Remember that time Gillette made an advert encouraging men to be better humans, and men all over the world became really angry about it?

This is the female version of that.

Sanitary product manufacturer Always was approached by a number of gender activists, who helped them realise that not everyone who menstruates is a woman.

Let me explain:

Transgendered men, some intersex people, and gender nonbinary people do not identify as women, but nevertheless have female biology, which causes them to menstruate once a month.

When this happens they have to use sanitary products, just like the biological women who identify as women. Business Insider with a description of the difference between sex and gender:

Gender identity refers to a person’s internal concept of self, and can include terms like man, woman, transgender, and nonbinary. Sex refers to the biological designation a person is assigned at birth based on physical characteristics, including reproductive organs and chromosomes.

Someone’s gender identity can be aligned with their sex, in which case a person is described as cisgender. For transgender people, their gender identity differs in some way from their assigned sex.

For example, a transgender man is someone who was assigned female at birth but identifies as male. A nonbinary person is someone who identifies as neither male nor female, regardless of how they were assigned at birth.

OK, we’re all up to speed.

As a result, Always decided to make their products more inclusive and show their support for the queer community by removing the Venus symbol (the symbol that connotes femininity) from its packaging.

You can clearly see the symbol below in a photo taken before the decision:

It might seem like a simple thing, but it makes a big difference to a group of people who are often marginalised in society.

They did a nice thing. Now we can move on because the packaging that a pad comes in isn’t the most important thing in the world, right?

Nope, apparently not.

Confused women all over social media have suddenly developed a deep attachment to their sanitary products and the symbol. Take it away, Twitter:

You can find plenty more of these rants if you search the hashtag #BoycottAlways.

South African women going on about how marginalised they feel on social media failed to notice that in this country, Always pads have never – as far as I can remember – been branded with the Venus symbol.

Here’s an Always pad bought over a month ago, in South Africa, before the repackaging decision:

I bet you didn’t even notice.

There’s a larger issue at play here that many have overlooked, and it has to do with reproductive healthcare. The removal of the symbol from the packaging is a step in the right direction when it comes to making healthcare more inclusive.

“It’s just a way to have accurate, affirming medical care, to exist in your body and be comfortable and recognised for who you are,” Erika Hart, a sex educator and advocate, told Insider. “Periods are a biological, reproductive function that have nothing to do with how you think of yourself, which is what gender is. People have to get away from this idea that gender is connected to genitals.”

Transgendered and gender non-conforming people often struggle to access healthcare that takes their specific needs into account.

The discomfort of menstruation can be magnified for trans men who choose to take testosterone, since the hormone can cause vaginal inflammation and can make using tampons or menstrual cups painful, Dr Jen Gunter writes in “The Vagina Bible.”

The monthly experience can also be emotionally painful for trans and nonbinary people due to gender dysphoria, or the psychological distress caused by a disconnect between a person’s identity and their assigned sex.

Something as simple as removing a symbol from some packaging is only the first small step towards creating a society in which people of all genders and sexualities are treated equally in the social, medical, and political sphere.

Who loses out when a symbol is removed from a label? Nobody, but others instantly feel more included and represented.

It shouldn’t be that hard to understand.

[source:businessinsider]