Editor’s note: This blog post refers to individuals who menstruate as women because the author wanted to highlight gender inequality in health care. We acknowledge that not all individuals who menstruate identify as women and that not all individuals who identify as women menstruate, but feel this generalization is appropriate considering the gendered nature of most health care policies.
To most government officials, feminine hygiene products are a luxury item. But, every day, women are being poisoned by their own bodies because they lack access to even the most essential health products.
Meanwhile, most men have no problem getting covered for pills that will help them get a boner.
Although still greatly outnumbered and underpaid compared to their male counterparts, women have made so much progress. Yet inequality still lies in the most basic areas of human well-being. Women are still facing unequal treatment when it comes to health care and are paying out of pocket for necessary female health products, particularly tampons and pads.
It’s about time that the federal government recognizes that even the most basic health care needs to start subsidizing the cost of tampons and pads for women, or covering the cost completely. This is only fair, since health insurance is supposed to cover the major aspects of a person’s health. But more importantly, cutting the cost of these products is a crucial step in normalizing menstruation within society, and it provides women who may not have access to these resources the opportunity to feel clean and comfortable during their period.
Access to tampons would not only allow for healthy living during that time of the month, but also every day of the year. The provision of tampons, or at least a subsidy, would give many women, especially those living on the streets or living paycheck to paycheck, access to these necessary items and the ability to change them often without the fear of running out. Not changing a tampon frequently enough can lead to complications like toxic shock syndrome or blood poisoning, among other things, which can lead to permanent damage in women’s lives.
Aside from some forms of birth control or medical complications, nothing will stop a woman’s period. It’s a natural part of having a uterus that just can’t be helped.
Health care currently covers services such as sexually transmitted infection testing, birth control, abortion and even access to erectile dysfunction treatments such as penile implants.
Although erectile dysfunction is a problem, it is not one that all men are inherently born with. Menstruation, on the other hand, is something almost every woman deals with at some point in her life. It’s a bit ridiculous that surgeries for sexual needs are covered before everyday feminine hygiene products.
Once necessary items needed to maintain feminine wellness are made attainable, public amenities outside of health centers and doctors’ offices should join in normalizing access to feminine products. Public facilities such as restrooms, schools and theaters should provide tampons and pads to women who need them, when they need them.
Having these products in public facilities would also provide an easy way for women living on the streets to access these products. Homeless women and women with extremely low income are disproportionately affected by the lack of access to feminine products. Tampons are pricey for any woman, but women who can hardly afford to buy food can’t afford to buy a $10 box of tampons, leaving them to choose between food or feeling comfortable when on their period.
Free or subsidized tampons through health care services can ensure that women at least have the right to a happy and healthy lifestyle, especially when that time of the month rolls around.
Really? Give me more free stuff is your stance? By that rationale, why should men have to pay for razors or deodorant either. Just think what happens when the government gets involved with providing you free hygiene products. You won’t be using the nice Tampax you (or your parents, who are probably still funding you) buy now, you will get cheap crap made by the lowest bidder. Is that what you want to put in your body? Toxic shock much? Grow up. I put myself through college without whining about no one giving me free stuff, and I’m doing just fine now. Plus it is I who has to pay for your free stuff, what will you give me in return?
I don’t agree at all about her call for subsidized tampons & pads, but you comparing deodorant and shaving to menstruating is absurd and ignorant.
Let’s see, live with a beard or stinky pits, or blood running down your legs for a week, with clots dropping to the ground whenever you cough.
Yeah, exactly alike. *eyeroll*
Chuck just mentioned a couple of personal hygeine items. Maybe he was too polite to mention other more intimate items that men require that are also expensive.
Ignore the specifics and focus on his message – everyone has hygeine needs and the government shouldn’t be expected to pay for it.
I think his point about lowest bidder was spot on!
Personal hygiene items aren’t on par with menstruation.
There is nothing good about a message from a person who equates shaving with a period.
If I am incorrect, please enlighten me. What do men have to contend with that is the same as having a period every month for 40 years or so?
Please let me know what “intimate items that men require”.
Living with people who have a period every month for 40 years? Sorry, had too 🙂
>>What do men have to contend with that is the same as having a period every month for 40 years or so?
I’ll bite.
LIVING with persons who have a period every month for 40 years or so!
Is there ANYTHING the world doesn’t owe you? You know, just so I can get a baseline of where my responsibility for your bodily functions starts and ends?
