Menstrual capitalism: A lot of people profit from your monthly menstruation

Products cannot solve all our period problems, warns menstruation researcher Camilla Mørk Røstvik. (Photo: Pixel-Shot / Shutterstock / NTB)

SHARE YOUR SCIENCE: Menstruation presents an endlessly renewed commercial opportunity for period-product manufacturers, who are finding new ways to infiltrate wider markets in an era when taboos are being chipped away. But issues remain that products can’t solve.

Camilla Mørk Røstvik

Thursday 08. october 2020 - 

In recent years period activism has hit the global headlines, busting taboos, driving public policy, and prompting companies to create new products. In some countries, including the US, UK, Canada, India and Australia, menstrual equity – the right to equal access to menstrual products and reproductive education, often with a focus on financial issues such as removing the ‘tampon tax’ – has become big news.

However, activists, academics and indeed many people who experience a menstrual cycle are growing increasingly concerned about corporate influence.

While menstruation is a normal event, it has also, in the last 100 years, become a profitable one.

For monetary capital, the monthly occurrence of blood, especially for young people, presents numerous commercial options for cleaning it up, experimenting with hormonal birth control, and trying to make it, as one business recently put it, “cool”.

"The monthly occurence of blood presents numerous commercial options for cleaning it up, and making it cool", writes researcher Camilla Mørk Røstvik.

 (Photo: Jo Hanely, Wellcome Collection)

 

Let’s talk about menstruation


New types of menstrual products, such as tampons, pads, cups, period pants, vitamins, hormones, teas and foods, and apps to track your cycle, are proliferating as entrepreneurs across the globe are shaking up the market.

A parallel increase is seen in the public interest in the topic. Menstruation is discussed in popular science books and podcasts. Popular culture increasingly depicts menstruation, like for instance the tv-shows ‘Orange is the New Black’, ‘Mad Men’ and more recently ‘I May Destroy You’. In my native country of Norway, the national broadcaster NRK this fall offers its young viewers a show simply called ‘menstruation’ (Mensen).

As images and descriptions of bleeding by artists and writers such as Jen Lewis, Rupi Kaur, and Chella Quint become more mainstream, products aimed at issues other than blood have followed. These include following different skincare routines depending on where you are in your cycle and ‘seed cycling’, which claims that eating specific types of seed before and after ovulation can balance hormones.

Menstruation is everywhere. But while this is mostly a good thing, there is reason for caution. The American lawyer Bridget Crawford, a professor at Pace University in New York, describes what she calls “menstrual capitalism” as: 

“the marketing and selling of menstrual hygiene products by means of feminist messages that attempt to create a public-relations ‘halo effect’ for companies that are, at their core, commercial enterprises”.

Menstruating in the “right way”

For people who menstruate or experience contraceptive-induced withdrawal bleeding, commercial products have for decades been a large part of how to handle symptoms and menstrual blood in “the right way”.

In her book ‘Issues of Blood: The Politics of Menstruation’, feminist activist Sophie Laws describes what she calls “menstrual etiquette”. This is a system that means there is nothing to be gained by being noticeably menstruating.

It may perhaps be ok to buy several menstruation-related products, and go to a mensturation themed vernissage. But is it ok to bleed through your clothes? And do these cultural and commercial solutions help those who can barely move due to the monthly pain their menstruation causes them?

In March 2015, poet Rupi Kaur posted a photo of herself lying on a bed with blood on her trousers and on the sheet. The photo was removed by Instagram and created headlines all over the world. Kaur said she knew the image was provocative, but had not at all expected the furore that followed. Instagram apologized and said the image had been removed by mistake. (Screenshot from artists instagram account)

Historian of science Sharra Vostral argues that people who are menstruating must go through something akin to a “passing process”, where the goal is to always appear non-menstruating.

The promise that a tampon can solve all menstrual-cycle issues is seductive, but not true. This is apparent for instance through Vostrals research on Toxic Shock Syndrom, TSS.

TSS is a rare but serious condition due to toxic substances that can develop in tampons, and that in its most severe cases can lead to death. Today tampon users are warned against this, but it is less known that it was the company Procter & Gamble and their international competitors who created this situation by developing super absorbing tampons like the brand Rely in the 1980s.

