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Showing posts from September, 2020

Free Flow Fast Facts: Period Poverty

By Hannah Jackson. Period poverty affects 1 in 10 menstruators in the UK, whilst only 12% of those who experience periods in India have access to safe menstrual products. There are a number of similarities contributing to the figures from the UK and India, such as cultural taboos and shame, high taxation on period products, and a lack of education surrounding menstruation. Period poverty is absolutely grounded in misogyny and economic patriarchy, under which the tampon tax allows for menstrual products to be taxed as a luxury whilst the so called ‘pink tax’ adds more tax to feminine marketed products such as razors. Although the UK has committed to scrapping the 5% tax on period products from 2021, with the economic fallout as a result of the pandemic many charities have reported a surge in people experiencing period poverty; Leeds based charity Freedom4Girls reported 15 times the usual amount of aid being requested since March , and predict this figure will continue to rise. Wi