Posted on 12/10/2018 9:49:08 PM PST by csvset
NEWPORT NEWS
A group of students at Christopher Newport University is pushing school leaders to provide free menstrual products on campus.
The school's chapter of PERIOD, a national nonprofit that advocates for women on menstrual issues, has started a petition that calls on the university to provide what they argue are basic necessities and "end period poverty." It had 351 signatures as of Monday morning.
"Interrupted studies. Missed classes. Stunted education," reads the petition. "This is the reality for so many students who menstruate, simply because they lack access to readily available and affordable period products."
Rachel Applebach, a 20-year-old junior studying English literature and the chapter's distribution manager, said she's often approached by "other menstruators in a bind" on campus, saying, "Hey, this is really embarrassing but I need some kind of (period) product, can you help me?"
"That's just a really common experience here," Applebach said. "No one should have to experience that."
The push is part of a national campaign called United for Access from PERIOD and THINX, which manufactures "period-proof underwear," and extends to schools in places including Minnesota, Oregon and Texas.
The University of California, Davis, and the University of Texas at Austin have had victories so far, said Anna Zuccaro, a public relations consultant with the campaign.
There have been "more public spaces (recently) to discuss things like menstrual health," Zuccaro said. "Organizations like PERIOD have filled that space. This (topic) shouldn't be stigmatized, shouldn't be taboo when it happens to more than half the population."
Momentum has grown in recent years pushing public officials to nix obstacles to women getting menstrual products, including efforts to exclude the items from state taxes. Such a bill failed in Virginia at the most recent General Assembly session, but legislators did vote to require that jails and prisons provide products for inmates at no cost.
In an emailed statement, Christopher Newport spokesman Jim Hanchett said the issue "hasn't previously surfaced" on campus.
"Christopher Newport University welcomes a conversation about this with our students and student organizations and we welcome their ideas about innovative, effective strategies for meeting this need," he said in the email.
It's unclear how much it would cost to provide the products at CNU, a public university with 5,000 students.
Applebach said the PERIOD chapter wants the products placed in women's bathrooms at the library and in the first floor of academic buildings where classes are held, to start. Eventually she'd like to see the school put them in all women's bathrooms. They're hoping to meet with campus clubs, sororities, student leadership and the dean of students to broach the issue.
The organization is also working with the menstrual product company Aunt Flow to price-match whatever products the university would choose, Applebach said, to ensure those offered are quality and sustainable.
"I know as students, we're pretty much always crunched for money thank you, tuition," she said. "That goes further into girls getting stuck with no period products onsite."
The petition notes every school bathroom provides toilet paper and soap "as basic necessities for natural bodily functions."
"People should start considering menstrual products as a basic necessity," Applebach said. "No student deserves to feel embarrassed about or caught off guard about" this.
My favorite pad story.
Women have somehow dealt with all those things for centuries.
Not everyone is going to have the same Life Experience.
You do what you’ve got to do to proceed.
This is what silicon valley wants to import a million of next year.
That’s one Indian solution. On this side of the world perhaps Elizabeth Warren could teach these kids how to identify the mosses and ferns of the primordial forests?
(That right there is a sentence I never imagined Id ever type.)
We are so screwed....
Why not call some Billionaire Leftist to pay for their Tampons?
Soros, Steyer, Bezos, Cook, there are plenty out there. Heck, Amazon will even ship them free.
Cant cost more than a typical students latte budget.
What utter BS this article is. Kotex and tampons are cheap (a lot cheaper than the smart phone that somehow they CAN afford) and women aren’t running around asking other women for “products” unless it’s one of those days where you ran out and you’re desperate, which is rare. This is lies from top to bottom.
I want a free Viagra dispenser in my now coed bathroom to help me with erectile dysfunction poverty. /Sarcam
Maybe they could become transgenders. That might solve the problem. 😁
So, these students can pay for college but not pony up $5-10 each month for sanitary products? What else must the government provide for these neotenous infants? I’ll bet they spend way more than that on drugs and beer.
Good grief.
I didn’t know how much such products cost, so I looked up one on Walmart’s site. Forty-eight of the items cost $9.27, or about 20 cents each.
How impoverished are these people?
No female personal responsibility for that which makes them uniquely female.
Men, and society (indirectly men), pay for us women.
Dad pays for the phone.
If its a really common experience in college, we have a great number of very, very stupid young adult women enrolled.
A local station has a video.
Figuring out when their period may occur is too difficult ? They cant budget either ? They are actually demanding government intervention in their va jay jays ?
They soon will find women hoarding “free” menstrual products and selling them elsewhere. Because they are not paying for them, they are “free”. They will take as many as they can, many women wil stil no get their free stuff, and some will go and sell it in other places because its free and money for college girls is so tight.
This is just more female demand for a societal institution to pay for them being women, yet one more way.
These folks are crazy,
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.