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Menstrual Cups Help Keep Kenyan Girls in School

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Re: Menstrual Cups Help Keep Kenyan Girls in School

#101

Post by massive-tea »

yazboo wrote: post #70
massive-tea wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but it’s frankly as though women have some sort of “life-tax” attached that we men don’t Men require more calories throughout their lives, meaning higher food bills, and usually die sooner as a result of that. Men also contribute far more tax revenue on average than women anyway. It's silly to try to boil down something that's incredibly nuanced just based on one experience you've had.

What perceived slight are you defending us men against?

How are you able to post but not able to read?

I'm not "defending men", I'm pointing out how absurd the comment above is. Care to actually tell me why I'm wrong?

Re: Menstrual Cups Help Keep Kenyan Girls in School

#102

Post by sametmax »

JudgeWapner wrote: post #98
franky47 wrote: post #14

The short film "Period, End of Sentence." [1] won an Oscar this year, depicting Indian women taking control of the production process of pads manufacturing. In a strange sense, while that process helped women gain a bit of control over their bodies and their lives, which is a good thing; and while it probably also helped some girls stay in school, as some girls mentioned feeling ashamed of doing so during their perio…

> while also respecting the environment Honest question: is it disrespecting the environment to harvest cotton/paper from the earth and put it back in the earth? They're both biodegradeable and renewable. If anything, I think that it would take carbon from the atmosphere and sequester it for decades, which is a net positive.

Those comes with packaging, processing and transport. Unless you imagine people free picking cotton in nature and shoving it in.

Plus, you need many of those cotton balls in the day, and only one cup you can reuse the whole day.

Re: Menstrual Cups Help Keep Kenyan Girls in School

#103

Post by massive-tea »

jazoom wrote: post #61
jaabe wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My better half uses one, but after the birth of our first child she had to use pads for a while. This was the first time I got to buy them. They are insanely expensive, it’s truly mind blowing that more women aren’t using the cup. I mean, I know it doesn’t work for everyone, but it’s frankly as though women have some sort of “life-tax” attached that we men don’t, with pads being so expensive by comparison. I don’t re…

It seems my "life-tax" is needing to eat about twice as much as my wife. The extra food I eat costs more than pads. However, my wife prefers a cup, so that cost is gone. I'm still left with my dietary needs. Our weights are not that different and neither of us is overweight.

It's amazing how the moment a post about women comes up on hacker news all logic goes out the window. Perfectly sensible comments based on simple, real-life experience like this one get flagged and downvoted. I think it's due to a very high proportion of male virgins combined with feminist moderators.

Re: Menstrual Cups Help Keep Kenyan Girls in School

#104

Post by sctb »

patrickg_zill wrote: post #73
ben_w wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They are insanely expensive, it’s truly mind blowing that more women aren’t using the cup. I mean, I know it doesn’t work for everyone, but it’s frankly as though women have some sort of “life-tax” attached that we men don’t, with pads being so expensive by comparison. My partner introduced me to them, and when I saw how expensive they were I immediately wondered how much it would cost to 3D print moulds for them s…

You referring to the annoying and condescending out of touch white males, that built civilization and technology?

You're still breaking the guidelines way too much by posting flamewar-style, so we've banned the account. If you'd like to start using the site as intended and be unbanned please email hn@ycombinator.com.

Re: Menstrual Cups Help Keep Kenyan Girls in School

#105

Post by tropo »

JauntyHatAngle wrote: post #24
vixen99 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's inconsistent tax rates which are crazy. Isn't toilet tissue 'essential' in the same way? Should that be exempt from sales tax? In many EU countries foodstuffs (difficult to 'make do' in its absence) and pharmaceutical products attract VAT albeit at a reduced rate.

Perhaps I'm missing the point, but I think the concern is more that Women have to pay money for essential hygiene products than Men due to their gender - which can be seen as inequitable. Toilet paper is an essential for both genders.

None of that is essential.

For menstruation, you can do free bleeding.

For defecation, you can use a bidet, or go old-style with corn cobs. You can use an odd number of stones, as specified by Muhammad.

The same goes for shampoo (don't need it), deodorant (don't need it), and many other things.

What this all boils down to is a fear of having other people think you are weird, defective, dirty, gross, etc.

Re: Menstrual Cups Help Keep Kenyan Girls in School

#106

Post by reversecs »

yazboo wrote: post #70
massive-tea wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but it’s frankly as though women have some sort of “life-tax” attached that we men don’t Men require more calories throughout their lives, meaning higher food bills, and usually die sooner as a result of that. Men also contribute far more tax revenue on average than women anyway. It's silly to try to boil down something that's incredibly nuanced just based on one experience you've had.

What perceived slight are you defending us men against?

Doesn't sound like a defense as much as balancing. I think it's this over sympathizing/feeling sorry for women that I can get exhausted with. The op was feeling bad for women because they menstruate and cleanup isn't somehow free. Well duh, and why shouldn't it be? We all responsible for our hygiene and have to pay it with our own money.

And if it shouldn't be free then why don't men get an extra check for consuming extra calories? The question is to demonstrate how ridiculous the idea is. The levels that people go to in order to sympathize with women are quite high and seem to be for the purpose of giving men a sense that they should feel bad or sorry for the condition of being a woman when really, if you want equality, you treat women like you treat men. You assume they are strong and they can handle the problem. Yes $7 a box by 9 boxes a year is definitely extra cost of living. But are we really going to make this one thing free or tax free just because it only affects women? It's such an oversensitivity to women and it should be considered offensive to them that anybody even considers that kind of special treatment.

Re: Menstrual Cups Help Keep Kenyan Girls in School

#107

Post by hycaria »

SolaceQuantum wrote: post #79
hycaria wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't buy this argument. Which mother (arguably a good chunk of population) cares about that ?

IME (east asian) this fear is really common and I've heard among other east asian female peers of mothers shaming them or shouting at them for daring to use tampons.

But... There's no virginity to "preserve"?!

Re: Menstrual Cups Help Keep Kenyan Girls in School

#108

Post by nalfien »

I appreciate the concept but there is a strong RCT on this that shows that this doesn't actually affect School Attendance.

Menstruation, Sanitary Products, and School Attendance: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation (AEJ: Applied 2011)

https://4d30f248-a-383b438b-s-sites.googlegroups.com/a/illin...

Re: Menstrual Cups Help Keep Kenyan Girls in School

#109

Post by miranda_rights »

tropdrop wrote: post #34
drakonka wrote: post #26

Menstrual cups rock. It takes a bit of getting used to to figure out proper insertion/removal/cleaning. It can also take a few attempts to find exactly the right kind of cup for each person since they all vary in length, diameter, material firmness, etc. But once you have those things down it is really so much more convenient and feels so much less wasteful than pads or tampons.

I've heard women with an IUD might have problems wearing them, which is tragic given that IUDs are the safest, most reliable, most effective birth control method (yet another essential life-tax to being female...) Do you know any women personally who both have an IUD and are comfortable using the cup?

I would be shocked if this were the case, as the cup sits lower than IUDs (e.g. I would expect sex to be more intrusive to the IUD than the cup).

Re: Menstrual Cups Help Keep Kenyan Girls in School

#110

Post by miranda_rights »

m-p-3 wrote: post #80
rlabrecque wrote: post #2

It absolutely blows my mind that Menstrual cups aren't more widespread globally. I basically wouldn't even know about them if my partner didn't use them. They seem like a better option than tampons and pads 90%+ of the time.

From my wife experience they work well assuming you have access to clean water and a proper environment. She wouldn't wear it in camping for example.

I've worn it camping. It helps to have a little water to rinse it out, but I think it's significantly better than having to carry tampons and figure out what to do with them after use. In fact I originally got it for a camping trip, as I didn't want to carry a lot of tampons (too much weight in my bag) and the thought of not having enough tampons was a nightmare.
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