Scotland votes to provide free period products universally

strandroad

strandroad wrote: »

I raise you the price of Gillette Venus.

None of them are essential either.

In fairness, ladies ones are.

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

18-24 £57.90 max rate
25+ £73.10 max rate
18+ Couples get £114.85 between them.

****ing hell, that's derisory.

Geuze

Deleted User wrote: »

Reading the first few replies filled me with despair, the latter half thankfully rectified that.

Can’t understand how anyone would suggest that a woman should be forced to go without sanitary products for lack of income or otherwise.

If the market is providing these products at reasonable prices, which it seems to, then the solution is not for the State to provide or finance them.

The solution is for the State to give income to poor people to buy them, which is already done.

Food is essential, as are beds.

I must have a bed, yet the State does not provide me with a bed.

Instead, if I am sick/disabled/pregnant/unemployed/retired, the State provides me with an income, and with this I buy the food or bed.

Why treat tampons any different?

ExMachina1000

ExMachina1000 wrote: »

Have you ever seen the price of Gillette razors

A safety razor will eradicate much of that expense.

strandroad

Geuze wrote: »

Instead, if I am sick/disabled/pregnant/unemployed/retired, the State provides me with an income, and with this I buy the food or bed.

Why treat tampons any different?

Because children are affected, and they shouldn't be the ones punished for their parents shortcomings.

Because toilet paper is provided in toilets as standard, and period products are no different.

rainbowtrout

Geuze wrote: »

If the market is providing these products at reasonable prices, which it seems to, then the solution is not for the State to provide or finance them.

The solution is for the State to give income to poor people to buy them, which is already done.

Food is essential, as are beds.

I must have a bed, yet the State does not provide me with a bed.

Instead, if I am sick/disabled/pregnant/unemployed/retired, the State provides me with an income, and with this I buy the food or bed.

Why treat tampons any different?

You don't have to have a bed to sleep. Granted it won't be as comfortable but people can sleep on couches, chairs, inflatable mattresses, on floors in sleeping bags. I'm not suggesting beds are a luxury, but it's a poor analogy.

Women can't stop blood flowing from their vaginas once a month, so for the small number of women that genuinely can't afford sanitary products I really don't think it's a big ask to make provision for them.

I'm genuinely amazed at the number of men on this thread that think sanitary products are effectively optional.

Strumms

Tork wrote: »

Would you be happy to pay for toilet roll every time you have to go to the jacks?

Pubs, restaurants, shops, workplaces where the toilets are located purchase and provide toilet roll.

If a pub, restaurant or shop or workplace choose to provide female sanitation products free gratis. As a private company that’s their shout, good luck to them.

Research tells me that the price of these products is ridiculously cheap... the government should not be of the need to provide them... there is enough pressure on the state coffers now, providing people with healthcare and financial support that enables people to more than afford these products.

If these items are paid for by the government you’ll have some people wanting the government to pay for toothpaste too...

Ultimately as grateful for the support of our government during Covid, a line needs to be drawn... providing these items free gratis isn’t essential, they are very affordable... the government have provided money, people need to use it to buy them and lay off the hokey wokeyness.

rainbowtrout

Strumms wrote: »

Ultimately as grateful for the support of our government during Covid, a line needs to be drawn... providing these items free gratis isn’t essential, they are very affordable... the government have provided money, people need to use it to buy them and lay off the hokey wokeyness.

I'm not sure how many times it needs to be said, teenage girls who are in need do not have a say in how their parents spend whatever income they have.

Tork

The "ridiculously cheap" sanitation products you refer to are the equivalent of those awful white and orange Bic disposable razors which have been around for decades. They'll do a job but you won't find many people wanting to buy or steal them in place of more expensive razors. And women have to wear them for hours and hope that they do their job properly. It's sort of like you going to the toilet for a pee but even though you've emptied your bladder the pee keeps coming. Women don't choose to have periods - they come along every month and they are a messy business.

