Time to end the tampon tax: Sales tax on feminine hygiene products unfairly penalize women

California lawmakers are trying to classify period supplies properly — as a necessity that should be tax-exempt

www.salon.com|Mary Elizabeth Williams

If you are or know women, you know that menstruation is for most not an optional thing. Yet in the vast majority of states in the US, tampons and pads are subject to sales tax. Now, two members of California’s state assembly are trying to change that.

As the New York Times reported earlier this week, most states exempt necessities — like food and prescription drugs — from sales tax. But the definition of “necessity” depends greatly on who you ask. In Cosmopolitan last fall, Prachi Gupta astutely noted that “Yes, in many states, there are even sales taxes on essential items like toilet paper and incontinence pads (some legislators are tackling that too). So no, there isn’t some explicit anti-tampon conspiracy. But that should not detract from the argument for states to lift taxes from feminine hygiene products.” And assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, who announced the introduction of the California bill to exempt tampons and pads from sales tax earlier this week, said in a statement that “Women have no choice but to buy these products, so the economic effect is only felt by women and women of color are particularly hard hit by this tax. You can’t just ignore your period, it’s not like you can just ignore the constant flow.”

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Well, I guess you won, feminism. A year ago, writer Jessica Valenti made the modest proposal that “menstrual care is health care, and should be treated as such,” asking “But seriously: Why aren’t tampons free?” Now, in one New York City school, they are.

As the Queens Courier first reported on Tuesday, Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras-Copeland announced that Corona’s High School for Arts and Business would become the first school in the city to dispense Tampax tampons and Maxithins free of charge. The vending company HOSPECO is providing them for the duration of the school year. New York Magazine noted earlier this week that public school girls do have access to emergency tampons and pads upon request, but in many schools that necessitates permission from a teacher and a trip to the nurse’s office, or an explicit written request. Just what every 14 year-old girl wants, right?

The poster girl for period sex: “I think it’s unfortunate that women often think their vagina’s kind of disgusting”

www.salon.com|Rachel Kramer Bussel

San Francisco singer/songwriter Rachel Lark may not have intended to become the poster girl for period sex, but with her latest single, “Warm, Bloody, and Tender,” and the appropriately gory video co-starring sex columnist Dan Savage, she may not have any choice. The song tells the story of a woman nervous about having her period during a particularly hot date, debating whether to tell him or not. The guy turns out to love his surprise “monthly treat.” The Kickstarter-funded steak-eating, “blood”-smearing video takes the premise to an even wilder conclusion.

Instagram loves women. It loves women showing their bodies. Women in bikinis, women in lingerie. It loves cleavage and sexy girls on the beach. What it has less of a fondness for — as it has amply demonstrated again and again – is the depiction of women in a way that suggests the female experience may sometimes be deemed untidy. And the thing about women is they get periods.