HYPERBOLE MISSES THE REAL ISSUE

#FREEPERIODS CAMPAIGN IS WELL-MEANING BUT MISGUIDED

Browsing the website of The Guardian newspaper (U.K.) Tuesday, I noticed an article that was labelled as an “opinion” piece on “menstruation” — which left me puzzled.

Is there a debate afoot about women’s periods, and if so, what could it possibly be? Do pro- period forces argue that menstruation is natural and normal? Do anti-period forces argue that menstruation can be painful and annoying? ( For what it’s worth, I’d judge that contest a tie.)

It turns out there really is a current debate about menstruation — or at least activists are creating one — which has culminated in a British campaign that goes by the ambiguous hashtag #FreePeriods.

For the record, # FreePeriods has nothing to do with punctuation or students getting more leisure time during the school day. Nor is the #FreePeriods campaign about emancipating periods ( typological, pedagogical, biological or otherwise) from slavery.

# FreePeriods is a call for the U. K. government to provide free menstrual products to children who are currently receiving free meals. The idea is that these girls ( I know we’ve gotten very touchy about gender, but I think this is one of the few areas where it’s still permissible to reference girls) have already been reliably benchmarked and deemed low- income; therefore, it’s reasonable to assume they will have trouble affording maxi-pads and the like.

Apparently, this is a problem that causes some British girls to miss school monthly because they’re afraid that whatever cheap makeshift pad they’ve devised — instead of purchasing pricey mass- produced commercial sanitary napkins — will allow for embarrassing leakage.

Now, it’s weird to see progressives out there demanding a mass- produced, heavily advertised, disposable, commercial product that is enriching large multinational corporations and clogging landfills. That’s not usually their bag.

And I’m also unclear on why menstrual products would be any more crucial and/or unaffordable for poverty-stricken children than other modern- day essential selfcare products, such as toothpaste, soap, painkillers and sunscreen.

But generally, # FreePeriods sounds like a reasonable idea that could potentially help young people.

So, it’s unfortunate that the organizers and supporters are making their good cause into an obnoxious joke by insisting on the hyperbole and overkill that are currently de rigueur in activist circles.

In the Guardian article I mentioned, the writer — an 18- yearold student who started the #FreePeriods campaign — declares, “Menstrual care is, undoubtedly, a human right and it’s time for our government to address the fact that some girls are deprived of it.” She goes on to decry the “atrocity of period poverty,” suggesting that “stigma and shame” around menstruation are the cause (“we live in a world where periods are euphemised and belittled”).

Casting British girls being unable to afford maxi pads as a humanitarian human rights disaster — brought about by society’s humiliation and debasement of women, no less — is going to put off sensible people who might otherwise pay attention and help. Is it really useful to the cause to wag a finger at women, telling them they “should be celebrating the power of the period, and celebrating our femininity”?

I mean, judging by the activists’ messages, the power of the period is primarily to cost girls a lot of money, or miss out on a full education. That doesn’t put me in the mood to celebrate.

But the real issue here is that # FreePeriods is focusing on the wrong problem. While not great, it’s truly not a disaster if a British girl misses 10 or 20 days of school a year because she doesn’t have proper sanitary napkins. The disaster is a British girl living in such poverty that she and her family cannot afford to buy menstrual products, which in the U. K. cost about $ 3.53 a month. And in that case, maxi pads are the least of the child’s problems.

The # FreePeriods campaign is well- meaning. It would be naive to expect an 18- year- old to have the wise cynicism necessary to ask impolite questions, such as, “Is it possible the British girls who stayed home while menstruating were also experiencing some of the powerful period’s darker strengths, such as cramps or backaches or migraines?” Or, “Would it be more efficient and less expensive to give low- income British girls $ 3.53 a month, than to create new distribution mechanisms to truck in menstrual products?”

The trouble is that rather than being viewed as misguided unsophisticated exercises, campaigns such as # FreePeriods turn moderates off charity with their rhetoric; and are embraced by progressives, whose outrage is then generated and directed at the wrong targets.

Giving low- income kids free sanitary products might not be a bad idea for fighting period problems. But it’s a not much of an idea for fighting poverty, which is the real enemy.

CAMPAIGNS SUCH AS #FREEPERIODS TURN MODERATES OFF CHARITY.