Fighting Back Against The Crimson Tax
The financial indignities of menstruating in the U.S.
The glass ceiling women have to cope with in this country is bad enough. So is the persistent wage gap that keeps equally qualified women making less than their male peers; and, to add insult to injury, we then have to contend with the pink tax that charges us more for “female” versions of everything from kids’ scooters to adult diapers.
Well, the fun doesn’t end there. Female-bodied people and fans of fairness everywhere are pushing back against the financial indignities of menstruation, or what we could call the Crimson Tax. Reuters reports:
New York and 39 other states impose sales taxes on tampons and sanitary napkins, while exempting the Rogaine hair regrowth treatment, condoms and other products mostly used by men. Advocates have sued in New York, citing a double standard.
Women’s advocates say budgets for homeless shelters, schools, prisons and public restrooms should provide free tampons and sanitary napkins, just as they do for soap, toilet paper and other essentials. …
“We are trained not to talk about it,” Weiss-Wolf said. “When we don’t talk about it, we don’t consider it. We don’t think, ‘Hey, for poor people, this is actually expensive; this can be a problem.’” …
“Menstrual products are not luxury items,” said U.S. Representative Grace Meng of Queens, New York. Because of her efforts, the Federal Emergency Management Agency updated its rules to allow homeless people to pay for tampons with funds once restricted to such items as diapers and toothpaste.
A recent report from Time concurred:
Currently, 40 states tax feminine hygiene products, a June 2015 report from Fusion found. While 45 states have tax exemptions for “necessities” like groceries, tampons — strangely — are considered “luxury” or otherwise inessential items, and are therefore subject to state taxes.
Meanwhile, in 15 states (and D.C.) that do tax tampons, candy is considered a tax-exempt staple grocery. Some products viewed as tax-exempt necessities are questionable, to say the least: In New York, admission to live circus performances is not taxed, but feminine hygiene products are.
Candy is tax-exempt as a “staple” and tampons aren’t? These rules are preposterous. Anyone who thinks menstrual products aren’t necessities like soap — or, in DC’s thinking, I guess, Kit Kat bars — should try going without them, or living with someone undertaking the experiment.
In fact, my fellow Americans, perhaps that’s the solution! Perhaps everyone with a period should pledge to free bleed, getting their precious bodily fluids on bus seats and park benches, in churches and at schools, until panicked legislators promise us anything we want if we’ll only, for the love of god, plug up those holes.
’Til then, roll tide, ladies.
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