The first paragraph of Amanda Palmer’s outstanding The Art of Asking: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help reads as follows:
WHO’S GOT A TAMPON? I JUST GOT MY PERIOD, I will announce loudly to nobody in particular in a women’s bathroom in a San Francisco restaurant, or to a co-ed dressing room of a music festival in Prague, or to the unsuspecting gatherers in a kitchen at a party in Sydney, Munich, or Cincinnati.
Invariably, across the world, I have seen and heard the rustling of female hands through backpacks and purses, until the triumphant moment when a stranger fishes one out with a kind smile. No money is ever exchanged. The unspoken universal understanding is:
Today, it is my turn to take the tampon.
Tomorrow, it shall be yours….
I’ve often wondered: are there women who are just TOO embarrassed to ask? Women who would rather just roll up a huge wad of toilet paper into their underwear rather than dare to ask a room full of strangers for a favor? There must be. But not me. Hell no. I am totally not afraid to ask. For anything.
I am SHAMELESS.
Of course, she knows the answer.
And when the stigma of menstruation is coupled with the shame of poverty? SNAP does not cover tampons, pads, OR toilet paper, and the COVID-19 pandemic is making period poverty even worse.
Almost everything gets taken from mini pantries, but feminine hygiene products are among the most needed items. Those who supply them are like the stranger who fishes a tampon out of their bag, making Amanda and all who witness the exchange feel triumph. We imagine those mini pantries dedicating space to and coordinating the routine donation of feminine hygiene products seem more friend than stranger.
The Pantry Tucson not only prioritizes this neighbor need. The tampon it depicts front and center acts as a reminder of menstrual equity* and helps destigmatize menstruation. It’s like a best friend.
If you have a period, you know the panic of starting without supplies…the urgency of running out. Nearly 2/3 of low-income women experience panic, urgency and struggle to alleviate it.
Those who stock mini pantries can be that stranger with a kind smile. Or a best friend who works to bring about menstrual equity. Talk about it. Advocate for legislation that abolishes the “tampon tax.”
Tampons and pads are a basic, essential need, and like Amanda, it’s time for those of us with privilege to become shameless on behalf of those too embarrassed to ask.