TSS is still somehow present as a warning for the big companies, who today are profiting off a much more positive menstruation debate.

Tackling period poverty

Early on, the industry asserted that once a young consumer was hooked on a product, they would stay loyal. Now that entrepreneurs have entered this hitherto stagnant market, even multinational corporations realise that this might no longer be true.

One issue for many people around the world is the cost of sanitary products. Some governments are moving to mitigate this problem: Scotland, for example, is following in the footsteps of Kenya by introducing a policy to provide free products to combat period poverty. Policymakers in the Scottish government are procuring from many brands, including social enterprises, but multinational corporations also take their share of the investment.

In the United Kingdom, US corporation Procter & Gamble, which manufactures sanitary product brands Tampax and Always, and sanitary-bin provider PHS are on the government appointed Period Poverty Taskforce. This was formed in 2019 after activists succeeded in making politicians take notice of the problem of expensive sanitary products among poor people in the UK, especially children.

The inclusion of these companies in the taskforce has raised important questions: Why are the corporations that in part created period poverty through their pricing models now expected to solve the problem? And what will happen to the other issues that activists campaigned on, such as pain or stigma?

Nadya Okamoto founder of PERIOD, an American non-profit organization working for menstrual equity, speaks at the Capitol during a National Period Day rally in Washington. Activism to end period poverty and for period equity has made headlines all over the world in recent years. (Kevin Wolf/AP Images for Seventh Generation)

Sold lower-standard products to African countries

In the global south these same corporations have been donating products to women in developing countries for many years, often in collaboration with policymakers. This has been done to combat the assumed ‘backward’ thinking of people who use cloth or natural materials rather than more ‘modern’ disposable products. A goal is to get women to start using products at a young age, as this makes it more likely they will become loyal consumers.

In her book, The Managed Body, Professor Chris Bobel writes about the problems with such colonizing attitudes, and shows how products – both in the north and the south – rarely lead to the automatic freedom that the companies promise. There is a huge contrast between how big multinational corporations relate to consumers in different parts of the world, insinuating that western corporations are better developed to ‘modernise’ the culture of menstruation internationally.

Paradoxically, people in the West are increasingly turning towards reusables at the same time that folks in the global south are told to embrace disposable ‘feminine hygiene’.

But consumers are increasingly critical of this situation. Kenyans for instance, have boldly discussed the technological failure of Western products in the #MyAlwaysExperience scandal, when a number of people found that Always pads caused a rash. Those complaining on Twitter alleged that Procter & Gamble supplied African countries with lower-standard products than those in the West, which they suggested was the reason for the skin irritation. It turned out they were right – the products sold in African countries were of a lower quality than those sold in for instance Norway.

Also, a UK government report on period-related bullying, and the recent death of a Kenyan girl mocked for menstrual stains make it clear that corporate and governmental efforts to solve period shame through products have not worked.
Back to making and washing sanitary pads?

At the same time, 2018 saw the launch in the US of the reusable Tampax Cup, outfitted with disposable Tampax vaginal wipes. This launch followed the success of smaller companies like DivaCup, Mooncup and Lunette who brought the period cup back to the market in the 2010s. The period cup in itself is a much older 19th century invention.

Even if most people still use sanitary pads and tampons (or skip their menstruation due to hormonal contraceptives), the small increase in sales of alternative products was enough to make the big players like P&G give it a go.

Tampax applicator tampons are one of the oldest and most successful commercial menstrual brands in the world, due in part to their disposability and a structure that makes it unnecessary to touch blood. In contrast to this, the Tampax Cup was not a success.

Menstrual cups, in comparison, have a much longer and unsteady history, for the opposite reasons. They rely on a lot of contact with body and blood (something which may not be possible or ok for many), and they can also be expensive.

Consumers in the 1930s, when the first Tampax came on to the market, preferred disposable doses of menstrual protection to the cup’s hands-on insertion. However, the Tampax Cup exemplifies how the traditional industry is responding to the fact that the great-great-grandchildren of their first consumers are changing habits.

