It is June 2021, and City of Vancouver Council has just voted to ban tampons #tamponban
In the lead up to the ban, stores in Vancouver stopped selling tampons. Pundits say this is fine, because there are pads and cups available, ignoring the users who explain why pads and cups don’t work for them. @mssinenomine
This all happened because a famous person said that tampons are bad for the environment. There was a sad photo of a turtle with a tampon applicator stuck in its shell, and folks got fired up.
It just so happens that this #tamponban is happening at a convenient time, because this Council is making no headway on the opioid crisis, houselessness, rising inequality, and climate change (thanks @kwardvancouver for pointing this out). So this is a quick win.
The City consulted the Women’s advisory committee, comprised of mothers and children of women, post-menopausal women, and allies of women.
The seven of them thought this #tamponBan sounded nice for the environment. Gives people who bleed a chance to get back to nature. Let’s set up a freebleed festival in Stanley Park, they suggest. Won’t that be nice.
Meanwhile, activists point out that a) doing nothing is a good option, b) this ban is government overreach and discriminatory, and c) it would be a better use of resources to just have universal accessible washrooms. @mssinenomine
Universal accessible washrooms seem to be the bane of this Council’s existence. So, that is not an option. But, one must Do Something ©️, so the #tamponban it is.
Chinatown activists point out that the ban is discriminatory. So the collective progressive guilt about the historical discrimination against Asian people and people of Asian descent leads to Council making an exception for Asian people.
One group co-hosts an even with City of Vancouver staff, and they hand out specially-sized and branded metal and glass diva cups to attendees as swag.
There’s another event on racexdemocracy focusing on anti-Chinese Racism that City of Van sponsors and sends staff to. Participants get the specially sized and branded glass divacups #tamponban
This trying-too-hard & white guilt Council misses the point that the #tamponban is discriminatory for everyone. The Chinatown activists got their exemption, so they don’t speak up for everyone else or jeopardize their political access.
Council members visit the Women’s Advisory Committee and literally pat each member on the head. Good job. Now we won’t have the youths grabbing tampons they don’t need, causing havoc on the streets.
Everyone’s feeling really good about themselves, and they didn’t have to do any actual work or thinking. Some breast cancer foundations hop on the bandwagon for fundraising and feelgoods. (Thanks @mssinenomine for tracking that!)
Activists keep talking about how this #tamponban is actually harmful for bleeding people, not a feel-good environmentalism exercise. Few folks with power seem to grasp the indignity of transmen having to ask for a tampon, and how they will be harassed by people handing them out
There has been no intersectional analysis of the impact on racialized people, poor people, for example, who are far more likely to beharassed for just asking for something they need, as @mssinenomine has repeatedly said
Nevertheless the #tamponban passes.

If you think this is weird or far-fetched, it’s really not. City of Vancouver just passed a #strawban specifically exempting bubble tea straws and allowing for only disabled people to request straws in commercial establishments.
@mssinenomine Critically analyzed all of this in real time during Council’s consideration of the #strawban https://mobile.twitter.com/mssinenomine/status/1199762502961074176

It’s all in there- the advisory committee and charities, the bubble tea straw, the pseudo engagement, classism, and ableism. All. Right. There.
While tampons and straws are different, and being trans or disabled are different, some people’s ableism prevents them from seeing the actual impact that banning straws has on disabled people, who make up more than 20% of the population.
Telling the same story, but about a different plastic & different systematically oppressed group helps to reveal ableism & show the absurdity of the ban. It’s ableism that gets people mad about a tampon ban but not about a straw ban.
Big thanks to @mssinenomine for cutting through the noise to show the core issues here, and for @MelissaDeGenova and @christineeboyle listening to understand the issues at play.
You can follow @dfergusson.
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