Aunt Flow is coming to town and she is no cheap date.

Women spend, on average, $70-100 every year on pads and tampons, according to The Nation. But that’s not the true cost of a period. There is still the Midol, the heating pads and new underwear and sheets. Then you get hit with the sales tax. That adds up to a lot of money, money men do not have to spend.

Dubbed the “tampon tax,” the sales tax applied to tampons has been gaining notoriety in the media. But, in reality, the “tampon tax” is just the sales tax that applies to most “luxury” items. In 40 states, including New York, the tax exists.

Although there has been a bill on the table since May that would end the sales tax on tampons and pads in New York state, it is just now gaining traction. A recent New York Times Editorial Board, “End the Tampon Tax,” supported New York City council members who are currently drafting legislation that would end the tax and increase accessibility to feminine hygiene products, especially among vulnerable populations.

While New York state’s efforts thus far are admirable, there should be a push to not only exempt feminine hygiene products from being subject to state sales tax, but to also increase accessibility to these products as a means of destigmatizing a woman’s menstrual cycle.

In case you were not aware, the menstrual cycle is not voluntary. It is also not fun or exciting. It causes pain, a great deal of inconvenience and, occasionally, is the source of some incredibly embarrassing stories. As women are forced to pretend that they are never on their periods and that vulnerability does not preside, pads and tampons are taxed because they are not considered necessities.

“If you’re going to exempt prescription drugs or walkers, which are necessary for the people who use them, then you should also exempt these necessary products,” said Kristi Andersen, a political science professor in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. “The fact that people are already talking about it shows the start of a changing culture surrounding the menstrual cycle.”

Many women would say that the inclusion of feminine hygiene products under this sales tax is the patriarchy’s way of asserting omnipotence. Even President Barack Obama, who, just this year, didn’t even know that these products were being taxed, believes that the lack of female representation in politics is partially to blame.

“I suspect it’s because men were making the laws when those taxes were passed,” Obama said in an interview with YouTube personality Ingrid Nilsen.

But the crusade to end the “tampon tax” is more than a feminist effort, its work to end class divides make this section of a tax an important one to abolish.

There are 42 million women living below or near the poverty line, according to the 2014 Shriver Report, who need every penny they earn, including the ones they are forced to spend on a sales tax for a necessary response to biology. The tax is also ignorant of the fact that white women make 79 cents for a white man’s dollar, Hispanic women, 54 cents and black women, 64 cents, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Worsening these disparities, is the fact that food stamps don’t cover the purchase of pads and tampons. The hygiene products are not a tax-deductible medical expense and are rarely accessible in homeless shelters and public schools.

Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) sponsored a bill in July 2015 that would redefine feminine hygiene products so flexible spending accounts can be used for their purchase. If passed, the bill would give New York precedent-status as a leader in this fight to end the “tampon tax.”

While the discussion primarily focuses on the United States, the stigma is borderless. In India, women are considered virtually “impure” during their periods. Hungarians pay 27 percent sales tax on tampons, as reported by Trading Economics. Canada abolished its “tampon tax” this past year, the U.K. and Australia are fighting theirs and France is as well, with no legislative luck.

“I hope the issue of the ‘tampon tax’ raises awareness of the particular challenges women face as women,” said Carol Faulkner, professor of history in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs in an email. “While this country has (mostly) discarded the view that menstruation makes women incompetent or hysterical, we are still a long way from gender and sexual equality.”

This shaming of the menstrual cycle is reinforced by the fact that in United States, former inmates have given accounts that most prison systems do not readily offer pads, and when they do, they don’t account for everybody’s needs. This lack of respect can humiliate women on their periods who bleed through their pads, whose guards withhold tampons from inmates as punishment and whose pads fall off from prolonged wear.

Despite the injustice surrounding the tax, there are still dissenters who believe that women should not be receiving “special treatment” for what, to some people, is merely a few cents. 

Historically, New York has believed this to be true: taxing soap and toothpaste, which are arguably also necessities. It is an atrocity that 43 states tax toilet paper — let’s fix that problem, too. But first, women need their issue resolved before they are on an equal playing field to fight the taxes that unfairly impact everyone.

As it stands, politics is still fairly homogenous with the effects of a highly-concentrated, male-dominated government having been demonstrated in Utah earlier this month when eight men of an eleven-member committee voted to keep the “tampon tax” in place.

However, if a lack of representation is all it is in holding back progress, then it should be a no-brainer to exempt the tax in New York. In doing so, the state would establish itself as a leader toward creating an accepting and more inclusive community, where the needs of the people are met with the respect they deserve.

Moving forward, states can take action by exempting tampons from the sales tax, if it applies, to make feminine hygiene products readily available to low-income women by way of subsidy or mandating their presence in certain public locations, among others.

This is an opportunity for women to have their demands met, to educate the public on human rights and to make strides toward a more equal and accepting society — and New York state should be one of the first to make this happen.

Joanna Orland is a freshman newspaper and online journalism major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at jorland@syr.edu.

Published on February 25, 2016 at 2:10 am