Talk About Tax...

In March protesters demonstrated outside Parliament against the so-called 'tampon tax' Rex

Let’s begin with the obvious: Every woman in the history of humanity has, or has had, a period. Each month, her uterus sheds its lining, sending blood flowing out through her vagina. This process is as natural as eating, drinking and sleeping. There’s no human race without it. Yet most of us loathe talking about it.

When girls first start their periods, they embark on a decades-long journey of silence and dread. Periods hurt. They cause backaches and cramps, not to mention emotional turmoil – and this goes on every month, for 30 to 40 years.

In public, people discuss periods as often as they discuss diarrhea. Women shove sanitary pads or tampons up their sleeves on their way to the bathroom so no one knows it’s their time of the month.

They get blood stains on their clothes. They stick wads of toilet paper in their underwear when they’re caught without supplies. Meanwhile, ad campaigns sanitise this bloody mess with scenes of light blue liquids gently cascading onto fluffy white pads while women frolic in form-fitting white jeans.

In a 1978 satire for Ms.magazine, feminist Gloria Steinem answered the question that so many women have asked: “What would happen, for instance, if suddenly, magically, men could menstruate and women could not? Her reply? "Menstruation would become an enviable, boast worthy, masculine event." She envisioned a world where “men-struation” justifies men’s place pretty much everywhere – in combat, political office, religious leadership positions and medical schools. We’d have “Paul Newman Tampons” and “Muhammad Ali’s Rope-a-Dope Pads”.

Source AP