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The red wave

The red wave

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Like most manufactured goods, menstrual products (disposable and fabric compresses, tampons, glasses and discs, absorbent underwear, sea sponges...) They have a cost.This forces women to incur an expense that does not exist for those who do not menstruate.Then, menstrual poverty and economic discrimination is discussed.

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Public statistics have historically invisible this necessary expense and state policies had little or no interference in the matter;Nor did medical institutions investigate the possible health effects of the use of disposable products.The consequences they have on the planet, such as deforestation for the manufacture of these products as well as the thousands of tons of waste of towels and disposable tampons, are also unknown.

Menstruation has historically had a role in the world of private and the individual, within our bathrooms.The feminist look socializes and seeks to turn it into a collective experience, since, as we have learned from the feminists of the 70s: the personal is political.Menstruation is also political and, as such, must be analyzed in social and economic code as well as health and biological.

From the #menstruation campaign we seek to show for years the impacts of the rule, in addition to health and environmental ones, they are economical.

Inequality or menstrual poverty?

While several international organizations and feminist organizations choose to talk about "menstrual poverty", it is important to bring the concept of inequality to the discussion.This is because poverty in economics is understood as a lack and we cannot avoid asking what lack we are talking about in terms of the period.Even when generating data, how do we measure that deprivation?

La ola roja

When we talk about menstrual justice, are we demanding only the material provision of products or can we also address the issue from a broader view, which includes the poverty of information, time, infrastructure and basic services, among others?

The lack of material and symbolic conditions to manage menstruation in a healthy way and its unfair distribution are no exceptions, but rather the rule: those who are at the base of the pyramid as far as the period is concerned, are located at the baseof all socioeconomic pyramids.It is problematic not to understand that behind the difficulty of women, girls and other menstruating identities to manage their bleeding is a complex network of systemic oppressions.

Green menstruation

Menstruation also puts on the table the environmental discussion that the economy has so long postponed, starting with the production of disposable products, which generates huge amounts of garbage.Only in Argentina, 3 are thrown annually.380 million units between towels and disposable tampons.This translates into 132.000 tons of non -recyclable or biodegradable waste every year that takes between 500 and 800 years to degrade.An environmental and feminist reading is urgent from the sustainability of life to think about alternatives to the current scenario.

The feminist economy not only wonders about the lack of accounting for unpaid domestic work in GDP, or for income gaps in the labor market, but also for the future of this extractive capitalist system and by the peoples it affects.Grow why?So that?Does the definition of economy that talks about scarce resources did not take into account natural resources?

Caring and being careful is a human right that the traditional economy has failed to recognize.There are basic questions that, according to several authors, we must ask to rethink the economy from a double logic: that of human life and that of nature, both invisible and given by sitting.

In addition, women are a group especially vulnerable to climate change.The society in which we live has structural discrimination problems, so any crisis will disproportionately affect people who are already discriminated against.The feminization of poverty and the greatest vulnerability of this group compared to the climatic crisis arises that it is the feminities that are thrown behind domestic and care tasks, which in addition to not being paid, are much more exposed to theConsequences of the environmental debacle: phenomena such as droughts, floods and lack of food affect more strongly to those responsible for solving family or community needs.

Women are more vulnerable to natural disasters. A menudo, son las últimas en comer o en ser rescatadas; se enfrentan a mayores riesgos de salud y seguridad cuando los sistemas de agua y saneamiento se ven comprometidos; y asumen una mayor carga de trabajo doméstico y de cuidado cuando deja de haber recursos”, describe la ONU.

The commitment to reusable menstrual management products, as long as there are material conditions to use them, is a huge contribution to the questioning of our consumption habits.In some cases, even where there is no waste collection, menstrual glasses or fabric towels represent a viable option to avoid pollution.However, the lack of drinking water or an infrastructure in accordance can mean an obstacle when thinking about a more sustainable horizon in territories where the most basic human rights are violated.

The future is feminist and environmentalist

In recent years we have seen how several states of the world have heard the claims of the activists, implementing in their territories the free provision of these products and in some cases tax exemptions were also legislated for them.The next challenges are related to the dispersion of this type of policies throughout the globe, but also have a lot of work ahead of those who already enjoy public policies in this regard.Consider the different contexts in relation to housing and access to basic services, promoting a 100% sustainable menstrual management horizon and including the integral and feminist perspective of menstruation in integral sex education are some of the challenges that occur to future.Hopefully the red wave is an example of feminist and environmental struggle for a world where all worlds.

Lucía Espiñera is an economist and member of feminist economy.Nicole Becker is an activist for the Climate Action of Fridays for Future Argentina and champion of the youth of Sanitation and Water for All.

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