Capitalism

n the UK sanitary products are considered luxury items and charged at 5% VAT...as you don’t need to avoid getting covered in your own blood.  Ironically through, Jaffa cakes are considered essential and are zero tax rated.

For those experiencing period poverty, removing the 5% VAT of sanitary products, would do little to ease the financial burden.  With sanitary products costing an average of £2 – the real issue is there are women in the UK, who are so poor they cannot spare a couple of pounds every month.  It is easier for the media and society to talk about homeless or food banks, but menstruation remains an issue shrouded by social taboo.  Period poverty is really just poverty; however women are affected disproportionately more due to their biological make-up.
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In a society based on capitalist principles, with the ever increasing divide between the rich and the poor, there is something wrong with our system.  Capitalism benefits some, at the expense of others.  In a democratic society the systems in place should benefit everyone.

‘The steel penises of our oppressors’ is a quote taken from the book, We Go Out by Miriam and Ezra Elia.  The photograph taken at Canary Wharf is a comment on the phallic nature of power, with the anti-capitalist/capitalist tampon mimicking the forms of the tower blocks.
​RG