Oh, good Lord, millions and millions of women have gotten periods since the beginning of time and most of us have accepted it as an inevitable, if not very fun part of being female and went about our lives without acting as if it was something men forced upon us to oppress us! Are you on the rag now? What a sad little crybaby you are, whining about biological differences. Do you want men to cut open a vein once a month, just to equalize the situtation?
Up until recently, men are the ones who were sent off to fight wars, the ones who were expected to fully support their families and the ones who gave up their places on lifeboats because “women and children first.” I’m glad opportunities for women have broadened, but (this might surprise and amaze you) history is not all about how men always and everywhere oppressed women.
Women are at a biological disadvantage in certain ways to men. We get periods, we get pregnant, we don’t have the upper body strength so we can be overpowered – that sucks, but that’s just the way it is and it’s pretty stupid to resent men because they don’t have those disadvantages. Men have their own disadvantages – they die younger and getting hit in the crouch is far more painful for them than it is for us.
Hey that was awesome! Thanks for the smile!
Nicely said!
Bravo!
Constant erections.
Or not enough erections.
It’s hard to deal with. Yo.
My job requires that I shave. It is just as necessary as your pads. Yet I buy my own razors without whining..
“There is nothing good about a message from a person who equates shaving with a period”
– Typical progressive / liberal mentality. “Waaa… I’m not going to listen to you. I’m going to find the one perceived error in an argument and focus on that rather than the main points.”
You could also just purchase an electric shaver for the hefty price of $17.99 and use that for a year. I’m certain women must discard their tampons/pads with every use, and the dollars do add up when you are not as fortunate with your flow and need to change them constantly just to avoid ruining clothes/undergarments which can cost even more to replace or dry clean.
The comparison is just not comparable.
Written like the delicate snowflake you are. The salient point of the OP’s post, which you seem to be carefully ignoring, is that none of US should have to pay for YOUR feminine hygiene products. And if we HAVE to pay for it, just so you can feel “clean and comfortable,” I want YOU to have to pay for products that do the same for me.
People like you will never understand. As the OP stated, grow up. Get a job, pay your way, take responsibility for your life. Stop holding out your hand for free stuff and whining when you don’t get it.
You really need to grow up and accept that the world doesn’t owe you a thing.
Wait… so a woman can’t just let it flow freely, or she dies?
Actually, yeah, a woman can die.
You really don’t have a clue.
You truly believe not using a tampon results in being just uncomfortable??
Holy balls. I never knew men where THIS uneducated. Unbelievable. This has been quite an eye-opener.
You are seriously sitting here trying to say the sloughing of the inner lining of the wall is like a huge open gash/cut?
The only reason a woman could die from that is from severe unnatural hemorrhaging.
May want to rethink that statement.
Tampon doesn’t prevent or stop the bleeding. . .the uterine lining is going to be shed the same way with or without the tampon. . .it only helps control the mess.
Shhh… it prevents people from dying.
Sometimes it is possible to wonder how in the world am I not dead, but that’s not the same thing as actually being dead.
Someone once told me “Never believe something that bleeds for a week and lives to tell about it”.
There’s a comedian whose line was that he didn’t trust women because he didn’t trust
anything that could bleed for a week and not die.
Women can die from not having a tampon? That’s news to me, too. Unless they’re swimming in the ocean with a bunch of great white sharks I think they’ll be fine.
Really?
How many women die every year due to lack of tampons? Can you cite a reference?
What happened in those pre-historical times (ie 40+ years ago) before tampons were widely available?
Clearly I, as a dude, know little about women’s health.
But Kristine, as a woman, is well-versed and all knowing.
Seriously, dying from not using a tampon, and calling others out for not having a clue, is on par with the greatness of this article.
Actually women have died from using tampons.
Yes, I remember when Rely tampons were pulled from the market because they were linked to Toxic Shock Syndrome. A handful of women died from it. That was in the late ’70’s or early ’80’s I think – I haven’t heard of deaths due to tampons since then.
Dude, every woman from pre-historic times who did not wear a tampon is now DEAD. QED and DUH!
Alert! The preceding comment was sarcasm–I’m not actually a lib-tard.
@Kristine: I think your brain bled out of you a few months back…
Prove to us where more women have died from NOT using tampons than who have because of using tampons (Toxic Shock Syndrome).
“This has been quite an eye-opener.”
Yes, indeed. It sure has.
I’m now convinced, in the immortal (paraphrased) words of Glenn Reynolds, that college-age women should be kept in the home until old enough, and then married off to someone who will provide for her for the rest of her life.
