cheshireinthemiddle:cottoncandypolitics:cheshireinthemiddle:cottoncandypolitics:cheshireinthemiddle:
cheshireinthemiddle:cottoncandypolitics:cheshireinthemiddle:cottoncandypolitics:cheshireinthemiddle:cottoncandypolitics:cheshireinthemiddle:addictedtocaring:parttimepup:sonypraystation:bombaynights:u tell him marcyfucking darrellHe has to ask because he doesn’t know jack or shit about women’s issues yet still feels compelled to comment. The male ego is tragic.Yeah like, why do all these men feel the need to comment on shit like this? They’re just *that* convinced that women couldn’t have any real problems? And since we must just be bitching about dumb bullshit, what we REALLY need, darrell decides from his blissful (yet enraged) ignorance, is for him to come in and set us straight! If you don’t like struggling to buy period products every month, just… he doesn’t know!! But why don’t you do it!!!Shutting up costs $0 and can save a life fellas. Next time you feel compelled to tell women to stop complaining about anything related to menstruation, about which you are ignorant: don’tThose darn men and their logic. So anyway, it’s taxed because it isnt essential. It is a convenient disposable alternative. Like disposable napkins or dispisable diapers. Are they convenient? Yes! Of course! But you got so used to that convenience that you now see it as a necessity. You do not need dispisable tampons. You want them. Ignoring that they are already really cheap in most places (at least in the places youre complaining about), it is actually cheaper to get a washable alternative. Again, not convenient, but neither is a ton of other stuff. Walking a half mile to the store isnt convenient, but that doesnt make a trolley a necessity. And just so we’re clear, admitted radical feminist, it is incredibly sexist to blame just men for any opposition to your opinion. We have quite a few posts on this specific topic and tons of women agree with what you consider men’s opinions. Youre both stereotyping women, and erasing the input of women who dont agree with you. Assuming that men dont or cant understand female biology is also sexist (though as your bio states, youre only against misogyny). Info like this is learned. For both men and women. Literally a ton of the people who designed those feminine products are men. Who read. And researched. To say that they cannot understand because of their sex is sexist. I don’t agree with sexism but I don’t like the proposal that disposable product isn’t essential. That doesn’t say whether or not I think they should be taxed or not, but I’m of the opinion that it’s essential.Why? Non-disposable tampons and pads are expensive, for one. Whether you hand make them or purchase them, that’s a more expensive buy in for basic hygiene.If you can’t afford enough to keep yourself clean at all times, you risk toxic shock syndrome.If your menstrual blood flow is heavy enough, you’ll have to use many reusable pads in one day, so then the buy in for reusable pads is much higher.If you’re someone that works full time, unless your flow is very light, you’re going to need to change your pad at work. Then you have to deal with the unsanitary prospect of having something to safely carry the used pad in, and just plain carrying bloody fabric with you all day. If you have endometriosis or other similar health issues, you can also end up in a situation where your period lasts much longer than expected, also increasing the initial buy in for enough pads. If you don’t have your own washer/dryer, then you have to factor in laundry costs. As discussed above, when you go through pads quickly, you need to do the laundry more often, which can mean spending the money for a whole load.And before you say it can be washed by hand, it absolutely can, but if you live somewhere hellishly humid then they aren’t going to dry right unless you put them through a dryer. Basically I’m saying disposable pads are as necessary as disposable toilet paper. You just run into issues of affordability and hygiene that make any alternative unlikely for a number of people.Full disclosure of bias: I speak as an endometriosis sufferer that’s had periods of daily menstrual bleeding that have lasted for up to 5 months with no breaks, that lives in an apartment with a communal laundry room, so I do have close proximity to the issue of and costs of menstrual product Your argument is literally that they are more convenient. First off, washable alternatives are very clearly cheaper. We arent talking about keeping washable alternatives for a month compared to a month of pads. We are comparing say a year or two of disposable pads versus the washable ones that you dont have to re-buy. Your comments about laundry dont make much sense in that they have to be washed like normal clothing. Anyone who could not dry washable pads also wouldnt be able to dry their underwear in the same conditions (Disposable underwear exists too btw). Or any other bit of clothing for that matter. Your only possible point is that if you only have one disposable pad, you would need to wash it in between uses during a heavy flow. But you could just…have more than one. In school, certain kids had handkerchiefs. And sometimes one would get too dirty to use during heavy (nose) flow days. Most people would just put the dirty handkerchief away (usually in a ziplock) and pull out another. They dont need to wash and dry the first hanky. They can do that at the ned of the day or week. Even if they bought 20 cheap handkerchiefs, it would still cost less than an equivalent amount of disposable tissues for the year. Said disposable tissues are merely convenient. On a previous post, someone broke it down in detail, but basically tampons at least (i forgot the pad one), even on heavy flow months, typically dont cost more than a