Precedents - The Future of Menstrual Products
- Emma
- Sep 8, 2020
- 7 min read
Throughout weeks 2 and 3, I worked on researching precedents and coming up with a variety of insights related to the areas of automation and sustainability.
Precedent - A precedent is a piece of earlier research or an event which can be used to guide and back up my insights.
Rupi Kaur
Rupi Kaur posted an image of herself bleeding to Instagram in 2015. She shared as part of a project in trying to de-stigmatize periods. In an Independent article she wrote;
"I wasn't being provocative. […] When I initially put it up I knew there would be some controversy and some hate comments and then it would go away."
“It was interesting the way people were belittling the experience and the struggle of the period."
I thought this was an interesting precedent as it has both menstrual activism as well as backlash, as Instagram removed the photo twice for being 'provocative'. Yet once her story made headlines, "Instagram later apologised to Ms Kaur and said it had removed it by mistake." (Saul, H (2015).)
THINX
In a previous blog I wrote about THINX and the struggle in placing their ads in the NY Subway in 2015. Apparently the ads were suggestive, which according to MTA guidelines are prohibited if they depict “sexual or excretory activities” or promote a “sexually orientated business” - which THINX, a menstrual product company, is not. Only after a media frenzy did the campaign launch go ahead.
An interesting followup is that in 2018, Erectile Dysfunction medication brand Hims launched ads in the NY subway depicting a cactus in the shape of a penis as well as the brand Roman explicitly stated “Erectile Dysfunction” in their ads. No evidence of struggles faced when launching these campaigns could be found.
The CEO and founder of Hims, Andrew Dudum seemingly had a positive experience with Outfront, the company that THINX had to battle with to launch their campaign. Dudum says, “They understood our mission to destigmatize these issues and normalize conversations surrounding men’s wellness that have historically been considered taboo,”
Along with this, CEO and cofounder of Roman, Zachariah Reitano describes their positive experience; “Their professionalism, and the speed with which everyone understood and embraced the importance of breaking down the stigma of ED, was incredible.”
I am unsure whether this change in attitude from Outfront is due to social shifts and awareness, or whether they had a specific problem with menstrual product ads. In a 2018 Vice article they wrote; "Earlier this year, Outfront rejected subtle ads from Unbound, a women’s sexual health company. "
THINX and Rupi Kaur's stories are obvious precedents that advertising or showing your period is still not accepted in today’s society, however the backlash these companies received and the change they made shows that the people do have the power if they speak up.
Jen Lewis - If I Bled Blue
Jen Lewis is an artist who uses her menstrual blood to make feminist art. I felt that this piece If I Bled Blue fits well with my other precedents as it highlights the irony of menstrual product ads which use blue liquid rather than blood to show how the products work. This reinforces the shame and hiding of periods and keeping it within closed circles (only people who use those products actually knows what happens). On the other hand, Lewis does not hold back in her art and creates bold, powerful statements using her own mesntrual blood.
Carol Hanisch
“The personal is political” - 1970.
This statement was used during second wave feminism. Personal experiences can often be related to a political agenda when it is experienced as a collective or is oppression. Menstruation is seen as a topic of shame and to be hidden from the world, you don’t want anyone to know you’re on your period. This is from only talking about it in certain circles, keeping teaching about it segregated etc.
This could be as the church didn’t like it, it was seen as an impure thing and implemented into society.
"When a woman has her regular flow of blood, the impurity of her monthly period will last seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean till evening.” (Leviticus 15:19 New Revised Standard Version).
The myths around periods and being impure stuck and is still seen today. The personal experiences that women face are political as society has oppressed the conversation of periods.
Gloria Steinmen
Gloria Steinmen is a political activist, feminst and leader during the 60s and 70s femminist movements.
In her 1986 essay, If men could menstruate, she outlines some differences:
“Clearly, menstruation would become an enviable, worthy, masculine event:
Men would brag about how long and how much.
Young boys would talk about it as the envied beginning of manhood. Gifts, religious ceremonies, family dinners, and stag parties would mark the day.
To prevent monthly work loss among the powerful, Congress would fund a National Institute of Dysmenorrhea. Doctors would research little about heart attacks, from which men would be hormonally protected, but everything about cramps.
Sanitary supplies would be federally funded and free. Of course, some men would still pay for the prestige of such commercial brands as Paul Newman Tampons, Muhammad Ali's Rope-a-Dope Pads, John Wayne Maxi Pads, and Joe Namath Jock Shields- "For Those Light Bachelor Days.”
