Petition: Change ‘Feminine’ Products Names, Trans Men Have Periods Too

by Penny Starr

A company on a mission to “shake up the period protection industry” has launched a petition on the change.org website asking that producers rename their products, replacing “feminine care” and “feminine hygiene” with “period products” or “menstrual products.”

They argue “trans men and non-binary people can have periods too” and their feelings must not be hurt.

“We want to see supermarkets and retailers in the UK and North America commit to tackling the stigma around periods,” the Naturacare petition said.

The petition also said, in part:

The use of the terms ‘sanitary products’ or ‘feminine hygiene products’ suggests there is something unsanitary or unhygienic about having a period when this is not the case. Avoiding terms like ‘period’ and ‘menstruation’, as though they are shameful, upholds the very real stigma around this natural bodily function. This stigma affects people’s quality of life, every day.

As well as this, the word ‘feminine’ assumes that all people who have periods are feminine. This is not the case – trans men and non-binary people can have periods too. The use of the term ‘feminine hygiene’ suggests you need to have a period to be ‘feminine’, when trans women and plenty of cis women don’t have periods.

We think it’s time our society ditched the code words and started calling it what it is – a period. Then we can begin to have a mature and respectful conversation about the biology behind menstruation and remove some of the shame from the subject.