disadvantage
The combination of the cost and attitudes towards periods creates a difficult culture to begin the conversation of changing the course of period poverty.
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Student Molly Bagniewski said, “a lot of the times people think periods are taboo shouldn't be talked about and because of that many young girls and women in general don’t get proper information they should have about their own bodies.”
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In addition, these products are continuously taxed and “Many states consider tampons a luxury so they add sales tax to them and are considered non medical items which I strongly disagree with,” Bagniewski said.
Tatum Dutton Lewis, a student at ASU also shares the sentiments as she said, "It's honestly really disheartening."
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“I think our generation at least amongst women, we’ve been able to normalize and have these conversations with each other, but people still frown," Lewis said.
The attitudes still persist as they are not confronted and girls and women still struggle with humiliation and embarrassment when it comes to their menstrual cycles.
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"63% of teens say the school environment makes them especially self-conscious of their periods,” according to period.org.
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Even in safe spaces periods are not welcomed as products remain difficult to access with prices and the stigma continues to be negative.
This infographic articulates the many last-resorts women victim of period poverty have to do in order to manage their menstrual cycle. According to New York Times opinion article on the shame of menstruation that keeps many girls out of school in developing countries, many girls have to use newspapers, mattress shreds and rags to even just keep it in a controllable state. These methods mostly fail at their job to absorb, protect and prevent leakage which can lead to messes, infections and embarrassment in many cultures. One of the methods that is not included in this infographic is the choice to not go out at all on ones menstrual cycle which keeps millions of girls out of work and school each day. This infographic brings awareness to the harsh and ineffective ways women have to manage their period as well as the shame that comes along with having one.
The issue of period poverty is embedded in the deep rooted attitudes that surround periods. Women and girls face not only hardship of their menstrual cycles in this world but also a society that views them as unsanitary and not to be vocalized when there are issues surrounding them.