Oh, dear me, whatever did women do before men invented tampons and pads (and they were male inventions)? Did they just walk around with blood running down their legs? Or did they cut up old sheets and rags and wash and reuse them over and over again? Yes, my dear, since they weren’t stupid, helpless idiots like you they didn’t go around dripping on the ground.
*Eyeroll* indeed.
The younger generation is making me ashamed of my own gender. I’ve never seen such whining, passive “woe is me” victims – and they think they’re strong women?
Helpless like me? BWAHAHAHA!!!
Oh man, that was just pathetic. You have zero reading comprehension.
No, women aren’t idiots–but clearly you are.
You’re the embarrassing ditz who wrote this unbelievably stupid and ignorant crock: ” Let’s see, live with a beard or stinky pits, or blood running down your legs for a week, with clots dropping to the ground whenever you cough.”
Anybody with any sort of reading comprehension read that and immediately thought, “Well, now, one dumb bonehead wrote that!”
Ah, yes, Kristine, the pioneer women who settled California were trudging alongside those wagon trains, “with clots dropping to the ground” because it just never occurred to them to use sheets and rags to absorb the flow. Maybe your female ancestors were walking around leaving a bloody trail everywhere they went – that would make sense, since you are the laughingstock of this comments thread – but most women with IQs higher than sea slugs managed before the invention of pads and tampons. And not one of them died from lack of tampons.
Oh, but wait! You must have proof of this right? Data to back up your assertions? You’re not just pulling stuff out of your butt, or your hoo ha? Really, dear, give us a link to the poor unfortunates who are dying for lack of tampons. Or is asking for proof that women have died for lack of tampons being all sexist, since sad little weaklings like you can’t be expected to actually provide proof? As Angela said, was the woman who died from lack of tampons swimming with sharks?
Proof. Do you know what that word means or do you have zero reading comprehension? Something tells me you were one of those Special Snowflakes who grew up being praised just for drawing breath. Welcome to the Real World, my dear.
She’s still waiting for her trophy for leaving a comment…
If you think taxpayers should have to buy your feminine hygiene products, then you are in fact an idiot.
OK, may razors and deodorant weren’t the best examples, but the point is the same. Why do you expect things for free? Someone has to make them, do they not deserve compensation for their efforts? Companies perform research and development to make a better product, do they not deserve compensation for this outlay? Do think a government provided product would receive the same attention?
Plus, someone has to pay, even if it is government subsidized. In fact, government subsidized products actually tend to cost more. Just look at things that are subsidized now, the producer gets less, the bureaucracy (Gov employees) make more, the consumer gets a worse product and still ends up paying through raised taxes and fees. You are a complete fool if you think anything is free. Someone pays this increased cost. Who is this? It is you and me and everyone else. We end up just subsidizing more government workers who manage the program instead of the producers who should be benefiting.
Then there is your entitlement mentality. Grow up and get off your parent’s teat. If you ever actually get a job where you have to work 40+ hours a week (not academia, not an “artist”, but as a real producer) you will change your tune. It is all good when you get your (perceived) free stuff, but when it comes out of your hard earned paycheck it you will then be the first one crying foul.
You exemplify what is wrong in the university/college system today.
LOL thanks to this silly editor’s note you have made your paper a national laughingstock. Are there really men at UCLA who menstruate?
Sadly, there still remains a difference between men and those, who identify as men. But we are working on eliminating this remnant of the parochial, racist, and sexist past.
The editor’s note was silly and unnecessary. Even if a woman identifies as a man, that person would still recognize that the author means no disrespect by referring to people
who menstruate as women. More likely, the editor wanted to appear to be really smart and sophisticated but instead just ended up looking ridiculous. And the note did in fact make the paper a national laughingstock. Otherwise, how would I have even seen this article?
Are you kidding? The whole article seems to be a material from “The Onion” or “The People’s Cube”.
One of these days, “The Onion” is going to have to hang it up. No matter how ridiculous they get, real life and the things actual fools utter in all seriousness is topping them.
Angela is correct. This is getting national attention. Dennis Prager was talking about this article today on his radio show-specifically the editor’s note. Thus, on two fronts this article is getting national attention. And it ain’t positive.
Don’t be so sure about that.
Would men that identify as women receive a similar compensation so that their equality would be fully recognized? IMHO those former females that want to identify as men should IMMEDIATELY have a hysterectomy, as ThePatriot suggested for the author, so that this would not be an “issue” for them.
