At the end of the Paris 2024 Olympics, America ranked first in the overall medal count, as we have every Olympics since 1992. Winning is almost expected for Team USA, and amazing performances by Simone Biles, Gabby Thomas, soccer and basketball teams, made Paris no exception.
Competition is at the heart of the American identity, whether it’s the battle for gold medals, our place in the global economy, technological innovation, or at this moment in time, competition between political parties.
Policy debates and nuanced arguments can be more like a boxing match, each trying to land jabs that knock their opponent out. Recently, one of those jabs was aimed at Tim Walz, a nominee for U.S. vice president, as he was labeled “Tampon Tim” in response to the actions he took as governor of Minnesota to provide free period products to students in grades four through twelve.
But labels like that should be worn with pride.
Because periods don’t care whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, or whether you live in a red or blue state. Periods also don’t care whether you have the ability to purchase period products or not. Periods do, however, impact half of earth’s population, for about a week a month, for 40 years in a lifetime. And period products are as necessary as toilet paper.
Using the word “tampon” as an insult furthers the shame and stigma around periods in general — and neglects the breadth of humans who are working to ensure that this very solvable problem disappears in our generation.
This is why Utah lawmakers passed HB162 in 2022, which placed period products in every K-12 girls and all-gender bathroom in the state in both public and charter schools. This later expanded to all state buildings, colleges, technical schools and universities. The bill was unanimously supported by our Legislature, and many donors and philanthropic foundations have supported it financially, as well. Utah was among the first states to use a comprehensive approach that included an implementation plan, but there’s a long list — 28 states including Washington, D.C., in fact — that have passed bills that require schools to provide these products. On that list are many conservative-leaning states, including Alabama, Florida, Missouri and South Carolina.
We also know that these programs work. They work to increase school attendance where students might have otherwise missed class because they couldn’t attend for hygiene reasons, and they increase attendance at school activities and sports practices.
In an impact report for HB162, data shows that 58% of students surveyed said they used these products, some accessing them every month and some just during emergencies. Almost 50% of survey respondents say they attended class they would have otherwise missed because of these products, and 55% were able to attend extracurricular activities and sports practices they would have previously missed. Beyond the practical impacts, one of the most heartening results of the report is the huge increase in comfort students now have in talking about menstruation, with 75% of respondents saying their comfort levels have increased around this topic in the months since HB162 was implemented.
These numbers represent stories of real people in Utah whose lives were changed, like that of a young woman whose family couldn’t afford period products and who was forced to use cotton balls because they were less expensive. She was humiliated when those cotton balls fell out of her pants in front of her classmates, and she stopped attending school during her period.
Another girl whose family faced financial difficulties simply stayed home from school during her period, bleeding onto rags on the couch. Students no longer need to suffer like this because of laws like Utah’s, or Minnesota’s, or those of many other states.
Period products in schools change lives. It doesn’t matter who put them there. Thoughtful people from both parties, as well as people who don’t care about parties, have worked to save women and girls from the humiliation and handicap of not having period products.
In that light, bring on the punchlines. May we all be labeled “Tampon Tim,” “Menstruation Mary” and “Period Paul” as we work to normalize periods and kill stigma so the next generation never knows the shame of period poverty.
Emily Bell McCormick is the founder of The Policy Project, a U.S. nonprofit that creates movements to forward healthy, long-term policy at a state and national level.
Emily Bell McCormick is the founder of The Policy Project, a U.S. nonprofit that creates movements to forward healthy, long-term policy at a state and national level. They successfully advocated for HB162, Period Products in Schools.
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