THE HURON EMERY | ISSUE 3: DECEMBER 8 | PERIOD
PERIODS| FROM PAGE ONE play a big role in people’s lives.” In the ordinance process, United States and city governments have to have the ability to set rules, before they move forward. As well as having valid reasons as to why they would want to pass it. “Sometimes that rational basis and as a matter of constitutional scrutiny,” Taylor said. “The rule has to have a rational basis, and it has to express be within the government’s ordinary power to achieve that goal. With respect to menstrual products, we do not have the ability to pass a rule about
the distribution of menstrual products merely because we think it’s good or equitable, or people should be able to afford them. That’s not something that we can do.” Instead, the ordinance establishes a sanitation criteria as cities do have the ability to set rules affecting health, safety and welfare. “Leaning on that health support we have an ability to make rules with respect to sanitation,” Taylor said. “We have rules with respect to the storage of solid waste and where you put it and how you dispose of it. We have rules that we at the county affects, restaurant inspections and the
likes of governments have the ability to promote sanitation and public health. Menstrual products fall within that category. They aren’t there to promote sanitation. They promote public health.” Any violations of the ordinance results in a $100 fine and as the ordinance states, “community Standards officers shall be responsible for enforcing this section.” “We’re not going to have a set of bathroom inspectors running around different buildings checking to see this,” Taylor said. “We communicate to people their obligations, we expect them to comply with their obligations. In the event
A bloody cycle of stigmatizing
ANNABELLE YE GUEST WRITER
“My comma came.” My friends gave me knowing glances. Comma. Our code name for the dreadful time of the month where a lovely surprise is delivered to our bathrooms. The time of the month where the cramps in our stomachs feel like they’re weighing down our whole bodies. The time of the month where our backpacks overflow with green and orange packs of cotton. Despite the inevitability of this delivery, the word roamed around our heads like a dirty secret. The dirty, humiliating word: period. My relationship with the red wave has always been rocky. She first came into my life the day I left for Blue Lake Fine Arts camp — my first ever sleepaway camp. My excitement was rudely interrupted by a rush of panic that seemed to electrocute me from head to toe. From then on, she was forever inserted into my life, personally bringing hell to my doorsteps once a month. Our tumultuous relationship reached its climax in seventh grade. Listening to the tear-jerking squeaks and bangs of our seventh grade band must’ve been too emotional for her as she
simply could not contain herself. There she came, right as I was blowing my guts out on the flute, leaving a scarlet splotch the size of my fist (on a white pants day too!). I left school after first hour band class, humiliated. It wasn’t until recently that I started to question where this humiliation came from. From sharing code names with friends, to finding new methods to hide period products to even the embarrassment of opening the unnecessarily loud packagedpad in the bathroom, it all came down to the stigma surrounding the natural cycle of menstruation. The fact is, menstruating people are conditioned to suppress their experiences.Furthermore, society’s inability to have open conversations on period experiences and advice has left young people feeling unprepared and even unaware of what their next few decades of bathroom experiences will entail. We need to break this stigma, and having open conversations — that include nonmenstruating people — is the key: no more whispering about how to insert a tampon, no more “comma” references, no more stuffing pads up jacket sleeves. Let’s all shamelessly help each other through this normal, universal experience. Period is not a dirty word. Period.
THE HURON EMERY | ISSUE 3: DECEMBER 9 | PERIOD
Not lip gloss: How men can help with periods
that folks are not complying with their obligations, we expect the some member of the public to communicate to the bathroom provider head or tampons. I would hope that that person would call to the city and our community standards officers would go out and
VISH GONDESI EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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Statistics are from Family Planning, Cosomopolitan and Healthline
At first, I thought someone threw up spurts of blood. Various shades of red streaked several pieces of paper in the toilet and the colors started to seep into the clear water. As an eight year old who would frantically rush for a band-aid, anytime I detected a sliver of blood on me, it was more than enough to put me in a frenzy. In a run throughout the house, I went to alert the first adult I found, which happened to be my mother. With two tangled tufts of hair on both sides of her forehead and a strained smile, she listened intently as I told her what was wrong. After I finished rambling, she calmed me down and went to clean up the mess. Later on, she admitted that she just wasn’t feeling well. Between her pursed lips and unnatural behavior — nothing like her typical amiable self — I knew to stop asking questions.