... In short, we would discover, as we should already, that logic is in the eye of the logician. (For instance, here's an idea for theorists and logicians: if women are supposed to be less rational and more emotional at the beginning of our menstrual cycle when the female hormone is at its lowest level, then why isn't it logical to say that, in those few days, women behave the most like the way men behave all month long? I leave further improvisation up to you.)
The truth is that, if men could menstruate, the power justifications would go on and on.
If we let them.”
This precedent is demonstrating the power imbalances between male and females. In a patriarchal society, if men could menstruate, they would be able to justify it as being a worthy event, whereas when women menstruate, they are impure and need to hide. It shows that men have a lack of empathy and understanding of what women go through.
Beth Goldblatt & Linda Steele
Goldblatt and Steele wrote an article in 2019 on the unjust laws and policies around menstruation, titled "Bloody Unfair: Inequality related to Menstruation - Considering the Role of Discrimination Law".
“When women’s bodily functions are ‘unseen’, it is not surprising that these functions are equally invisible in law.”
"Feminist legal scholarship contains longstanding, diverse and lively debates on relationships between women’s bodies, law and gender inequality. For some feminist legal scholars, this inequality relates to law’s reliance on medical knowledge to pathologise women’s bodies and to mask interventions in and control of women’s bodies as apolitical, therapeutic and beneficial. For other feminist legal scholars, the focus is on law’s role in inhibiting women’s capacity to exercise autonomy over their bodies through, for example, limiting lawful access to abortion. Reproductive justice scholars (who do not focus specifically on law) see women’s reproduction as a key vehicle through which individual women and entire marginalised populations are oppressed. These scholars draw connections between different aspects of regulation of reproduction and family, and also draw connections across structural dynamics such as eugenics, colonialism and neoliberalism. Across these approaches, there is recognition of the contradictions and complexities in law’s role in sustaining gender inequality — law sometimes exposes and removes privacy and dignity from women and, at other times, silences, hides and shames."
This precedent demonstrates the inequality in the law surrounding menstruation and reproduction for women. It also speaks about how the hiding of periods and the reality of experiences make it invisible in law. The term 'period' is often hidden behind euphemisms such as "shark week", "the painters are in" "riding the crimson wave" etc. and traditional product ads use a sanitary blue liquid to show the absorbency of their products rather than blood as this could be confronting, men may be watching.
Nives Dolsak & Aseem Prakash
Dolsak and Prakash and environmental journalists, in a 2019 Forbes article, Climate Strikes: What They Accomplish And How They Could Have More Impact , they explain how strikes impact the government and push them into action.
"Strikers have leverage when their absence from work disrupts activities that are valuable to policymakers. If railway workers go on strike, trains cannot run and the public is upset. When airline pilots go on strike, people cannot fly, and airlines lose revenue... What leverage do the climate strikers have? Assuming most of the strikers are students, what costs might their strikes impose on the actors that need to change their climate policies (namely, governments and fossil fuel firms)?... Even though climate strikes will not likely impose huge costs on firms or policymakers, they will reveal public preferences on the subject of climate change. And if policymakers care about the public sentiment, they will supply appropriate policies."
A lot of menstrual activism comes from a sustainability point of view. As traditional menstrual products are made from plastic, and are single use, a lot of plastic waste is accumulated, New Zealand alone “uses enough disposable menstrual products each year to wrap the circumference of the globe.” (Wā Collective)
Kayla-Leah Rich & Nadya Okamoto
These clips are from two TedX Talks which talk about the necessity of starting a conversation about menstruation and the importance of non-segregated menstrual education.
Conclusion
From these precedents I've realised the many intersections that menstrual awareness covers. Education, policies, government, marketing, sustainability. In combination with my interviews I will decide which area I would like to focus on to narrow my insight.
References
Dolsak, N. & Prakash A. (2019). Climate Strikes: What They Accomplish And How They Could Have More Impact. Forbes.
Goldblatt, B. & Steele, Linda. (2019). Bloody Unfair: Inequality related to Menstruation - Considering the Role of Discrimination Law. Sydney Law Review 293.
Hansich, C. (1970). The Personal is Political.
Kaur, P. (2015). Independant.
Lewis, J. (2015). If I bled Blue. Beauty in Blood.
McCauley, T. (2018). For Hims. Vice.
Okamoto, N. (2016). The Menstrual Movement | Nadya Okamoto | TEDxPortland. [Video]. TedX Talks.
Rich, K. L. (2017). The cost of menstrual shame | Kayla-Leah Rich | TEDxBoise. [Video]. TedX Talks.
Roman. (2018). roman. Vice.
Steinmen, G. (1986). If men could menstruate. Outrageous acts and everyday rebellions.
THINX. (2015). Underwear For Women With Periods. Bustle.
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