Jessica Valenti – Guardian columnist, Feministing founder, non-man-hating feminist – has been fending off an unending torrent of harassment and abuse since she tweeted a picture of herself wearing an ironic t-shirt a couple of weeks ago.
Last weekend, a seemingly innocent tweet from her– asking her readers if they knew any countries that provided free tampons – set off yet another wave of abuse. Her question, and the cogent column she ultimately wrote on the subject, arguing that there are legitimate health concerns that justify government subsidies for tampons, inspired countless thoughtful comments from her critics. Like these:
https://twitter.com/skzdalimit/statuses/497828918851043330
https://twitter.com/adam_mcphee/statuses/497892354331000832
These sorts of comments (and there were many more along these lines) are sadly typical of the sorts of things feminists – particularly those of the female variety – get whenever they happen to state their opinion about anything online. (If you click on the second one you can see the Tweeter defending his vagina remarks against assorted critics.)
But a reader pointed me to something, well, interesting about that second tweet: It came from a fellow named Adam McPhee, a self-professed “egalitarian” who just happens to be a board member, and the official spokesperson, for a group we’ve discussed here before: the Canadian Association For Equality (CAFE).
CAFE has won itself a certain notoriety in recent months. In May, you might recall, the group’s planned E-Day festival fell apart after its sponsors and some of the musicians scheduled to perform at it discovered that they had unwittingly signed on to a Men’s Rights event.
The group has also organized talks by antifeminist speakers, including the now-notorious appearance of Warren Farrell at the University of Toronto, which inspired some, well, let’s just call them counterproductive protests that we’ve been hearing about endlessly ever since.
But CAFE has been working hard to gain itself a bit of respectability. It somehow managed to win itself charity status from the Candadian government, and has raised money to start up some sort of men’s center. And it has been trying to distance itself from one formerly close ally, A Voice for Men.
Indeed, McPhee himself recently gave an interview to the Toronto Star in which he described AVFM’s harassment of some of those who protested Warren Farrell’s talk as “completely wrong.”
So it seems just a tad ironic, to say the least, to see McPhee happily harassing Jessica Valenti on Twitter.
PS: Adam, I agree with Jessica on that whole tampon thing. So feel free to Tweet me your thoughts about my gaping vagina.
From the link:
But then they don’t say where it comes from. LOL.
And the only vagina dentata image link I can find that won’t give nightmares: http://cakesandcomicsandcartwheels.blogspot.co.nz/2009/07/vagina-dentata-cake.html
Re the sanitary products and sales tax, I had assumed this was based on Genesis 3:16 and simply extending it. Hence, no sales tax on condoms (wore by men) but sales tax on the oral contraceptive pill (used solely by women).
Knowing MRAs, they don’t realize there’s a difference between the board and the staff. They’re both people who are in charge, right?
Vaginas, periods and women wanting to talk about it: is there nothing scarier for a misogynist?
They’re a board in name only. I doubt whether they’re familiar with any of the content of the Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_directors
As @brooked pointed out earlier, filling a board with company employees (volunteers?) is not a good idea. There’s a massive conflict of interest, for starters.
Do I really think these people operate like a company board? LOL no.
Through how many mental hoops does one have to jump to get from: “Does any country provide free sanitary products to women” to: “Your genital cavities are huge”? Or was it that the dude was on a completely unrelated trajection that somehow crossed path with Valenti’s twitter account from the very start?
I’m not as on point and witty as some of the posters here. My contribution would be in the form of a LOVE button… or a “Like” one, or +1, or something like that. Just want to say thanks to all of you for your thoughts, especially you, Futrelle, ‘course. …and you take PayPal, I see… 🙂 I much appreciate this blog and those who participate.
Slight derail sorta: my favourite noodle bar in Dublin keeps a nicely presented dish on sanitary products in the bathroom. It’s very much appreciated and I’d love to see more businesses/workplaces do that. I would also be for any scheme that provided tampons and towels to school students.
CANNOT UNTHINK o.O
Because what’s scarier than a vagina? A GIANT vagina! A GAPING giant vagina! DUN DUN DUNNNN.
Is it just me, or do a lot of manosphere shibboleths suggest MRAs are utterly terrified of women? That might explain their perpetual anger at all things female-related.
I want to shake the people who think sanitary products are some sort of luxury. Even on BC, on my heavy bleed days, I am bleeding heavily. I can, at peek flow times bleed through a super tampon in an hour. Do these idiots really want women just bleeding all over the place? It’s not like menstruation is optional for ciswomen.
On an unrelated note my employer provides both tampons and pads, something that makes me very happy.
Wow. Couldn’t log on for a few days, and I come back to find this nonsense.
You know who I really feel sorry for in all this? The cognitive dissonance fairies. Poor little things must be flown off their wings keeping up with this lot. Also, you know the fairie bosses don’t give them nearly the same pay or prestige as they give the tooth fairies.
Well, them and Jessica. But she seems hella stronger than the cognitive dissonance fairies.