Regardless, I monitored her mouth for the rest of the day, ensuring they were not lined with blood from throwing up again. Yet the true source of the blood was one I couldn’t fathom at the time, at least not for the next six years. My mom was on her period. And aside from this slight mishap, she was highly competent at concealing it. My brother and I were completely in the dark. From the way my father acted, he was clearly indifferent as well, with menstruation being far from his area of expertise. Accordingly, until ninth grade, the only period I knew of was in English class. During menstrual product ads, the content was so roundabout (not even revealing a drop of blood), so I always misunderstood or had no idea what they were talking about. If someone showed me a tampon, I’d probably say something along the lines of: “Nice keychain.” “Why’d you pick out such a plain air freshener for your car? The ones shaped as trees are the best ones.” “Sorry I’m not too interested in lip gloss.” In my defense, those colored tubes still look similar
to make-up. Nevertheless, my Health and Wellness class in my freshman year extinguished these misconceptions. Taught in a straightforward, cut and dry manner, I learned the ins and outs of the menstrual cycle. My mom still doesn’t explicitly say when she is on her period, but full transparency wasn’t what I wanted — it was knowing I could help her if she needed it which reassured me. Across a wider population, though, men’s lack of knowledge regarding men-struation is concerning and very much like me before that class. In a INTIMA study conducted by YouGov, in August 2021, with a sample size of 1,091 males, 52 percent of males in the study wrongly thought the menstrual cycle lasted 1-6 days (actually 21-35 days) and only 41 percent correctly identified what menstruation
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is. Although improvement in male awareness and educatedness surrounding menstruation is key, evidenced by these studies, it shouldn’t limit me, or other males, from finding ways to help out. It doesn’t take a doctor to do these things: 1. Abstain from the phrase, “Their acting like their on their period,” or any similar stig-matized statement with a derogatory purpose. Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) can alter behaviors and emotions temporarily, so mood swings during this time can be uncontrollable. While men will never fully comprehend the pain and inconvenience of periods, we can forgive bouts of irritability or misguided anger when they do occur. 2. Be calm. If a person reaches out because they are on their period, having two distraught people isn’t a formula for success. Provide
Until ninth grade, the only period I knew of was in English class.
The price of being a woman STACEY VIURQUIZ STAFF WRITER
GRAPHICS BY VIRGINIA HE AND ANNABELLE YE
swift aid in emergency situations and take it step by step. 3. Relieve their stress through small actions. Try to satisfy food cravings, help with chores around the house and don’t be scared to stock up on additional menstrual products if necessary. Due to cramping and bleeding, period pain can last anywhere from 48-72 hours. So while navigating the menstrual health section may be an unfamiliar inconvenience, just be glad it’ll be a painless ten minutes. After completing all this, they might even thank you. Well, on second thought, it does depend on how severe their PMS is. Overall there will always be an element of foreignness when males assimilate information on menstruation. Despite that, no one’s asking us to be experts, but we have to realize this is something that all the menstruating people we love commonly experience, according to UN Women, for an average of six years over the course of their lifetime. Consequently, us males should show a bit of empathy, and when it comes to periods, we should at least get the gist.
Pink Tax. From the moment we are born, gender stereotypes are generated: pink for girls and blue for boys. This classification has come out expensive to us women. Pink Tax is the increase in prices directed to women such as clothing, hygiene, personal care and even health. Growing up I never paid much attention to this issue, but of course I realized the difference in prices of women’s and men’s products, because there were times when the same product cost twice as much just because it was packaged with a pink ribbon. I always thought that the difference between the prices was due to the fact that the product is of better quality, and they taught us that women should always look presentable and we always have to care about our appearance, and that’s is why we must be willing to spend more money for certain products . As I grew older
I became more aware of the situation so I began to investigate more of the subject. But in my social circle I was the only one who cared, and I couldn’t understand why. This is something that affects us all. But I don’t blame them for not having the same concern as me, they grew up all their lives thinking that this is the price of being a woman, but the truth is that it should never have been that way and it shouldn’t continue to be like that. And as if that wasn’t enough, women also pay the menstrual management products tax, also known as tampon tax. This type of product is not classified as a health product, but as a cosmetic product and has approximately 21 percent tax. But there are ways to regulate this issue, one would be to eradicate the idea that a color is specific to a gender, and the other is that consumers should not be willing to pay more for a product that is not worth more. READ THE FULL STORY ON THEHURONEMERY.COM