It’s a step in the right direction
This week the Government announced it would be tackling period poverty by offering free sanitary products to school students and all I can say is, it’s about time.
The scheme will begin at 15 Waikato schools in term three and, from 2021, all state and state-integrated schools will be able to opt in to the scheme.
The money women have to fork out for these so called ‘luxury items’ is extortionate, and on par with the cost of tertiary education.
I challenge any man to experience just one period themselves and have to use these products, and they’ll soon realise, this ain’t no luxury.
The total lifetime cost of these products is estimated to be around $15,000.
It’s a price many women and the families of young girls can’t afford, and so they find themselves in period poverty without access to pads, tampons or cups.
This can have an impact on their mental health, see them miss school, and go on to get health implications.
One third of 15 to 17-year-olds who responded to a KidsCan survey in 2018 said they had missed school because they didn’t have sanitary items.
They reported using toilet paper, rags, old cloths, and nappies when they could not afford tampons and pads.
But hopefully, this move by the Government is a step in the right direction.
I am lucky enough to have never experienced period poverty, but like most women I have felt the depths of period shame. My mum tried her best to break the stigma and make periods seem attractive and appealing. She’d talk about all the cute products I’d get, and we’d keep them in a cute bag and it’d be great.
Because of this when I did get it, on the same day as a school disco no less, my first words were ‘yay’ – I had arrived at womanhood.
Turns out my mum had fooled me. Periods sucked and womanhood was awkward and filled with shame.
Unwrapping products would fill me with so much anxiety that someone else in the toilets at school would hear and know I had my period and tease me.
Some brands have done a terrific job at trying to break this shame, such as Libra.
You see, each sanitary pad contains a Libra Odd Spot tab which includes general information and fun facts. With the amount of money we pay for these things, we may as well learn something in the process.
Over the years I have learnt so much from them and I’m sure other women feel the same.
Like, because of Libra Odd Spot #5 I know that if I feel a sneeze coming on and I don’t want it to come out I can press my tongue hard against the roof of my mouth and it won’t.
Or because of Odd Spot #254 I know that the Hollywood sign was erected in 1923, or because of Odd Spot #37 that Space Invaders was so popular in Japan it created a coin shortage.
And Odd Spot #91 taught me that a cow gives nearly 200,000 glasses of milk in their lifetime.
It may have been just a clever marketing gimmick but it’s been a powerful way of empowering young girls and women with knowledge through products which are usually taboo for a subject we are made to feel shame over.
The Libra Odd Spots shift the mindset of dreading that time of the month to ‘I wonder what I’m going to learn this month’.
Unfortunately many young girls are made to feel embarrassed about their bodies and how they function.
Libra also came up with a way to try to break that shame and the stigma surrounding menstruation in one of its advertising campaigns last year.
The company decided to use blood, rather than blue dye, in its ads for sanitary products after a study showed three out of four Kiwi women said having a period was viewed as shameful.
The figure came from a survey of 1000 New Zealand and Australian men and women about attitudes towards menstruation.
The research found menstruation was more stigmatised than drugs, sex or STDs. More than half of 13 to 17-year-old girls said they would rather fail a school test than have their classmates know they’re on their period, the results showed.
My shame and anxiety of not wanting anyone to know was 15 years ago – obviously not much has changed for girls since then.
But good on Libra for trying and for empowering girls with education and facts rather than shame.
And good on the Government for taking a stand and not forcing families to choose between food on the table or sanitary products for their daughters.