@palmedfire – actually, I rather think they wish that cis women would shut the fuck up and have the decency to stay out of their poor manly sight when we’re mensturating.
How ever did you find an employer who provides sanitary products? Do they need nurses?
@GrumpyOldNurse – Good point. Probably according to them women should just be locked away during our periods. So we don’t ‘sully’ them or something.
Well, I’m a massage therapist, and the place I work has four male employees against… at least twenty, maybe thirty female ones? Including therapists and the admin staff, including all the managers.
My work has tampons and pads which is nice.
There were no tampons or pads available when I was in rehab, which was baffling seeing as none of us were allowed to leave the premises except for weekly trips to the store that required advance permission. I stupidly had forgotten to bring my cup. A lot of the patients had stopped bleeding altogether so it took me ages to find someone with a supply of tampons. Bleh.
@palmedfire – That sounds so…civilised! I do not understand this concept. I also work in a female dominated space, but there’s no free sanitary supplies. They do have a coin operated dispenser in the staff washroom, but no one ever stocks it. Are you sure your employer doesn’t need a nurse?
@bunnybunny – I HATE it when inpatient areas don’t provide that stuff! In all the hospitals I’ve ever worked in, the only ward that is routinely stocked with sanitary pads is maternity. This often leads to creative requisitioning of supplies and imaginative use of ABD pads. I’m sorry that that happened to you.
My boyfriend is totally freaked out by tampons. You can’t even say the word without him wincing. He wouldn’t even pick me up some at the drugstore when I was sick. I told him, “It’s not like anyone is going to think you’re buying them for yourself!” Some guys think that if you’re male and not totally horrified by any part of menstruation, you’re gay or something.
Anyway, subsidized tampons and diapers for the very poor would be really helpful.
Yes in the UK they are taxed, though recently there have been some petitions going round to get tax removed. The issue is that I bet a small amount of money that if the tax was removed, lots of companies wouldn’t actually reduce the price of sanitary products and would just pocket the difference.
One of the best things about my implant (which I got for free, thanks NHS!) is that now it has settled my periods seem to have stopped. If they stay stopped (fingers crossed) then it will save me a large amount of money. The only annoying things is that I have two mostly full boxes of tampons which may never be used, though they are useful to have around in case a friend is over and gets caught unawares.
However, if my boyfriend had refused to buy me tampons because ewwww when I had just had the implant in and had been bleeding so much that I ran through a whole box of tampons in a couple of days and was in bed in too much pain from cramps to move and had run out of tampons and painkillers then he would have been asked very respectfully to leave my life and not let the door hit him on the way out.
Surprisingly, tampons are scarce at my workplace too. I almost always have a couple, but… you’d think that the locker room of a strip club would be the easiest place in the world to find them. There’s a vending machine that’s sometimes stocked, but… sometimes it only has a few stale cookies and a very sad Slim Jim.
And yes, strippers work during their periods too. Something that a lot of customers fail to understand until they overhear two dancers talking about the little surprise that a customer almost got when he tried to put his fingers where they weren’t welcome.
Vaginas really aren’t confusing, any more than any other part of the human anatomy. Its just that dudebro MRA’s don’t care to know anything about them, other that they want to put their penis in them and its unfair that they have to deal with it’s owner to do it.
I think I’ve come across one, maybe two, of those machines that actually dispensed products. The rest were empty, but more than happy to take your quarters (I actually did an extremely scientific study a few years back, which involved putting money into those machines whenever I saw one and waiting to see if anything came out). Do businesses think that these dispensers are tended by some sort of napkin fairy who stocks them in the dead of night? Or do they forget about the machines immediately after installation, since such a magnanimous gesture is surely enough for patrons who have the bad taste to be menstruating?
Most of the time I’ve found those dispensers to actually be full but they cost a small fortune. Put in £2 and get maybe three tampons out. Oh and they only ever accept certain coins, so if you don’t have the right change you’re stuffed.
Ones in the US (that I’ve seen, anyway) tend to be anywhere from fifty cents to a dollar for one tampon or napkin. Same thing about the change. If you don’t have quarters, you’re stuck trying to jury-rig up your own solution or resign yourself to having a very messy day. I think the closest I’ve ever come to being a hero was the time when a dispenser ate another woman’s money and I just happened to have an extra in my bag.
@Flyingmouse, that’s why I’ve left the emergency tampons that I keep in every bag where they are! You never know when someone will need one. My only regret is that I haven’t used pads in years so I don’t carry any with me, so once or twice a friend who prefers pads has been in need and I wasn’t able to help out 🙁
I used pads way back when I needed to. I didn’t like them much, but I could never bring myself to use a tampon, no idea why not.
I have vivid and unfond memories of walking around feeling like a duck when the underpants I was wearing weren’t tight enough. (Mainly at high school before I worked stuff out. Wag, wag, wag the back end of the pad went as I walked, like a little tail.
Gahhh, I’m feeling tickled in personal places just reading that.