 Or, per the news out of Detroit, water bills.<\/p>\n

A philosophy that says, \u201cthe government should pay for every basic need, for everyone\u201d (via vouchers designated for the purpose? \u00a0free product?) simply makes no sense. \u00a0That\u2019s not the government\u2019s job \u2014 unless you want to go back to advocating for the \u201cbasic income\u201d idea, I suppose \u2014 though our welfare system and the mix of in-kind and cash benefits the American government provides the poor certainly could stand to be rationalized.<\/p>\n

Yes, of course, the situation in developing countries is potentially a serious one, with girls leaving school in Africa due to the lack of sanitary products. \u00a0But she doesn\u2019t stay there \u2013 she moves to the travails of middle-class women.<\/p>\n

Do tampons have a special status because only women use them? \u00a0Doesn\u2019t this just seem inherently foolish, to insist on sex-specific free stuff? \u00a0How far do you go? \u00a0Should women get free bras? \u00a0Couldn\u2019t men get into this game, too? \u00a0Men are, on average, larger, and need more calories, for instance.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s ironic that the illustration I had always though of as the counter-example to demonstrate that women don\u2019t need free contraception for fairness\u2019 sake, is being used in precisely the opposite way.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The other day, I saw references to an article asking for free tampons. \u00a0I figured this was a parody, a Swiftian piece intended to illustrate the absurdity of demands that insurers provide contraception at no out-of-pocket cost for reasons of \u201cfairness\u201d by making other \u201cfairness\u201d demands, so I didn\u2019t pay much attention to it. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThis *wasn't* a parody?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The other day, I saw references to an article asking for free tampons.  I figured this was a parody, a Swiftian piece intended to illustrate the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/08\/this-wasnt-a-parody.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This *wasn't* a parody?\" \/>\n<meta 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