Let’s face it, the tampon tax is completely ridiculous and one woman decided to take a stand against the UK Government’s ludicrous branding of tampons as “luxury items” by showing how non-luxurious periods actually are.
Charlie Edge, 22, from Berkshire protested outside the House of Parliament and went tampon/sanitary towel free for the afternoon, opting instead to let her menstrual blood seep all over her white trousers.
It made for quite the powerful statement, asking the very simple and important question: “How quickly would we get free tampons if everyone stopped wearing them?”
Last month, MPs voted against removing the VAT that is currently charged on sanitary products because they’re categorised as “non-essential, luxury” items.
That didn’t sit too well with Charlie and her friends (or, you know, anyone with a uterus or a conscience), so they travelled down to London in their white pants to show all those men in Westminster who decided to deny women free tampons how non-luxurious periods actually are.
She spent three hours outside Parliament with her two pals, free bleeding in protest.
She explained the idea behind their protest in a Facebook post:
CONTENT WARNING: BLOOD.Today i am forgoing tampons and pads outside the houses of parliament to show how 'luxury'…
Posted by Charlie Edge on Friday, 6 November 2015
She later told Buzzfeed that the feedback to their protest was mostly positive, as “most people smiled and gave us positive responses” on the day.
However, naturally, Charlie got negative feedback from certain people who completely missed the point of her statement, with not-so-salient comments about their “bloody protest” including things like “It’s unhygienic”, “It’s such a stupid thing to get upset about”, “It’s gross”, “I’m sure there’s a better way to get your point across” and so on.
This prompted Charlie to write another Facebook post in response to those points, explaining how the fact it was “gross” was precisely the point, as they were showing the necessity of sanitary items since periods are anything but luxurious.
My responses to all the negative feedback I've had so far:1. “Three girls outside parliament with blood stains isn’t…
Posted by Charlie Edge on Saturday, 7 November 2015
Bloody well done to these ladies for taking such a powerful stand on this issue!