Sadly, there appear to be men at UCLA who identify as women who need free tampons. But why am I surprised at that?
I imagine they do have an orifice that is taking a pounding and bleeding as a result. Not my business but I don’t want to pay for their tampons. Nobody paid for mine, dammit. Did I whine and blubber about it? No! I just went home and yelled at the dog! 🙂
i identify as george clooney. but for some reason, people dont seem to treat me that way ; )
You remind me of the people who will beat people down until they finally admit that 2+2=5.
The only way “men” menstruate is to suspend science in favor of a whacked out social utopia.
I hear most of the male faculty do. . .but that’s just a rumor.
im sure there are some trying.
Instead I would gladly pay for people with your opinion to get a hysterectomy so you don’t breed and pass on your stupidity. If you are actually paying for college, just drop out, it isn’t helping.
Bahahaha… nothing says equality like free stuff!
Such an ‘independent woman’!
Bahahaha… nothing says equality like free stuff!
Such an ‘independent woman’!
I bet the author is the first to write “Stay out of my body!” The irony is deafening.
College is such a joke; from a Master’s degree holder.
This may be the dumbest thing I’ve ever read. I think I may actually be a bit dumber myself for having read this. By your reasoning, toilet paper is also necessary for healthcare and the government should subsidize toilet paper. Razors, deodorant, mouthwash, soap, shampoo….all healthcare.
This was my argument as I (a female) was reading this to my mother (another female)! I’ve used toilet paper at military installations. Let me say that they buy the cheapest 1-ply avaliable. Feminine products, toilet paper, bandaids, hemorrhoid cream, etc are basic items that everyone purchases. This is not a matter of inequality.
Yes! The ultimate goal is for the government providing everything, that you can legitimately (in the opinion of the omniscient and benevolent bureacrats) want “for free”: housing, education, healthcare, food, entertainment in exchange for 100% taxation — with all these things free, who would need money?
That’ll be the deal slaves had on plantations — and didn’t like it for some silly reason. But we, the progressives, will do better the second time!
You seem quite adept at satire and sarcasm. You should have your own blog!!
You don’t think, there are enough of them already?
and everyone makes $100 an hour, at a minimum. but as you describe, there’d be no need for minimum wage, or wages in general!
VERY progressive!
Eeew, this much of Root Of All Evil™✞ per hour? How do you measure that?
Stop thinking of money. The best things in life are free, remember? Is your work not good enough to qualify for “the best”?
I’m old enough to remember all the stories about how people in the USSR had to stand in line all day to get TP that felt like sandpaper. But hey, it was free – or close to it, at the government-run stores where the proles shopped, while the elite Party members got access to better goods. Heck, in Venezuela today, they’ve having TP shortages!
Yeah, I’m really sure that one of these days the progressives will get it right!
I like the idea, but the focus seems misplaced. Force everyone to menstruate and, suddenly, when even the “Good Old Boys” running our lives from their exclusive clubs get it, you’ll see the equality flourish and thing — not just bare necessities like tampons — become free.
You will never be equal to a man. Democrat females are insane.
Women fought, died, were jailed in order to secure equal rights for women to live freely, to vote, to have careers, but now we’ve jumped the shark. Prior to that, women were chattel, and part of that lifestyle meant that all of our little needs were met. By men. By others. Like we were children.
A functional adult takes care of herself and has no need for others to provide for personal hygiene. Taxpayers don’t need to pay for feminine products. They also don’t need to pay for your toilet paper, either. Something just as necessary that is non gender specific.
This is not only unnecessary, it’s regressive. Unless the ultimate goal is going back to being cared for like we’re children.
Excellent post and I completely agree. One small quibble: while toilet paper is non gender specific, we women go through a roll more quickly than men do because we need it every time we go. Goodness, MORE oppression 🙂
Hey, I bet you use *white* toilet paper!
Toilet paper: another invention of the White male. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Gayetty
Can men get free handy-j’s? I spend about half of the total daily bathroom time allotment doing that already, so compared to a few bathroom visits per month for tampons, my need is clearly far greater.
Of all population groups, the incidence per 100,000 people was 0.52.
Another big government solution for a problem that doesn’t exist.
“The Patriarchy” has become the husband/boyfriend most feminists have never had. The one they were too unattractive, androgynous and out-of-shape to secure. When they talk about relationships, they claim they want equality, but it’s becoming more apparent each day that feminists secretly desire a provider archetype, and probably hate themselves for it considering the nature of their belief system.
