Last month, an ammedment to the Finance Bill in the UK, which called for an end to the five per cent ‘luxury’ tax on tampons, failed to pass the House of Commons.
Understandably, women were upset.
Clearly it wasn’t a woman who deemed tampons a luxury item – because honestly, nobody who has their period on a monthly basis would be that insulting.
This weekend, one protester stood outside the House of Parliament wearing white trousers.
Charlie Edge decided to coincide her protest with her period, and decided to stand sanitary towel and tampon free.
Choosing to let her menstruation bleed through to her trousers, Edge held placards that read:
“CONTENT WARNING: BLOOD”
CONTENT WARNING: BLOOD.Today i am forgoing tampons and pads outside the houses of parliament to show how ‘luxury’…
Posted by Charlie Edge on Friday, 6 November 2015
She wanted to make an important point: how quickly would we get free tampons if everyone stopped wearing them?
In a Facebook post addressing the “luxury tax”, Edge wrote:
“They’re not luxury items, anymore than jaffa cakes, edible cake decorations, exotic meats or any other number of things currently not taxed as luxury items.”
Although Edge and her fried Rush Howard received some support for their actions, the girls were also faced with abuse from the public including:
“It’s unhygienic”, “It’s such a stupid thing to get upset about”, “It’s gross” and “I’m sure there’s a better way to get your point across.”
Thankfully Charlie wasn’t about to be dissuaded and addressed some of this reaction in a separate post.
My responses to all the negative feedback I’ve had so far:1. “Three girls outside parliament with blood stains isn’t…
Posted by Charlie Edge on Saturday, 7 November 2015
Ending her message, Edge writes:
“It’s an issue that is based in sexism, classism, and a corrupt capitalist system.
I’m not going to change my views on that.
You can call me all the names under the sun but I’m not going to budge.”
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