NPR Highlights the Tampon Shortage in America – Opinion

Free bleeding was not that common a few decades ago. It was used as a way to show feminist ideals or raise awareness about the shortage of tampons in Third-World countries.

NPR says that now, we are third world.

Maybe it’s time to take all those menstrual products out of the boy’s bathrooms — Mmmkay?

People who menstruate are saying it’s hard to find tampons on store shelves across the U.S. right now, as supply chain upsets reach the feminine care aisle.

“I just went to 5 different Walgreens [and] the shelves are CLEARED,” said one Twitter user this past week, while people on Reddit have posted about empty shelves going back months.

Tampon makers claim that the reason for this shortage is a mixture of challenges in factory staffing, transportation bottlenecks, rising raw material costs, and rising wages.

Walgreens and Target stated in statements to NPR they are aware that some shops have a restricted supply of tampons. A spokesperson for CVS said that, in recent weeks, suppliers haven’t been able to fulfill the full orders placed by the company. Both companies said they’re working with tampon makers to replenish store inventory as soon as possible.

“People who menstruate”? My eyes are rolling so hard I’m getting motion sickness.

Dana Marlowe founded I Support the Girls. It provides menstrual products to people in financial hardship.

Marlowe said that the group’s donations have dropped significantly in recent months. They received half the number of tampons than last year. The total is over 60% lower than that in 2020.

“Our shelves our bare,” Marlowe told NPR.

And you know whose fault it is, don’t you? WHITE. MEN. Time Magazine pointed this out in, “The Great Tampon Shortage of 2022: The Supply-Chain Issue No One’s Talking About.”

Maybe because it’s not really an issue? It’s not life and death as the baby-formula crises, it isn’t killing our food supply like all the food processing plants that are being destroyed, but not killing jobs like the PRO Act push. Both publications seem to be reciting the old newspaper maxim. It will lead if it bleeds.

There is not much to be seen here, except for the menstrual blood. This is the good news. Time The writer creates it out of nothing. In as condescending of a tone as I’ve seen in a while, the author woman-splains what a period is <insert *eye-roll* emoji> and why women need tampons to manage it. If these types truly believed in “people who have periods,” they wouldn’t need to explain anything.

But, I digress….

Since men make up the majority of CEOs of these billion-dollar feminine hygiene product companies, the blame is laid squarely in their laps as to why this “crisis” isn’t being adequately addressed.

Many people who make decisions regarding feminine care products are not aware of their benefits. The CEO of Procter & Gamble is a man, as are the CEOs of Edgewell and Unilever. (The CEO of Abbott Nutrition is a man, as is the UK’s Health Secretary, whose department is responsible for getting HRT to women using the National Health Service.

“I challenge you to go to a business that doesn’t have hand sanitizer,” she says. “That happened overnight.” But, she says, there has been no such push by businesses or the government to solve the tampon shortage.

Isn’t it convenient that this bunch can clearly define “men” and “women” when they want to lay blame on men?

Amazing how this works.

This “need” is pure hyperbole, and indicative of how disconnected legacy media like TimeNPR has become a distraction from what truly matters. This also highlights Mike Rowe’s words.

“You’ve got a lot of very, very smart people standing by waiting for somebody else to do the work. Not a recipe for long-term solvency in my opinion.”

Maybe all these concerned women just need to do what those menstruating runners did — bleed freely. Let your blood flow freely in your office and during staff meetings. You must be brave! These things must be made known. Be brave!

Yeah…

It’s doubtful this will work in the workplace. So, maybe it’s time to stop waiting for somebody else to do the work on this and take care of yourself. As long as I’ve been menstruating (I am a female, and despite NPR’s delusions, I am the only one who can), getting my period has been sarcastically referred to as, “being on the rag.” We have moved far from the Red Tents and using rags to staunch the bleeding, but maybe it’s time for it to make a comeback.

Take those menstrual cycles days off. Separate yourself from other women on the same cycle. There’s a whole Red Tent movement wrapped around that concept, so now may be a good time to jump on the bandwagon.

Use a real rag. They aren’t hard to find, but in the event you cannot, there are all types of absorbent towels and “pillowy” products out there that can substitute for the shortage caused by those evil bastard white men CEOs. I Support the Girls wasn’t an organization I was familiar with in my youth. This is why I Support the Girls became a college student on a budget and then landed a job as stipendiary. All things came to mind: rags, pillows, and absorbent paper towels. My mother, necessity is the mother invention. I was very ingenious.

There are also eco-friendly options who make anti-bacterial, rinseable menstrual cloths. Consider this an opportunity to improve your climate goals and begin saving the earth.

Yes, it’s inconvenient, requires constant monitoring, and is not as comfortable; but it works, it’s functional, and beats the heck out of whining about the lack of tampons and equity.

Newsflash – A supply chain crisis is not comparable with a lack of convenient product support during a five-to-seven day, once-a-month event. Park Avenue and Acela moms, get a hint. NPR, Time, Everybody involved with this campaign needs to know more than just tampons.

Serious.