The Case For Free Tampons
By Krista Pool
There’s certain questions that run through a woman’s head when it comes to bleeding uncontrollably every month and spending money to cease it. For instance why aren’t tampons a basic human right like a toilet or restroom use? Or why is there such a lack of awareness towards the topic of penniless tampons? Last but none the less important, what can we do to change this atonement issue in what seems like “A Man’s World?”
Tampons Should Be A Basic Human Right
A question women might have is, what even is the basic human rights? There’s a lot, so to name them all would be unrealistic but the right to use the restroom seems to only be present in the context of schools, work, and or places of business. Which is fine, people shouldn’t be just going to the restroom wherever they want, it’s just so hard to fathom it’s not a law to have free tampons for women as women take up half of the population. Imagine a world where a woman is on her period bleeding non stop and in every business, school, or public restroom she can simply just grab what is needed.
Of course, people are skeptical it’s not a fully pure and integrity filled world and nothing in this world is free but why don’t we have a tax that is taken out of women’s paychecks and womens only for that tax that is on our ID’s or apple pay or something that we apply for? Can we just all agree that free tampons are a basic necessity and right at this point for women, let me explain the numbers behind why women are so fed up paying for tampons.
The Tampon Tax
As a woman spending about thirty dollars a month on tampons isn’t unheard of because we take them everywhere with us as they are not easily accessible unless you have some change to put in the dispensers. In a pack of tampons, even at a value will range from twelve to fifteen dollars for a pack of 30 tampons which is around forty nine cents per tampon. After a day of having a light flow using around five tampons a day that is roughly two dollars and forty five cents a day just to not bleed everywhere. From a woman shopping for bath or cosmetic stuff, yes, it is not essential, it is not out of our control. To bleed for a week straight 24/7 is and the fact that we even have to pay a cent to stop it is ridiculous just thinking about it.
Awareness To Women’s Needs/Rights
To end this discrimination to women and they’re menstrual cycles as women we need to bring awareness to the topic, to social media to the world to see the dilemma we all face. Also we need to make a way to get women’s voices heard like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, become a powerful movement that gets into the law that everyone, men and women can vote on. So this isn’t a demand from women, this is a brighter future for young women to wake up in a world where they can get tampons delivered free, no hassle, go into a store, show your ID and get our basic human rights needs met.