“Feminism” puts an acceptable face on the collective nagging of single women. In another time and place, husbands/boyfriends would be expected to pay for a woman’s tampons, and take care of all her needs. In their absence, taxpayers and government fill the void and become a substitute provider women can nag. These calls for “equality” are essentially women demanding that complete strangers step into the role of “sugar daddy” & provide them with resources in the same way a husband and boyfriend would otherwise be expected to.
In a committed monogamous relationship/marriage, the recipient of henpecking is at least rewarded with beautiful offspring and a woman that occasionally tends to his needs, but feminism has turned governments and complete strangers into involuntary husbands, who then become sounding boards and providers, while these “empowered” women provide nothing in return. It’s completely unfair and one-sided to force complete strangers to buy you stuff and hear your problems. You need to cut out the elaborate ruse against “fighting patriarchy” and acknowledge that you’re a red blooded woman that just wants a man (even if it’s a symbolic representation of a man you call “patriarchy”) to provide for you. There’s nothing wrong with that, but stop bossing around innocent men that want nothing to do with you.
If you want free stuff, enter a traditional relationship and get yourself an attentive husband, Zoey. If you want feminism and independence, buy your own stuff and look out for yourself. You shouldn’t be allowed to have your cake and eat it too. Stop being pathetic.
Oh and your editor’s note is asinine. What people identify as is irrelevant. Stop kowtowing to mental illness and fantasy.
I identify as a millionaire. The government needs to send me a million dollars or it’s bigotry.
Sharpton identifies as a tax exempt organization.
In this hyper sensitive universe of micro aggressions from hidden triggers one can only suspect offense hides around every corner. Way too much of a stretch to cover all possible tender feelings. The risk and offense aversion of the Millennials is just a bit off-putting. The right to be free includes the right to offend.
‘hyper’ triggers me. can you re-write this in newspeak?
I can’t believe this post has not been taken down. This has blown up over the last 3 hours or so. Surely the University would take more pride in their image.
This kind of critical theory-laced grievance has become a mainstay on all universities and colleges. They couldn’t be more proud of this kind of agitprop.
You know her old professor, with the pony-tail and earring, is fapping to this.
They, the administration of the college, are no better than the administration that Zow would be appealing to for MORE ‘free stuff’!
To get this taken down just post a CSA flag or the image of a CSA General! 🙂
Here you go: http://www.bndflagpoles.com/750_500_csupload_42887081.png?u%201747286463
Why? Isn’t the whole purpose of academia to generate a vigorous and lively debate?
Because this isn’t debate. It is a demand by a snowflake for more freeshit.
Woman are just as capable as men but need someone to buy them tampons?
So is using the ‘need me to get you some tampons’ quip FINALLY pc-enough?
Well, but the “homeless”. Who did nothing to get that way (except maybe meth, heroin, etc.), so we should take up for their lack of foresight and responsibility…poor things.
The more we’ve heard for 40 years now how women are just as capable (or even MORE SO!) the more pathetic and whiny they have become. Bunch of asinine ninnies. Pioneer women could beat the crap out of them with one hand tied behind their backs…and then cook supper besides.
Have a gathering drive like many churches do for these items. Be the solution instead of shouting into an echo chamber.
^This!!!
Outside of the hilariousness of the comments, this is by far the BEST one. “Progressives” don’t want to do anything outside of advocating others do it for them.
Are there actually women choosing between food and tampons or is this just a mental exercise? Do women change them six times a day or does a $10 box of 36 last for more than one month? This sounds like a stretch to me.
Anyone ‘having to make a choice’ already gets their food free.
Box of 40 tampons costs $6 at Walmart. You can buy a CASE of 500 of them for $90 shipped to your door. No comment on how many each person needs. . .but I’d hope 500 would MORE than cover it for a year!
Unfortunately, you can’t buy common sense, nor integrity, but as some basis for comparison, undertgraduate tuition at UCLA stands right now at $13,000 per year.
Birth control is practically free too, but I just heard that from a bird.
Well, being pregnant does reduce the need for tampons!
In terms of actual costs, birth control can be free if the “user” so chooses. IE, abstinence costs $0/month.
For those who feel the need to occasionally “indulge”, condoms cost well under $1 each, and are highly reliable *if used correctly*.
Birth control pills vary in cost. They can range in price from as little as $6/month, for the very cheapest older generic formulation, purchased at a big-box discount pharmacy, to about $25 month for generic versions of current generation pills in normal pharmacies, up to about $90/month for the current generation name brands. But yes, virtually any WOMAN “can” afford functional birth control pills, should she choose to.