combo meal at mcdonalds. I quick search online shows that they cost around 5 dollars for a box of 16-20 brand name tanpons. Even if you needed twice that many, that’s about $10 a month. Now, ignoring that i grew up in poverty and know for a fact that Americans at least, who cant afford to pay their bills, still splurge on fast food, even you can admit that $10 a month (on heavy flow months) isnt that much. And that washable pads (after a quick google search) are roughly $8 for 7. (I also checked amazon and a few other sources, but this is the one that shows alot in one screenshot)Obviously laundromat costs vary, but assuming you bought 4 packs (28) and switched those out, that would be a base of $32 a year. And assuming you buy enough so you only have to do laundry once a week or two, you dont really have to add on the cost of laundry since a few pads added to a load doesnt change the cost. So although disposable tampons/pads being expensive is debatable, disposable ones cost a fraction of that. Again, the main issue becomes convenience. And yes, you can safely carry it with you. Like with handkershiefs, a sealed ziplock bag can handle that. Or a plastic bag you keep from groceries. It’s not that you cant, but that it is incomvenient. And you pay for that convenience. And finally, even if $32 a year was too much, there are numerous places that offer free products for those in poverty (again, from first hand experience growing up in poverty). Places that give free food, free cleaning products, free feminine products. Specifically for those who cannot afford them themselves. I can easily argue the same for disposable tissues (especially in covid), disposable diapers, etc. But the result is the same. And yes, even toilet paper that is disposable is a luxury. It’s convenience. Restaurants and businesses dont want to clean poop rags. So cheap and scratchy 1-ply toilet paper is the typical solution. (And also idiots who would flush rags). But it isnt like you cant use rags and wash them. Plenty of people do it. The same as they wash cloth diapers and reuse them. The issue is convenience. I dont want to wash a diaper. I dont want to wash a poop rag. I dont want to wash a hanky. It’s gross. Not hard or impossible. I really really dont want to. Someone offered a simpler solution. And I gladly pay for that easier way. In the same way you pay higher prices at corner stores or vending machines. It is a convenient version of what already exists. I understand that you prefer it. But for it to be essential, it cant be about what you prefer, but what you absolutely need at bare minimum. If you have potable tap water, bottled water is not essential for you. So I’m not gonna even touch on the stuff about the actual price of disposable period stuff, it’s fairly affordable for the most part, and I didn’t state a single stance on the tax itself, I’m arguing your point of these being considered merely a convenience. I’m not sure you’ve actually looked into the cost of reusable pads, or if you understand the level of usage we’re talking.If your period lasts 7 days (which a period is 7 to 10 days on average) and you’re someone who, like me, has excessively heavy flow, you’re looking at a bare minimum of 3 to 4 pads a day. I do my laundry once a week, so that would account for 27 reusable pads. When I look online at popular brands, we’re looking at maybe 35 to 50 bucks for a set of 5 (I’m not seeing the cheaper results you’re showing me, so it’s possibly regional) That doesn’t divide evenly into 27, so let’s be generous and say 25 total, so 5 packs.At 35 dollars for a pack of 5, you’re looking at an initial investment of 175 dollars. That’s a significant amount of cash to get started, certainly it’s less accessible than a cheap pack of pads, and for someone like me that likely won’t be a comfortable amount to work with.Now you also have to keep in mind that at that 3 pad a day mark with the heaviest levels of flow, we’re talking about these things being saturated with blood, almost to the point of soaking, before changing, especially since I only priced out normal pads and not any thicker overnight varieties, as those are more expensive.And if you do your laundry once a week, which is relatively common seeing as the concept of a “laundry day”, that means we’re talking about those pads piling up and being gross and smelly and disgusting over the course of that week. No one wants a gross bag of fabric and dried period blood just sitting around a whole week. And of course that ties into what I said about working, if you’re spending hours outside your home you really don’t want to have to carry around a bag or whatever to seal away your disgusting bloodied pads.So then you will need to wash laundry more often, which adds additional maintenence costs as I said.Just because disposable pads are a modern amenity doesn’t mean it’s not a necessity. Running water is a necessity, heat is a necessity, electricity is a necessity. And ultimately, period products are a necessity, and while more expensive in the long run, the alternatives are the “nice boots.” In my analogy. They’re a much bigger upfront cost, so even if they last you longer, a lot of people don’t have the spare cash on hand to put that forth (and that’s when you ignore their utility issues).Personally, in our modern world I would call the reusable pads the luxary, considering they cost more up front and cause additional logistics problems that are gonna be more prevalent for lower income people. 