Bodyform campaign - couldn't believe it!

Sarahsaver

Walked through Boots today and there was a stand with Bodyform products, and they are encouraging women to 'buy an extra pack to send to a 3rd world country' Can't remember what country but just remember it making me really angry, surely women already have means of dealing with menstruation, and developing countries dont really need anything so polluting as sanitary towels (neither do we but thats another matter...)
What do you think?
I will try and find a link from boots or bodyform so I can prove - to myself even - that I was not seeing things!

youngie

Some of these countries the women have to use old newspaper and the print has stuff in it that increases the risk of cancer dramatically,so maybe they should be encouraged to use mooncups but who wants to supply them and educate the women to use them no one I guess because of the cost . so I take it you don't use disposable sanitary towel/tampons??

Sarahsaver

http://www.actsa.org/Pages/Page.php?pID=1022&title=WomenDignity!Period.
Here it is, well i am not so sure now. Well I was kind of planning not to have any periods for a while, trying to get PG. Then after that I am getting a mooncup but for now feel free to judge me for using tampons. (I am not asking anyone what they use thats a personal question but seeing as you asked :eek: )
Why would the cost of mooncups be more than that of the towels?
They could use fabric instead of newspaper.
If big companies really cared they would give the stuff free anyway not use it as an advertising ploy.

youngie

I agree big companies if they cared but they don't because money is the evil all important factor,but one could also argue why aren't the countries concerned helping their own,not all these countries are as poor as they'd like us too believe its just the way they are run but now this is getting a bit political,didn't mean to come across as critisising your views and I admire you for considering a mooncup sorry to say I don't think its for me,and good luck with getting PG. sorry if I caused any offense it wasn't meant that way

Hapless_2

Up until about 15 yrs ago, the majority of black women in Zimbabwe and South Africa would make their own from fabric. (source, hubby, 15 yrs in S.A) Disposibles would have been for the rich only so they never bothered.
In the more rural areas they would use leaves of some plants or something (can't remember what now.)
OH says his mother and sister used to get laughed at for buying disposibles for R100 (about £10 a pack). Looks like commercialism wins again!

so maybe they should be encouraged to use mooncups

That is assuming they have clean running water in the homes (we are talking Zimbabwe here), some villages still only have 1 tap per village, some none at all, so that is impractical, unlike washable pads which would get washed with the clothing.

What people have to bear in mind is that in the more remote areas women don't wear underwear and are not so concerned about bodily functions and fluids, they just wash the blood away when it starts to flow down their legs.

Sarahsaver

No offence felt. I am a bit abrupt sometimes sorry;)
I think I am going to write to the manufacturers about this.
Commercialism it is I am sure!

foreign_correspondent

I think this is a interesting debate and can see both sides... but - we need to make sure we dont have double standards here...

why should we expect these women to make do with rags and newspaper when we like to have the comfort and convenience of tampons and pads??

If we do choose to use washables, which most ofus dont, at least e have acess to clean water and soap for washing them. I cannot imagine it is too health to try and wash them clean in dirty water and re-use. And as for saying 'these women dont mind, they just wash the blood off when it starts running down their legs'... well I dunno about that, but thats what we all would have to resort to if nothing else was available. It doesnt mean we would like it though.

As someone who has had very problematic periods, I know that struggling with that sort of health problem, without access to mediation or sanitary products, and probably having a lot of walking around and manual work to do would make my life totally miserable.

In some countries women are working in fields all day, carrying heavy loads and looking after children... and we expect them to use washable sanitary protection as well - when its too much hassle for most of us in the west wit convenient toilet and washing facilities??

I think washables are great in theory, but I know I couldnt cope with them, so I certainly wouldnt expect some poor woman in Zimbabwe to. Also, the mooncup - great in theory, if there is access to hygienic facilitis for washing/disinfecting etc.

Also, sanitary pads might not be great for the environment, but as far as I remember most tampons are 100% biodegradable... however, women would need free acess to them so that they werent tempted to use them for longer periods of time and risk TSS... so perhaps in the current situation sanitary pads are more appropriate...I suppose the real questions are:

1) why arent towels sanitary biodegradable? (there was a brand available in Boots a few years ago that was, but it seems to have vanished now)
and
2) Will bodyform continue doing this forever, or is it just a ploy to get more people using their products, so that when freebies end people will purchase them?

Sarahsaver

Most companies now are trying to convince people they are ethical/eco friendly and so on.
It's down to marketing I cannot believe they really care.

SUESMITH_2

there is the link to the campaign on the bodyform site (tried to post the link but it wouldnt work), personally i think bodyform should just fund them themselves but its a worthy cause

Hapless_2

'these women dont mind, they just wash the blood off when it starts running down their legs'

In the tribal culture, periods are a sign of fertility and women do not hide them. Unlike us in comfortable Europe, they are comfortable with their bodily functions.

I think washables are great in theory, but I know I couldnt cope with them, so I certainly wouldnt expect some poor woman in Zimbabwe to

Erm, up until 15 yrs ago it would have been the norm! Disposables are pretty new to many of these women who before wouldn't give a damn about washing them. The "poor" women are not the ones affected, the villages and tribal areas won't care.

Jeesh!!! The UK only had disposables after WW2!

In some countries women are working in fields all day, carrying heavy loads and looking after children... and we expect them to use washable sanitary protection as well

As I said my husband's mother and sister would get laughed at for buying disposables.

The Southern Africans are not stupid or ignorant, they don't need a political organisation like actsa using them like some sort of bargaining chip (no it is not a charity it is a political lobby group, we all know that Mugabe is an evil %£%^"£$"$, giving women disposible pads is not going to change the regime in that country unless someone suffocates him with them.). The don't need bodyform to go in and suddenly tell them that what they have been doing and using for hundreds of years is now wrong!

foreign_correspondent

Ok well I would struggle to function in that situation. Can I ask whether you use washable sanitary protection? i think it is an admarable thing to do, but I do not.

Apparently menstuation in zimbabwe is a taboo, not an unembarrasing bodily function, according to this female trade unionist, who said that due to people's discomfort with the issue, when an MP raised the issue in parliament, it was met with laughter and not dealt with seriously.

See report here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4364410.stm

Apparently sanitary pads are available, but are priced out of most working women's reach. A sa result they are resorting to using rags and newspaper which is causing infections.

I am perfectly aware that sanitary protection was only widely available after ww2 - but it has proved pretty damned popular in the last fifty years hasnt it? In fact all my gran says about it is what a lot of work and inconvenience it was when she was young. We can choose whether to use disposale or re-usable pads.. isnt it patronising to say let's not offer it to these women too??

ps when I say i couldt cope with re-usables, its not that I would 'give a damn' about washing them! however, whether in all parts of zimbabwe clean water for washing is available is another matter.