Bodyform campaign - couldn't believe it!

dagrowler

morg_monster wrote: »

it is a bit like the G8 governments demanding that China, India, African countries use less fossil fuels - they are in different periods of their history than us - we poisoned our countries in our industrial revolutions why shouldn't they be able to now they are in theirs?!

errrr because 1. they're not just polluting their own country but the whole world and 2. we now know the impact of fossil fuels on the environment! Just because we did a stupid thing doesn't mean other people should! we should learn from our mistakes not just let people carry on.

In the same way, as i said before i think we should encorage women ALL over the world (not jsut Africa/3rd World) to use reuseables. we know that landfill is a huge issue, why would we want to create more for other countries?

As someone already said, these women may be poor but they aren't stupid, they've been dealing with periods for thousands of years, why do they suddenly need WOOOOOOOOOA bodyform?!

Sarahsaver

And I wonder if they have done a remake of the bodyform song :eek:

madfrenchgirl

To come back to the original matter, not just the sanitary towels, but the original thing of the manufacturer suggesting the consumer to send a sample of their product, which is NOT a basic necessity (food, clothing, shelter, water) to a country plagued by poverty, diseas and dictatorship is just morally wrong and whoever is the f*ckwit who came up with that in the marketing dept should be hung form a tree.

Sorry it really p*sses me off to see large corporations advertising so blatantly that we are that stupid. Marketing is "supposedly" about identifying the needs of the consumer. errrr, I think females in zimbabwe have more urgent needs to attend to. it is like when you go to a poor foreign country, you see people queuing for hours at the butchers for 3 pieces of meat with flies on them but you can also make sure they will be plenty of supply of coca cola.

LucyH1

I've been very interested in this debate and thought I would check out Bodyform's website to learn a bit more about what they're doing.

Firstly, I think people should be very careful about generalising about Africa and Africans.

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.

When I read this I was shocked that people in this country have this view of rural Africa. Having visited rural parts of southern Africa recently, I never came across this situation, and I think this portrayal severely underestimates and degrades African women. It is also important to remember that before the current economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe, it was one of the most developed countries in the region.

Secondly, having read more about this campaign I'm not so sure we should judge Bodyform so negatively. It turns out they are actually donating money for packs of sanitary towels to be manufactured in Zimbabwe, rather than sending their own branded packs. I don't think that they are trying to open a market for their products over there, as on Action for Southern Africa's website (www.actsa.org) - the NGO running the Dignity Period campaign - it describes in case studies that women in Zimbabwe have been using sanitary towels for at least 20 years until the recent crisis made them unaffordable and unavailable.

I think, then, that what Bodyform is doing is simply supporting a campaign which is trying to help the women in Zimbabwe in a small way, so they can fight against the abuses of their human and democratic rights without having to worry about embarrassment and potential infections every month during their periods. Is this really so bad?

I agree that there are environmental concerns, but given the desperate situation where there is little clean water at the moment in Zimbabwe, and where women are used to disposable protection, maybe this is the most practical solution right now. And what place to we have to dictate what form of sanitary protection women in Zimbabwe should be using?

Hapless_2

Firstly, I think people should be very careful about generalising about Africa and Africans.

I don't generalise, my husband is South African and we still have friends in Zimbabwe!

When I read this I was shocked that people in this country have this view of rural Africa. Having visited rural parts of southern Africa recently, I never came across this situation, and I think this portrayal severely underestimates and degrades African women

Spent time in Zimbabwe have you? Every African country is different. All I am relating is what Zimbabwean friends of ours have told us, some friends (born Zimbabwe, raised Zimbabwe (shock horror and are BLACK) that have recently come over here and some that are still there (as in actually living in the country). To quote her words...

"How stupid the British people can be, the only ones that recieve these products are the business women and most of those are employed by Mugabe, as for me I shall carry on doing it the old way"

Accuse me of being blinkered, uncaring, stupid whatever, never accuse me of underestimating or generalising Zimbabwean women and their problems!

LucyH1

I apologise, I didn't mean for my comment to be taken personally, but as I'm sure you'll agree, my main point is that it's important that people in this country don't only think of Africa as a place of poverty and backwardness.

I think you should definitely check out ACTSA's website, as they explain that the campaign is run with the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, and therefore it is members of unions, i.e. workers, rather than businesswomen who are receiving the products. The page with the details is http://www.actsa.org/Pages/Page.php?pID=1022&title=Dignity!Period.

All I'm saying is that the Dignity Period campaign seems to be a good way for people in the UK who are not in the position to bring about political change to help people on the ground in Zimbabwe in a practical way.

dagrowler

good post Lucy! i'm going to check out your links...

good to do research :j

tallulah_beaulah

I want to bring up Mooncups again.

I was shocked by the Bodyform campaign and have been thinking about it a lot over the past few days, trying to figure out why it bothers me so much. I openly admit I don't know very much about Africa or Zimbabwe, but I do know a little about saving money.

I have been using a Mooncup for six months now and it is fantastic, I paid £18 for mine (on ebay) and calculated that it would pay for itself in less than a year. That price is pretty much full retail price. A humanitarian campaign, trying to provide millions, would surely be able to get hold of Mooncups at close to cost price.

I have heard of people having the same Mooncup for 10 years. I have started to clean mine using Milton fluid (a lazy habit), they can be thoroughly cleaned by boiling them in water.

My point is simply that it is more efficient and cost effective (in every country in the world) to provide as many women as possible with one Mooncup that will last for years than try to provide a supply of sanitary pads, each of which can only be used for a few hours.

The Dignity Period campaign certainly seems to be a good idea, but perhaps an association with Bodyform was not the best possible route to providing effective, consistent sanitary protection.

craftynutters

If the coumpanys are so interested they should be supplying moon cups then they dont need to worry for the next few years as they have a long life and are easy and discreat to use

dagrowler

the trouble with mooncups though is that they HAVE to be sanitary. its easy for us with ready access to milton fluid and water, but what about if women have to work to get water to their homes, i doubt they'll want to waste much of it on boiling up a mooncup...

if there was an easy, safe way for them to use them then that would be ace (i'm a converted mooncup user too so i'm not arguing for the sake if it!).