Our grandmothers made their own reusable sanitary pads and washed them in between uses. Today a new generation may not look upon this with aversion, they might find it an attractive option. If so, then disposable sanitary pads and tampons have lasted for around a century, as a typical yet not much discussed example of the 20th centuries throwaway culture.

The small increase in sales of reusable products like the menstrual cup during the past decade was enough for big players like Proctor & Gamble to try and launch their own cup product. (Foto: Olga Pink / Shutterstock / NTB Scanpix)

Going beyond the market

In comparison to what corporations offer, the lived experiences of people who bleed (available through #MyAlwaysExperience and #EndPeriodPoverty, for example), reveal a more complicated set of factors.

Consumers are growing restless, and demanding answers to more questions than “How can I keep my underwear clean?” Menstrual pain, heavy bleeding and endometriosis remain pressing issues for many. At the very least consumers would like to know what ingredients their products are actually made of.

The upside to recent corporate interest is that menstruation is being recognised as important, all over the world. The downside is that this recognition is still mostly driven by the wish to sell more products and, so far, seems to mostly benefit those who sell products. When menstruation now increasingly is a topic of public debate, it’s important to remind ourselves of who is talking, and who has something to profit from upholding ideas of menstruation etiquette.

In the UK, Kenya and the rest of the world, activists continue to fight against period poverty and other menstrual issues that cannot be solved by products. Better menstrual care means going beyond what the market alone can deliver.

———

Camilla Mørk Røstvik

RESEARCHER, UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS AND UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS

This article is a reworked version of a text first published in the Wellcome Collection.

Read a Norwegian version of this article on forskning.no
The ScienceNorway Researchers' zone consists of opinions, blogs and popular science pieces written by researchers and scientists from or based in Norway.

Tackling the Menstruation Taboo

Sarah Fourcassier  JUNE 2020  GREEN EUROPEAN JOURNAL 

The fight against single-use plastics has been a key battle for environmentalists in recent years. Yet while items like plastic straws have received much attention, the same cannot be said of disposable menstrual products, though their ecological impact may be much higher. Sarah Fourcassier explores how menstrual capitalism reproduces deeply entrenched taboos to profit at the expense of wellbeing, environment and gender equality. Taking a stand, radical menstrual activism demands fairer, healthier and sustainable practices.

In the last couple of years, the number of ecological alternatives to traditional tampons and sanitary pads has exploded on the femcare market, from menstrual cups and reusable pads to period panties. Most of these products are not innovations. On the contrary, they have long histories and have failed to succeed in the past.

Socio-political structures in Western culture have shaped our perceptions of menstruation to sell products that are harmful to human health and the environment. They have created a system that feeds off and reinforces negative perceptions of menstruation: menstrual capitalism. Looking at the evolution of these perceptions from the 1800s reveals how the menstrual care industry and its marketing strategies are born from the inequalities of patriarchal society.

Menstrual activism highlights the multifaceted problems of this system, both in terms of its gendered and ecological impacts. Radical menstrual activists propose a way forward that puts aside the interests of femcare corporations to instead serve the environment and human health in an inclusive way.

Perceptions of menstruation: a brief history

Nearly every civilisation has socially constructed taboos about menstruation. Prior to the rise of modern science in Western countries during the late 19th century, menstrual blood was shrouded in contradictions based on fear, misunderstanding, and the beliefs of mainly patriarchal religions such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism. Such taboos remain current in many parts of the world today. In India, almost 80 per cent of menstruating girls observe religious restrictions, half observe restrictions on touching people or special foods, and a quarter sit or sleep separately from other family members.

Through this education, girls internalise the male gaze attached to feelings of shame and disgust, and the need to hide and conceal menstrual blood.

