I fear for sake of the youth’s education after 19 year old Ryan Williams took to Twitter to post a series of tweets aimed on the topic of the price of feminine hygiene products. He argued against tampons becoming free and stated, “if u can’t control ur bladder then that’s not the taxpayer’s problem!” Along with the incorrect spelling, hopefully everyone understands that this logic is completely false.

The conversation involving feminine products has become a hot topic with mostly women arguing for a significant decrease or no price for basic feminine hygiene products. The main opposers of this movement seem to be men who have no experience with this ongoing conversation (no uterus, no opinion).

Personally, the price of these products should be significantly lowered or free. Now the average price for a box of 36 tampons is $8 along with the price of a box of pads being around $7 depending on which store. These boxes will more or less last a month maybe two months depending on a woman’s cycle. With the consumer buying a box every month leading to the grand total of $96 or $84 per year.

Living in middle class suburbia all of my life, my family and I can afford to pay this toll each month without giving a second thought. Frankly, that is not the reality for everyone. With lower level incomes bordering on the line of poverty and for homeless women struggling to pay for food, feminine products every month is not included in the budget. No woman should have to make the choice of whether to eat or stay hygienic.

To make one thing clear is not a woman’s choice to have a period. Feminine hygiene products are not a want but a need.There is no reality where women can go without tampons or pads due to basic hygiene and safety issues. The companies selling these products are aware of this resulting in them being able to mark up the prices and create a profit.

Without these feminine products homeless women can result to using rags/towels or balling up toilet paper leading to the possibility of infections. In the case that these women receive tampons in care packages some will use the tampons longer than recommended which can lead to toxic shock syndrome resulting in severe sickness and in some cases, death.  

This past June in New York City, a council passed 49-0 to provide free access for all women to feminine hygiene products in all public schools, homeless shelters, and prisons; making this historic decision the first in the country.

Ideally this could create a domino effect leading to widespread affordable access to feminine hygiene products for all women. This argument is not something to be put on the back burner as bringing human dignity back to impoverished or imprisoned women should be a priority. Along with the need to educate those such as Ryan Williams that a period cannot be prevented by holding your bladder.