China News Service, Beijing, September 3, title: Hot search "menstrual poverty" on "bulk sanitary napkins" attracts attention
China News Service reporter Yu Zhanyi Zhang Su
Recently, the news that 100 pieces of "bulk sanitary napkins" in an online store cost only 21.99 yuan has been on the hot search list, and topics such as "menstrual poverty" caused by it have continued to attract public attention.
What is the price of "bulk sanitary napkins"?
The reporter learned that when well-known brand sanitary napkins are sold in boxes on e-commerce websites, the lowest price can be controlled at less than 1 yuan per piece for daily use and less than 1.5 yuan per piece for night use.
If calculated according to the normal consumption of women, the monthly cost of sanitary napkins is about 40 yuan.
However, this expenditure has become a real "unspeakable concealment" for some low-income women, especially women in poor and remote areas with an average monthly income of less than 1,000 yuan.
At this time, cheap and simple packaging of "bulk sanitary napkins" became their first choice.
Searching e-commerce websites with "bulk sanitary napkins" as a keyword, the reporter found that the single-piece price of most sanitary napkins ranges from 0.2 yuan to 0.5 yuan, and the price is only one-third of the lowest price of brand sanitary napkins.
Although "bulk sanitary napkins" without outer packaging and no expiration date are not necessarily three-free products, such products still cause people to worry about their safety risks.
Medical experts point out that women in menstrual periods have poor resistance and are prone to infection if they use substandard sanitary napkins.
Compared with sanitary napkins that are packaged intact, "bulk sanitary napkins" are more likely to be contaminated during transportation, leading to gynecological inflammation and other diseases.
However, the banning of "bulk sanitary napkins" has also attracted a lot of criticism and opposition.
Some people worry about how women with limited financial means should deal with their needs after losing access to cheap sanitary napkins.
In fact, women suffering from "menstrual poverty" are all over the world, including some developed countries.
According to a survey, about 500 million women in the world are experiencing "menstrual poverty".
The so-called "menstrual poverty" refers to the fact that some women cannot obtain basic materials for menstrual hygiene management during their menstrual period due to backward concepts and economic factors.
For example, in a 2017 survey in the United Kingdom, 1 in 10 young women aged 14 to 21 in the country cannot afford hygiene products.
Analyzing the causes of "menstrual poverty", one view is that the tax rate of sanitary napkins is generally high in the world, and in this regard, it is recommended that sanitary napkins with the nature of consumable daily necessities should be reduced.
A recent online survey on "How to Eliminate Menstrual Poverty" initiated by the media has attracted 58,000 participants. As of press time, more than 40% of the participants have chosen to "reduce taxes on women's menstrual period commodities", ranking second. It is “strengthen supervision to ensure the quality of low-priced products.” However, Hong Tao, a professor at Beijing Technology and Business University, said in an interview with the media that tax reduction may not solve the price problem. If you want to emphasize the particularity of sanitary napkin products, you can use guidance Sexual prices, such as determining the highest price to protect the interests of consumers, and determining the lowest price to protect the interests of producers.
Another view is that a series of taboos or prejudices surrounding menstruation also lead to "menstrual poverty".
During the interview, some volunteers mentioned that it was obvious that some left-behind girls were strongly wrapped in the “shame” of menstruation. They never got the correct knowledge of physiological hygiene from their parents, and it was considered not to buy sanitary napkins. Necessary expenditure.
Many girls are "what is it for". Using cheap sanitary napkins or rags and other substitutes can easily lead to infections and diseases, and then a series of structural problems such as "poverty caused by poverty".
Today, the large-scale discussion triggered by "bulk sanitary napkins" continues.
More and more people are paying attention to the above-mentioned problems and offering suggestions, and some social forces are already taking action.
For example, the "Spring Willow Program" initiated by the Shanghai Rende Foundation in 2017, provides left-behind girls in Sichuan, Shaanxi and other places with health kits, physiological knowledge courses and other menstrual care; the China Social Welfare Foundation Ai Xiaoya Fund also has special Fund charity projects for the health protection of poor girls.
The commentary believes that "bulk sanitary napkins" followed up on the hot search, and issues such as "menstrual dilemma", menstrual dignity, gender differences, and gender costs diverged, reflecting the problems of contemporary women from multiple angles. "It is easier to arouse society's attention to women's rights, thereby forming a joint force to solve problems.
In this sense, the discussion of this topic, which is regarded as women’s private, can enter the public field of view is also a good thing in itself, releasing a positive signal.
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