BBC research reveals that women in Africa spend up to 13% of their income on menstrual products.
  • Zoboomafoo@yiffit.net
    44·
    1 year ago

    “They can’t afford modern products so they’re slapping together imitations out of trash”

    Did they not have a functioning system before tampons were invented?

    • Ms. ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.ml
      6·
      1 year ago

      This was my snap initial thought too but it does not hold up well. Their previous system may not be sanitary by today’s standards, could be impractical to access in modern times, or socially humiliating now. Even if all of those were non concerns though I believe we should still be able to provide modern solutions to people requesting them instead of writing it off as “be happy with the solution you had yesterday”

    • argv_minus_one@beehaw.org
      23·
      1 year ago

      This is Africa we’re talking about. That whole continent was the playground of ruthless European colonizers for centuries, and I’m under the impression it wasn’t exactly a paradise before that, either. So, probably not.

    • charlytune@mander.xyz
      103·
      1 year ago

      I don’t even want to know what kind of infections someone could get from using a menstrual cup they’re unable to sterilise.

        • charlytune@mander.xyz
          21·
          1 year ago

          That’s quite a reach there. Of course I don’t think that. But just saying ‘duh use menstrual cups’ is a classist response. Where resources are more scarce they need to be prioritised, and so some people may not have water or fuel to spare to boil a menstrual cup, or the privacy to do it in eg if a stove is shared. Let alone access to menstrual cups’ in the first place (which cost around £30 in the UK and so are already priced out of the range of a lot of people on low incomes).

        • EssentialCoffee@midwest.socialEnglish
          11·
          1 year ago

          So I looked up the price of a menstrual cup in Ghana. I converted the price to USD, since that’s what the article is in.

          Asking someone to pay $14 out of their $26 monthly salary when they’re already struggling with paying $3 per month is both an unhelpful and ridiculous suggestion. Do you want these folks to bleed all over themselves for five months while they save up for an option that might or might not work for them? They deserve more dignity than that.