Touche! It’s literally free in one case!
And then the taxpayer will be paying for the resultant cancer treatment and other negative health effective associated with hormonal contraceptives.
About as I surmised. This was a writing exercise for a young woman who has little empirical knowledge, searching for some element she is familiar with to weave into a social justice argument.
Do you write anything aside from ad hominem attacks?
I wonder if Zoe understands that if the government subsidizes tampons and pads, they will cost $100 a box for those who don’t qualify for the ‘subsidy’. Economic illiteracy is shockingly common on campuses these days, not to mention the infantilization of young adults. No one is having to decide between tampons and food. Pure propaganda. In California alone, subsidies equal about $60,000 per year–not even counting hundreds of food banks and co-ops. Sheesh!!!
I came here to laugh at the disclaimer. I leave laughing at the whole institution of UCLA.
The Dumbest Generation is in line for the rudest awakening in history.
“Editor’s note: This blog post refers to individuals who menstruate as women because the author wanted to highlight gender inequality in health care. We acknowledge that not all individuals who menstruate identify as women and that not all individuals who identify as women menstruate, but feel this generalization is appropriate considering the gendered nature of most health care policies.”
Accepting the mentally ill delusion that people can be transgendered is irresponsible and is damaging to society and to health and well being of the mentally ill who suffer from said delusion.
Leftist loons have surpassed even the most outrageous parody. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
I love, love, love the Editor’s Note! It really calls for a follow-up article with the theme: Are hilarious self-parodying leftist statements a threat to the livelihood of parody web sites and comedians?
How about re-purposing UCLA diplomas to meet your feminine hygiene needs. It’s obvious they would serve a higher purpose.
Bravo.
“It’s a bit ridiculous that surgeries for sexual needs are covered before everyday feminine hygiene products.”
What about subsidized sexual reassignment surgery for the economically disadvantaged transgendered? That’s as much to address sexual needs as it is anything else.
So you’re saying THAT is less important than tampons and pads? Don’t you think that’s a blatant macro-aggression against those who don’t naturally menstruate and weren’t born as women but identify as women?
Surgery and the required legislations and accommodations for what many experts agree is a mental illness should be halted.
Not all people who self identify as idiots attend UCLA. And not all UCLA students self-identify as idiots; but the correlation is clear.
“The science is settled”
To be clear, correlation doesn’t prove causation. . .thought at least some of the time it is true!
Oh, and the author of this article is “Community Outreach intern” at Planned Parenthood, Los Angeles. Making sure that more women have access to killing their unborn babies and selling their parts.
God I hope this young woman never breeds.
I’m sorry, is this the Daily Bruin or Poe’s law quarterly? I am a UCLA alum and when I see stories like this (to say nothing of the “editor’s note”), I feel a deep shame for what the university is producing. I scrape things off the bottom of my shoe that are more worthy of publication.
“To most government officials, feminine hygiene products are a luxury item. But, every day, women are being poisoned by their own bodies because they lack access to even the most essential health products.”
Citation needed. There are so many unsupported statements in that section alone that Zoe should have probably thought once before publishing (thinking twice is a tool of the patriarchy btw).
Are there any editors?
Seriously, do you have ANY idea how utterly stupid this sounds? At some point, something has to click in your tumblr-addled brain that you are just lacking common sense. Men are men. Women are women. Bruce Jenner is not a woman. You cannot transform into an opposite gender.
Of all the schools in the UC system, I thought Berzerkely was the craziest. Zoe just proved me wrong
Sandra Fluke never even went this far. So now tax-payers have to cough up more money for your tampons?
And this editorial note about who menstruates is a joke. This is how far the left has taken us in academia.
Small steps… towards everything being ‘free’.
“Taxpayers”, not incidentally, being disportionately working adult males.
The net effect of this “free tampon” policy would be to shift costs of tampons away from those who use them (ie childbearing age women), onto those who do not (ie all males, and post-menopausal women).
One can argue about the merits of “from each according to their ability, to each according to their need” as social/economic policy, but to be clear, that’s exactly what this proposal is.
It’s called Marxism. That is where this all leads. It comes incrementally in small steps. Eventually we wake up and we are the USSR. But the good news is everybody will get free tampons-even men.
I just hope you students reading all this recognize what your professors are pouring into your heads. It has taken years for it to come to this. I don’t blame Ms Freedman. She is young, and this is what she has been taught. Someday she will look back and say, “How could I have written that?”