Gervais08

Tork wrote: »

The "ridiculously cheap" sanitation products you refer to are the equivalent of those awful white and orange Bic disposable razors which have been around for decades. They'll do a job but you won't find many people wanting to buy or steal them in place of more expensive razors. And women have to wear them for hours and hope that they do their job properly. It's sort of like you going to the toilet for a pee but even though you've emptied your bladder the pee keeps coming. Women don't choose to have periods - they come along every month and they are a messy business.

And the men here saying a box of 30 will last “2-3 cycles” - zero clue!!!!

There were days where 4-5 were used in one day - and they were the quality ones.

strandroad

Gervais08 wrote: »

And the men here saying a box of 30 will last “2-3 cycles” - zero clue!!!!

There were days where 4-5 were used in one day - and they were the quality ones.

I said that and I'm a woman, that's my numbers! I also understand that they may vary.

Rubberchikken

Just put dispensers in ladies toilets in schools etc. No female should have to do without a sanitary product due to lack of money.

Those that can't afford them and need them will be able to use them and those that don't won't. Simple.

LineConsole

Call me old fashioned but I think that every woman and girl should have access to basic hygiene and sanitation products free of charge in public facilities and that the working population of the county can well afford to pay for this in tax. If something upholds the dignity of women and girls then I’m all for it.

These sort of things should be a society minimum.

Aleece2020

rainbowtrout wrote: »

I'm genuinely amazed at the number of men on this thread that think sanitary products are effectively optional.

We’ll see how optional they think they are when I have a flare up of endometriosis and make short work of their sofas, bedsheets, carpets and any other surface I can sit on or walk on.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sneezed and had a blood clot come flying out of me so fast that it’s like it was trying to escape from someone who was canvassing for Fine Gael. Bless these pads and a few old bath towels, they’re the only things keeping the good suite of furniture safe from the red tide of misery.

Cookie_Monster

Strumms wrote: »

Pubs, restaurants, shops, workplaces where the toilets are located purchase and provide toilet roll.

If a pub, restaurant or shop or workplace choose to provide female sanitation products free gratis. As a private company that’s their shout, good luck to them.

Research tells me that the price of these products is ridiculously cheap... the government should not be of the need to provide them... there is enough pressure on the state coffers now, providing people with healthcare and financial support that enables people to more than afford these products.

If these items are paid for by the government you’ll have some people wanting the government to pay for toothpaste too...

Ultimately as grateful for the support of our government during Covid, a line needs to be drawn... providing these items free gratis isn’t essential, they are very affordable... the government have provided money, people need to use it to buy them and lay off the hokey wokeyness.

Does this not fall under health care too though? I would have thought so.
Incidentally toothpaste being free would, in the longer run, probably be a lower overall cost to society by reducing the need for excessive dental care

Gruffalux

Aleece2020 wrote: »

We’ll see how optional they think they are when I have a flare up of endometriosis and make short work of their sofas, bedsheets, carpets and any other surface I can sit on or walk on.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sneezed and had a blood clot come flying out of me so fast that it’s like it was trying to escape from someone who was canvassing for Fine Gael. Bless these pads and a few old bath towels, they’re the only things keeping the good suite of furniture safe from the red tide of misery.

As Muriel Rukeyser once said "What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life. The world would split open." My old aunties still talk about the bath towels and the ruined mattresses. If it were not for modern medicine I would have died last year from bleeding. This is a whole part of being a girl and woman that people shudder to hear about. Make the towels free. Some girls are stuffing cut up old clothes in their pants to try and get by.

bcklschaps

Using the arguments being made on this thread,

Why isn't toilet paper free?
Why aren't childrens/adults nappies free?
Why aren't condoms free?


I'll answer my own questions.

Because you have to draw a line somewhere....

Gruffalux

bcklschaps wrote: »

Why aren't childrens/adults nappies free?

Our community nurse used to travel round with the boot of her car stocked with adult nappies. This was even decades ago. I would say they are fairly freely given out.
One can use cloth nappies for babies at a push.

Also it is not just a money issue. In some cultures periods are taboo and girls will not be asking for extra supplies. They might be given a monthly allowance of products but people have vastly different periods. Some will use in a day what another might use in a week. A girl from certain families or backgrounds might not be in a position to request more. But the same parents are not going to let the baby crap freely in all their clothes.

