Just because something is a “human need,” it does not mean that others are obliged to pay money for you to meet this need. And it certainly does not mean that the state should steal money from some people through taxes to satisfy others. And this also applies to the provision of so-called menstrual justice.
This madness, which assumes that “menstrual justice” is an issue of “health equity” and part of the fight against “menstrual poverty,” knocked on Slovenia’s door this past weekend: the Golob government has supported the phasing-in of free sanitary products for women (sanitary pads and tampons) in public institutions and will look into the possibility of funding them. Of course, we also have World Menstrual Hygiene Day (the 28th of May).
A few years ago, an extremist feminist group that calls itself “Out for blood” called on women to show their panties or pants stained with period blood on social media. In this way, women would supposedly remind people that they do not have the money to buy pads or tampons. Since half of humanity is “affected” by menstruation, it makes sense that free menstrual hygiene products should be paid for either from the state budget or by individual educational institutions, they believe. “Let our blood flow against menstrual poverty” was their slogan.
Well, their wishes were received in various different ways in different countries. While Scotland made sure to make it part of its legislation to make sanitary pads and tampons free for all women, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro vetoed such wastefulness in his country. Slovenia partially gave way last year, when the government set a lower value-added tax rate for sanitary pads and tampons, and now we are looking at full “menstrual justice” in public facilities. The proposal was initiated by the Presidencies of the High Schools’ Organisation of Slovenia and the Students’ Organisation of Slovenia, and the free menstrual hygiene products would be paid for either from the state budget or from the budgets of individual educational institutions.
They made two arguments in favour of this: (firstly) access to menstrual products is a “basic human need,” and (secondly) toilet paper and soap are freely available in toilets anyway. The two organisations are clearly confusing what the left loves to do with fundamental human rights and freedoms. They do not understand (or do not want to understand) that a basic human need is not a basic human right or freedom, which is guaranteed to human beings by their very existence as human beings. Organisations with free menstrual hygiene products are claiming someone else’s property, even though no one is actually obliged to provide goods for anyone else (products or services) simply because someone exists. There is only the individual right to freedom from coercion. And the provision of these products will be made by coercion – they will be paid for (like all other publicly provided goods) by net taxpayers, meaning by employees in the real sector (in the public administration sector, the gross taxpayers are employed. Besides, access to menstrual products is not a “basic human need,” it is a “female need.” So, the government will provide goods for one group, which will be paid for by another group. If we are all equal before the law in a country governed by the rule of law (and that is the only equality), then the government should not allow itself to discriminate against men in this way.
The argument that soap and toilet paper are available free of charge in toilets also does not stand up to serious criticism. What about male hygiene products? By that logic, shaving foam, razors, after-shave lotion and band-aids, in case someone cuts themselves with a razor while shaving, should also be available free of charge in men’s toilets. Of course, someone will say that men can always grow beards, because it is a natural thing that happens. But menstruation is also perfectly natural, it is just something that happens to women. Therefore, menstruation has absolutely nothing to do with health (a menstruating woman is not ill), and a woman is not the victim in this case, as the activists would have it. Just as sexuality is an intimate matter for every individual, menstruation is an intimate matter for every woman. The latter used to carry hygiene products with them, but in modern times, they apparently believe that they should be available free of charge at all times and in all places. It, therefore, seems more like a kind of unbearable and awakened feminist exhibitionism, where menstrual cycles are laid bare to the public. There is practically no more decency, everything is becoming public. Even such intimate matters. And it is only a matter of time before we also have a vulva festival in Slovenia (alongside the decadent Pride parade), as a demonstration of the best taste.
The right to have one’s menstrual needs met free of charge falls into the category of fictional “positive” rights and needs, which are, in fact, the right to other people’s property and the compulsion of those other people to do some work for others. Therefore, the right to healthcare, which the left is so fond of invoking, is not a fundamental human right and freedom either.
Dear ladies, I am happy to pay for your coffee or to give you something at my expense. But I absolutely do not support something where the state takes money from me and then buys something for you. You probably do not care either about using something that the state has taken from someone by coercion to give only to you – purely because you are women.