1. As stated in my original response to you, your argument is about convenience. And in this response here, youre arguing that it isnt just a convenience. But your explanation is you saying how convenient it is. 2. In my response, I specifically accounted for heavy flow days and brought up 28 pads into the equation (1 more than you used in yours). It doesnt exceed the 120 dollars of disposable pads/tampons cost. And quite frankly, it could exceed disposable costs and still be fine because you use them for more than a year. I didnt say to use popular brands. This is like saying that panties are not affordable and using Victoria’s Secret prices as proof. If you argue that it is a necessity then you need to be using cheaper ones. And using cheaper washable pads would be ideal. 3. You claim that i didnt look up reusable pads but…i have screenshots. The same people making cheap masks for covid were making reusable pads. There are more expensive ones can be expensive (like the organic ones, the fancy design ones, the brand name ones, etc). But you dont need to buy them. 4. I already explained laundry. You keep things in a cheap plastic bag. You arent putting a dripping wet pad in your purse all day to mess things up in there. I used to wet the bed when i was little. When we were in poverty. My dad put my wet clothes in a plastic bag, tied it tight, and waited until laundry day. He didnt need to wash my clothes every day. He didnt let them just sit around. It was entirely doable. What you are describing is that it is inconvenient for you. But inconvenience is not the same as impossible. You merely dont want to do it. And guess what? In exchange for convenience, you pay more. 5. Running potable water is a necessity. If you have that, you dont need bottled water. Bottled water much more convenient (ad more expensive) but you shouldn’t get it for free just because you want it. Food is a necessity. Specific brand name foods that you like arent. Fast food isnt. I have even had people argue that cars (not buses or taxis, but everyone having a car) was a necessity because it made their lives easier. Let me say it again. Disposable versions of things we already had are not necessities. They are luxuries that we got used to. You may have a hard time getting used to not having these luxuries, but that doesn’t make them necessities. I have quite literally grew up poor. My dad often couldnt put food in the fridge without help from food banks or neighbors. In neighborhoods where very many people had the same struggles. People used reusable diapers (which are used more than pads). People used handkerchiefs. People shopped for off brand food (there’s this great place called Aldi where i was from). Some people who just didnt like 1-ply toilet paper used washable wipes. And, sure, people wished for disposable diapers and 4 ply toilet paper, but it was understood that it wasnt a necessity. It was a luxury. A want, not a need. Now, if you personally would like to save money or reduce your carbon footprint or whatever, i can help you make more changes to wean your self off of luxuries you have gotten used to. I literally taught some people on this blog that handkerchiefs are the original tissues. Some people are just unaware. But please do not limit yourself by believing convenient versions of what already exist are your only options. Especially if you have low income. I’m not trying to be mean. I just really don’t like bad arguments that could hurt people who may rely on it for their lives. I guess I just really can’t reconcile your argument, just because I can’t view the thing that I have to order online or find at a specialty shop, that includes additional laundering costs, additional concerns over sanitation and storage after use, etc as the bare minimum option. To me it looks like the luxary.You said before that there are options to get disposable pads for free or cheap, and disposable pads are available at basically every grocery store, drug store, general store, gas station, etc.Normally a convenience vs luxary argument is for example with food. Cooking at home vs McDonald’s. But in that situation, both those options are going to be pretty similarly accessible. If you want to buy a 20 poung bag of rice and cook with it for the next long while, you can find that rice at the grocery store.Idk, I’m not trying to be shitty, I just can’t see eye to eye with you, because I feel like in this case I can’t reconcile how you’re defining a luxary, and it doesn’t help that the only people I’ve heard of using reusable sanitary products or promoting them were clearly not hurting for money or focusing on the environmental aspect. Oh, you would be surprised. Your same argument has been used to demand that people be paid enough to eat at restaurants for every meal. “Not everyone has time to cook food.”“Stocking a fridge can cost over a hundred dollars. How do we get started?”Again, because fast food is convenient. But it isnt a necessity. Your argument that buying reusable pads is expensive at first despite being better in the long run can be used for why people shouldnt go to grocery stores. After all, low income people are more likely to have 10 dollars for a Wendy’s combo vs. 120 dollars for a week or two of groceries. Even if making your own food is typically cheaper in the long run. I define it as a luxury specifically because it is just there as a convenient alternative. It’s why we dont complain when a convenience store (literally in the name) charges more for milk or bread or whatever than grocery stores. They’re there for your convenience. And you pay for said convenience. You don’t need it, you want it. You’re used to it. You may not be able to see yourself without it. But it is a luxury. A more convenient alternative. REgardless, it’s the government giving evne more special treatment to women becausethey’re women. If the government [and women] were actually concerned about equality, they’d have made toilet paper tax free, and then that way women would save the extra few cents or whatever from the TP and put it towards the tampons. Everyone wins, and TP is cheaper. -- source link