Wibbs

ceegee wrote: »

What's your stance on public buildings providing free toilet paper in their bathrooms?

You'll get nowhere on that line C. The stuff about the government making everything bad, let the market decide, sounds like the usual imported from the US interwebs pocket libertarianism. Libertarians are those who live in and are supported by a society built by others, who have a tendency to think they're not under much if any obligation to contribute to that same society. It can be boiled down to I'm alright Jack, sod everyone else.

Yellow_Fern

Tork wrote: »

So where do you go to the toilet when you're caught short? Do you bring your own toilet roll?

My employer provides it. They also provide nappies and sanitary products. In past jobs not all did and I often have to provide toilet paper. Schools, universities and employers providing toilet paper or tampons is their own call but a government should not universally provide it for free to all. Only to those in need. Poor women have always had options to get these products for free.

eviltwin

Yellow_Fern wrote: »

My employer provides it. They also provide nappies and sanitary products. In past jobs not all did and I often have to provide toilet paper. Schools, universities and employers providing toilet paper or tampons is their own call but a government should not universally provide it for free to all. Only to those in need. Poor women have always had options to get these products for free.

The only people who will use them are those in need. What’s your objection? The cost or the fact it’s free.

Yellow_Fern

eviltwin wrote: »

The only people who will use them are those in need. What’s your objection? The cost or the fact it’s free.

You are churlishly idealist to think this and there is ample reason to think that this is true. I guarantee you women will continue to buy these products in Scotland as the hassle of getting them free will often be not worth as they will have to be rationed. The capitalist model that the user and indeed the polluter pays is far more efficient.

eviltwin

Yellow_Fern wrote: »

You are churlishly idealist to think this and there is ample reason to think that this is true. I guarantee you women will continue to buy these products in Scotland as the hassle of getting them free will often be not worth as they will have to be rationed. The capitalist model that the user and indeed the polluter pays is far more efficient.

I’m agreeing with you.

Gruffalux

UCD had a great solution way back when to the obligated provision of toilet paper. :rolleyes: They used to provide something that looked like greaseproof in the University loos - it was shocking, not even a destitute student would be stealing that stuff to stock up the closet in the bed-sit. The sanitary products that will be free will probably be fairly basic - most women, if possible, are actually fairly discerning about what they use up close to or inside their lady bits. It's not going to be some kind of luxury freebie that will inspire all the bold bleeding ladies seeking to skim the system and stick it to the man to all head off on a jolly junket to collect their fabulous products. :pac:

ohnonotgmail

bcklschaps wrote: »

Using the arguments being made on this thread,

Why isn't toilet paper free?
Why aren't childrens/adults nappies free?
Why aren't condoms free?


I'll answer my own questions.

Because you have to draw a line somewhere....

the adult ones are certainly free

ohnonotgmail

hynesie08 wrote: »

Was there a TD who stood up in the dail and said period poverty wasn't a thing, and his maths was based on 5-7 pads a cycle?that was an embarrassing one.......

NASA engineers packed 100 tampons for Sally Ride when she went into space for a week.

hynesie08

bcklschaps wrote: »

Using the arguments being made on this thread,

Why isn't toilet paper free?
Why aren't childrens/adults nappies free?
Why aren't condoms free?


I'll answer my own questions.

Because you have to draw a line somewhere....

All of these can be acquired for free if you need them.

Gruffalux

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

NASA engineers packed 100 tampons for Sally Ride when she went into space for a week.

Brilliant. Then again someone probably thought :eek: stray menstrual blood in zero gravity in a sealed can, plug her tight

ohnonotgmail

Gruffalux wrote: »

Brilliant. Then again someone probably thought :eek: stray menstrual blood in zero gravity in a sealed can, plug her tight

they also tied them together using the strings

Gruffalux

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

they also tied them together using the strings

This statement has me baffled, can they not put them in packets, but just in case it is another football joke going right over my head...*nods and smiles* :pac: