Why should menstrual cups become widespread?

* Photo: Anna Shvets / Pexels

Click to read the article in Turkish

Menstruation in Turkey is passed by whispering "Can you check my back?", putting a pad or tampon on the sleeve of your cardigan or back pocket, worrying it might be seen. No matter how egalitarian you grow up, in a cafe, at school, even at home, you will spend one of the most natural events of humanity, getting embarrassed by even your father and brother, with your body already tired by your hormones for a few days of each month.

In the absence of the education that should be provided at a young age, we expect menstruation to end as soon as possible with archaic information stuck in our minds in addition to the Turkish Statistical Institute's (TurkStat) placement of "Hygiene pad for women" under "Miscellaneous Goods and Services" along with items such as hairdresser, perfume, umbrella, and EFT fees in its Consumer Price Index Item Basket.

We have come across a tangible example of the traces of this understanding with the prohibition of the sale of pads and tampons in certain grocery stores during the last seventeen days long lockdown.

An additional taboo to pads and tampons

The menstrual cup, the first prototypes of which were drawn in the 1870s but wasn't offered for sale, was put on the market in 1937 by US actress Leona Chalmers. However, due to the belief that menstruation is "dirty", which has been going on for years, the removal and cleaning of the cup have prevented it from becoming widespread among women. After 1980, the cups were able to overcome some of the reservations with the use of medical silicone.

In addition to these, hymen, which society devotes to the concept of virginity, is at the top of the Frequently Asked Questions of almost all the companies' websites that sell menstrual cups in Turkey. Although the answers try to explain with a few simple sentences that women can be born without a hymen or that it is a tissue that can dissolve during actions as simple as riding a bicycle, the paragraph begins with the sentence "If you have a sensitivity towards virginity, we do not recommend you to use a menstrual cup." Associations and vendors abroad, on the other hand, aim to break this taboo with various organizations by trying to go a little further.

Usability

When male domination is examined, which sustains itself by charging physiological needs and making them be seen as luxuries, it becomes the cherry on top of the business to continue the tradition of alienating the female body. Under these conditions, although we educate ourselves about the content of pad and tampon derivative products, taking action on this issue is unfortunately not among the possibilities of every individual who has menstruation in Turkey.

Speaking for myself, it took me longer than necessary to realize how little I know my own body as a woman, and therefore how low my self-esteem is, in a world where motherhood is so glorified but menstruation is a huge taboo to be never spoken of. My ignorance has somewhat subsided when I had some money to put aside one day and bought a menstrual cup that I could use for years instead of providing money for big companies each month. First of all, it is imperative that you know your body in order to make it easier to insert the cup. When I asked the people around me if they have ever looked at their vagina with the help of a mirror, unsurprisingly, I got the answer that most of them did not find it necessary or even thought about it.

It is useful to emphasize the oddity here because as I have stated from the beginning of the article, the system has many ways to prevent people from even getting to know their own body. One of these ways is that the use of the menstrual cup is a long habituation process that requires determination and resistance, so it's a luxury in itself. Because there is no practical reason why this cup cannot be used when it is made accessible. On the contrary, it is a device that you can wear for up to 12 hours and will stop you from organizing your life according to the course of your period compared to other hygienic products.

Another advantage is that it can be used for years. If we did not live under the conditions of gender and class discrimination imposed by the system, we would be aware that pads and tampons we are forced to use consist of 90 percent plastic and they take up to 500 years to dissolve in nature, and we could evaluate our possibilities to act on this issue. In addition, the people I spoke to were unaware of health-threatening illnesses, such as toxic shock syndrome, which can be caused by incorrect tampon use. We are so worried about getting through another menstruation, another day that it has become our normal for how deplorable things are in the bigger picture.

Is it a budget-wise solution?

The 18 percent tax imposed on products such as pads and tampons has been the subject of a few news articles, albeit sporadically, in recent years and it has been observed that the number of pads deemed appropriate for daily use for our health is much lower in Turkey than in Western countries. Movements such as We Need to Talk have even been initiated to send aid packages to a majority of working-class women to combat menstrual poverty.

The availability of the menstrual cup starting from 90 Turkish Lira (TRY) to 300 TRY does not seem realistic in the near future as it was in the past. When you do simple math, the price of the most popular cup actually corresponds to a year's pad expense, but it is unlikely that an individual can pay this fee at once. However, this process is not a process that can be overcome by a minority who has the means to buy the cup in the name of environmentalism and to break the menstrual taboo.

If we retouch the point I mentioned at the beginning, it is possible for menstrual cups to become widespread only by breaking down the taboos and marginalization that contradict themselves in Turkey as well as in the world. However, opposing to basic needs turning into a luxury, which is the main problem, will help to eliminate such problems more widely and radically. Until then, the fact that only a certain group has this preference will not leave an efficient effect on nature through which it could recover after all that waste, nor open the door to an egalitarian approach.

Note: Although menstrual poverty is a problem that has been pressed on by many non-governmental organizations, and despite the disposable sanitary pad and tampon market that has been active for nearly 50 years in Turkey, no official research has been done on the usage rates and accessibility. 

(DCE/AS/SD)