Unless she gets a PhD and becomes a professor, of course.
For the love of God, enough already. Yes women and men are different…no it isn’t men’s fault…no it isn’t sexism to recognize this fact…no the government doesn’t owe women anything because they are different.
What’s next? Free bras? Men don’t need bra’s so you should get them for free.
This mentality is what is wrong with the new radicalized left.
We are equal!
Buy me stuff!
I’m independent!
You really can’t make up such hypocrisy, lack of self-awareness, stupidity.
“This is only fair, since health insurance is supposed to cover the major aspects of a person’s health.”
Not ‘aspects’…costs. Part of the reason we’ve got ourselves into such a healthcare mess is because of the attitude displayed by the reporterette here. “Insurance” is a ‘bet’ against something that which cannot be foreseen. What people want is not ‘insurance’ but just ‘coverage’ so others pay for what they use.
There’s no such thing as free stuff…only stuff paid for by somebody else. “
Yes! Insurance used to be for the “big things” that were unforeseen (appendectomy, etc.), not to be used to pay for a visit for a sore throat. This is why the costs have soared in both insurance and medical visits! But, as usual, the progressives JUST DON’T GET IT. And they want it free…paid for by others. I detest the morons.
To me this article looks like one of those parodies so brilliant, its indistinguishable from an actual article. IE, its an “Onion”-like troll.
Taking this “proposal” at face value I think Ms. Freeman might wish to acquaint herself with the meaning of the term “insurance”. IE, predictable regular expenses don’t require “insurance”. . .let alone minor ones. What she’s asking, of course, is for those who pay taxes to subsidize her personal hygiene choices.
I’m not a consumer of tampons, but checking quickly, I see a box of 40 name-brand ones cost less than $6. I realize college is pretty expensive nowadays, but I’d hope even this author could afford the expense! I think women (or am I not allowed to use that term anymore?) have been
doing OK with this “issue” without intervention of the Federal gov’t
here.
Hurry Zoey, your 15 minutes have started! Congrats it’s on such a riveting, non-hypocritical progressive idea. “Freedman” being her last name is golden!
I assume this article is a joke. Right? If not, then we’re in a lot more trouble than I thought.
Actually, erectile dysfunction drugs are *not* covered by most health plans. Another misandrist mythology that seems never to disappear. When will the discrimination and hate and lies that misandrists perpetrate ever be subject to justice?
Reposting as it’s ‘waiting to be approved’:
Very true. My dad worked for the USPS; great health care/insurance plan. Vi@gra was NEVER covered.
why would you need tampons there is no such thing as men or women their interchangeable at anytime. when women are starting to have their period they can just change into men. so they won’t need them.
If Eve had kept her damn hands off that apple you wouldn’t have to deal with it.
Ok Zoey, just some advice, but your silly column has been picked up nationally so I’d try to least get my e-mail off it. As for silly…you do know that ordinary diabetes medical supplies (think: insulin pumps, syringes) are not fully covered by the ACA or insurance? You do know that many diabetics have found that under the ACA the insulin they’ve used for years is no longer covered and only the cheapest, for some people less effective insulin is covered, with a deductible (not free either)? Did you know blood pressure medication is not free? The only free thing is birth control… Time to grow up–if you worry about homeless women getting these supplies, get together a group, pool your funds, buy the products and donate them to the shelter. You don’t need a government program to do that.
Well said, and there are plenty of groups out there doing just that! She needs to get off her b*tt and help people herself.
I’m going to show this to my son who starts college next year so he will be prepared for insane group-think brainwashing going on in college these days. Took me 10 years to deprogram myself and I was an economics major. My brother the enviro studies major never did.
Dear God, please make them STOP.
The scary part is, they breed.
On a positive note to that, maybe the universities teaching these progressives into man haters means they won’t breed… God knows the beta males there won’t be able to get it hard.
It’s nice to see the Daily Bruin highlighted as an intellectual black hole.
That URL must be wrong…THIS IS REALLY “THE ONION”, right? After reading that batsh1t crazy disclaimer before the article, are you convinced yet that liberalism is now worse than cancer? LOL…
Liberals are getting sicker each day. Check out of any Government type payment …work in a real job, and learn what life is really about. Then….your mental diseace will start to heal.
“But, every day, women are being poisoned by their own bodies because they lack access to even the most essential health products.”
Women are being poisoned by their own bodies? Every day yet? What a bizarre thing to say. What gland does Zoey sport that is secreting poison? Other than her mind? Where do young people learn such garbage?
