Imagine you are walking around on a beautiful day in England. The cobble stones are wet and glistening, the air is crisp, and the pigeons are keeping a respective distance from you. As you stroll through the city, you see a few lovely young ladies sitting daintily on a set of white marble steps. You're eye is drawn to their interesting dresses which are pure white on top but fade into a sporadic and blotched deep red. Red like blood. You then notice that the crimson hue isn't only on the dresses , but is also running down the white steps as well. That's when it finally hits you. It's red like blood because that's exactly what it is: blood. Menstrual blood to be exact. This scenario may be difficult for you to imagine, but the fact of the matter is, this actually did happened as a protest against the “Tampon Tax”.

What is the tampon tax, you may be wondering? The tampon tax, as it has come to be known as, is the luxury tax that is added to the price of feminine hygiene products. This tax is in place in 40 out of 50 states. Four of the 10 states that don’t have this tax don’t have any sales tax, such as in Oregon. But as you can infer from my example, This isn't only a national occurrence; it's a global occurrence. The tampon tax is also enforced in many other countries such as the U.K., Malaysia, Australia and Hungary, reaching 29% of the original price in some countries. I'm going to be using the term luxury quite a bit so allow me to clarify what I mean when I us that term. The definition of ‘luxury’ is “a material object, service, etc., conducive to sumptuous living, usually a delicacy, elegance, or refinement of living rather than a necessity”. As far as luxury taxes go, they are typically only applied to big ticket items such as expensive cars, houses, designer clothes or clearly unnecessary items like tobacco and alcohol. Tampons are not luxury items. Women do not use them because they make us feel like Cinderella or Beyoncé.

I saw a tweet circulating the sphere a little while ago in which a guy says he doesn’t understand why girls think tampons should be free, his reasoning being, “they can just hold in their pee like the rest of us.” Unfortunately, periods don’t work like that. Women do not choose to have periods. It’s a natural phenomenon that is essential to the process of reproduction. As people do not think of donating pads or tampons to homeless shelters or other such organizations due to the taboo nature of the issue, it is extremely difficult for women and girls in poverty to get a hold of these products. Some women have to choose between bleeding out or providing food for their children. Some women who do get a hold of tampons end up using them longer than the directed time, in an effort to save money, which leads to TSS- Toxic Shock Syndrome. TSS is a disease that takes form after an infection which can quickly harm several different organs, including the lungs, the kidneys and the liver ,and it can be deadly.

If women did not use pads or tampons things would get real messy, real quick. They would be forced to withdraw from society in the duration of their cycle. They would not be able to go to work or school or even be able to take proper care of their families. Women walking around during their period without a pad or tampon would also be extremely unsanitary. It would lead to an increase in the spreading of diseases such as AIDS.

Many people try to claim that it is necessary to tax tampons to account for the cost of producing the product. If this true then what about the many states that tax tampons and pads but not condoms? Their reasoning for this is that condoms prevent diseases. My only issue with this argument is that people would not be at risk for these diseases if they did not choose to have sex. Having sex is 100% optional, having your period is not. Yes, there is a price that must be paid to cover manufacturing costs, however it is by no means necessary to add a tax on top of the original price to do so.

In some countries and cultures, the accessibility of pads and tampons is very low. Periods are also extremely taboo. When a girl starts her period, she considered impure and polluted. She is not allowed to participate in any spiritual or religious activities including praying. They are also not allowed to eat certain foods as they are believed to increase the potency of the pollution that they spread. For these reasons girls and women become ashamed of the fact that they have their periods. As we have established, women cannot choose to have their periods and therefore should not have to feel ashamed for it. That much is obvious. But if that is true then is it not also true that women should not have to pay more than necessary for something they cannot control?

While periods are not as taboo here in America as they are elsewhere, they are taboo enough to keep this tax in place. As a society, we’ve been trained not to talk about menstruation, especially around males. Since males are still most people in charge of deciding what taxes stay and go the issue never gets talked about. Some senators and board members have even admitted to the fact they are simply waiting for a woman to address the issue so they don’t have to.

So what can we do? Well, we can start by breaking the taboo. As women we need to stop being so ashamed of the way we were created. As men, we need to stop treating this like it's a dirty subject. Periods are not a fight club. We CAN talk about them. If we can break the taboo and make this issue known and bring public and governmental attention to it, then we can finally make some progress.