After JK row, Superdrug shuns the word ‘woman’

SUPERDRUG has launched sanitary products marketed as being for ‘a person who menstruates’ rather than a woman.

The health and beauty chain’s Luna sanitary towels are the first range it has stocked to adopt more inclusive language on its packaging.

The move was welcomed by transgender rights supporters, but some customers were critical and argued that only females have periods.

In the summer Harry Potter author JK Rowling faced an online backlash for mocking the use of the phrase ‘people who menstruate’. She wrote: ‘I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?’

The Luna towels, which were launched in May, are made from organic, plantbased materials and wrapped in plantbased biofilm. The back of the box reads: ‘A person who menstruates will on average have over 400 periods and use around 11,000 period products in a lifetime...’

Jake Edwards, from Transgender rights charity Mermaids, welcomed the new wording, saying: ‘As a trans person who still experiences periods, I dread the days when my supplies start running low. I run through a million scenarios of people staring at me, questioning me, laughing behind my back.

‘Now I can confidently walk into a Superdrug and if anyone challenged me I could point to the packet and say, “Look, this is made for me.”’

But not all customers were happy, with one commenting online: ‘If you menstruate I’m pretty sure that you are female.’ Another said: ‘A woman menstruates. Men don’t. They physically can’t.’

A Superdrug spokesman said: ‘We wanted Luna to be as inclusive as possible.’