“Although still greatly outnumbered and underpaid compared to their male counterparts, women have made so much progress”
51% of the population are women. Twice as many of those over the age of 85 are women. Addressing the old, tired canard about women being underpaid for comparable work and time will take too much space. Lets just say,one hopes Zoey doesn’t get paid for writing tripe such as this.
Zoey’s entire fantasy article, indeed her entire fantasy life seems built on bullshit statements such as this. First we read that progressives want to get ‘back to nature’ (spouting these inanities while wearing dental braces and toting iPads). Now it’s a feminist hygiene problem….Waaaa!! Daddy won’t buy my kotex! Sounds like some feelings got hurt when someones date muttered something about ‘shithouse door on a tuna boat’ to me. Soap and water Zoey. And Potty training revisited. Spend your energies on women who need some real help. They are cutting the clits off young girls and women as you are wasting our time with horseshit op-eds like this. Throwing Gays off of buildings? Those are real problems. Spare us your feminine hygiene issues and tampax shortage won’t you Missy? Why don’t you and your warrior queens buy some plane tickets, get over there and help end that madness. Or show some respect to the men and women who do. I’ll buy you tampons to last the trip. What gall.
Bravo! (Or maybe brava!)
Zooey, quite being the cheap little blood donor. If you and Bruce Jenner can learn to share a detachable p enis you both might live.
I want other people who I don’t know to buy me band aids. And a toothbrush and toothpaste. Toilet paper for sure. Once a month. And condoms.
Thanks
“Gimme more free stuff, Big Daddy Government. Be my patriarchal support structure. I can’t make it on my own because I’m a frail little woman who needs your support and protection in order to survive.”
m.youtube.com/watch?v=bZgPlMCXIk8
Hey, why don’t you go stuff a tampon up Bruce Jenner’s duppa. America is laughing at you.
This post is being mocked live on the Doc Thompson show, hence the increased traffic.
Hopefully it will be mocked more.
t needs to be shouted from the rooftops that this is what modern feminism and higher education have become.
It’s being mocked EVERYWHERE.
Advocating for free tampons shows just how petty modern feminism has become.
Yes, and around the world in the meantime women are bought and sold, used and abused, beheaded, burned with acid…the list is endless. And this twit thinks paying for tampons is something to be written about let alone even thought of. Gawd.
All joking aside, this post (along with its editor’s note) perfectly highlights what is wrong in America. The author comes across as a person who believes government must do everything for everyone. The government is her God, it is her church.
So sad……….
FIRST: Nothing in life is free. SOMEONE has to pay for it. If you want something, earn it, or move to a Socialist country where people pay very high taxes to have their politicians buy votes by giving away “free” things. (Hmmmm. Sounds like what Democrats here do…)
SECOND: Women DO menstruate. That is a very integral aspect of being a woman. Because women can conceive and carry human life to term.
If someone who cannot do these things wants to identify as a woman, they would have to be insane to be “triggered” or offended by the statement of this fundamental fact about women.
This is stupid…..that’s all. Just stupid.
I just stopped by to point and laugh. The ‘opinion’, the editor’s note, the comments from Kristine .. BRAVO!
Oh.
My.
God.
Liberalism is a mental disease.
Zoey, whatever you take, stop it. It’s definitely the wrong prescription!
I thought UCLA was hard to get into?
If disposable hygiene products are prohibitively expensive for some ladies, there’s a whole industry devoted to “green” reusable alternatives, including cups, washable pads, and sea sponges. On the other hand, I’m not a lady, but I’d say the ~$8/month is worth avoiding the cleanup.
Alternatively, here’s my sarcastic troll suggestion: just stay pregnant all the time. You’ll save a ton on birth control AND tampons. /sarc
UCLA student here…
My only problem with this is the suggestion that being offered “free” tampons means more gender equality. You can say ‘feminine products can get expensive, so UCLA should provide them to low-income students’ or ‘UCLA provides a host of free items already, so why not feminine products.’ But to say that this is an equality issue is to fundamentally misunderstand equality.
I think your foremothers would really balk at all of this. Women have bigger fish to fry–and lots of men are willing to help, but this is not an issue worth fighting for as it is not an issue at all; and that it’s shown up in the Daily Bruin has caused immeasurable amounts of embarrassment to our campus.
I appreciate your Editor’s note in the above article. It totally wins the internet today. Tell me, was it meant as a joke?
Stupid. Just plain stupid.