In the Western world, the medical sciences shifted perceptions of menstruation from pre-modern taboos to medicalisation focused on hygiene. Yet the male-centred view retained its influence. The belief that menstrual blood was toxic and abject persisted in medical sciences through the 20th century but its roots lie in ancient superstition. The Greek physician Hippocrates, the “Father of Medicine”, claimed that menstruation served to rid the body of harmful substances. In 1920, Dr Bela Schick coined the term “menotoxin” after concluding that flowers handled by a menstruating nurse wilted more quickly. Menotoxin was thought to be the source of the toxicity of menstrual blood. During the first decades of the 20th century, menstruation was still believed to be a way to get rid of “bad blood”. This theory was only disproved in the late 1950s. More than just blood, the menstruation process as a whole began to be seen as a feminine handicap. Medical texts framing menstruation as dirty and taboo date back to the 13th century, but it was until well into the 20th century that swimming or taking a bath during menstruation was thought to induce illness.

The rise of medical knowledge and its importance in daily life enabled subtle forms of social control over the human body. Today, pubescent girls are instructed on the “proper way” to menstruate and what it means for their body: they are able to procreate. Socially, this rite has often been linked to entering womanhood and perpetuates “feminine” stereotypes such as the “crazy menstruating woman”, or assumptions that all women menstruate. Through this education, girls internalise the male gaze attached to feelings of shame and disgust, and the need to hide and conceal menstrual blood. Because it is mostly women that menstruate, menstruation is associated with inferiority, legitimising women’s oppression.

Corporate control

In the UK, this control most notably plays out through the education system. Femcare companies donate period education lesson plans and product samples to schools. These are branded and point students to the brand’s website for more information (such as Always in the UK and the US). These marketing techniques are disguised as “corporate social responsibility” to improve the school attendance of female pupils. The environmental impacts of the products are ignored and few lesson plans present alternatives to the companies’ single-use products.

While menstrual education and school attendance are important, the need for branded samples and teaching resources is debatable. It is the only school subject reliant on branded materials. Policymakers need to help schools form a curriculum which provides holistic and impartial menstruation education, without the involvement of private interests. Schools should provide unbranded products and make toilets available and clean at all times, with water, dryers, and bins. In the UK, the Period Positive campaign aims to change perceptions of menstruation by developing positive narratives through a menstrual literacy programme for teenagers.

Today, periods are characterised as a shameful hassle, best kept hidden even from the person menstruating. Femcare companies capitalise on this taboo, creating products that will help the menstruator to erase the reality of menstruation. Reminders like stains are markers of the stigmatisation of menstruators as unclean and irrational, and often result in social distancing. Some go to great hygienic lengths, using products and practices such as douching to “pass” as non-bleeders. For some, disposable products are an effective way for women to hide their periods.[1] Yet the promotion of “passing” reinforces the shame associated with this bodily process, a perception handed down to the next generation. Tampax applicator tampons are one of the oldest and most successful products on the global femcare market, in part due to their disposability and a design that makes it unnecessary to touch blood. The success of menstrual cups has been much more unsteady, for precisely the opposite reason. Adverts promote products that can be opened silently, are discreet and easy to dispose of. Brands push “innovative” products at a higher price but these innovations tend to come down to aesthetics: the product may “smell like flowers”, be “odourless”, or have new packaging.


As these corporations spread their products across the world, they spread the ideal of the modern menstruator as discreet, clean, active, female, and white.

Corporations use processes of international development to extend their control over menstruating bodies. Global North-based corporations have long donated menstrual education programmes and products to developing countries, often in collaboration with policymakers. Procter & Gamble, for example, conducts a programme across India’s schools to educate young girls about menstruation and the importance of sanitary products for hygiene. This project is based on a logic assuming that the use of cloth or natural materials rather than disposable products is “backwards”.

As these corporations spread their products across the world, they spread the ideal of the modern menstruator as discreet, clean, active, female, and white. This notionally emancipated and sophisticated Western version of menstruation creates a disparity between individuals who can afford disposable menstrual products and those who cannot. Moreover, the commodification contributes to the increasing flow of wealth to Western countries from less-developed nations.

Another marketing ploy is the appropriation of feminist or environmental messaging. This pink- and green-washing is apparent in Always’ “Always Keeping Girls in School” campaign in Africa or, more globally, Tampax’s organic tampons. Such strategies play on the idea of empowerment through making periods less time-consuming and inconvenient at work. Disposable products are presented as more hygienic, easier, and more comfortable.

The idea of emancipation through the control of menstruation was also promoted by parts of second-wave feminism.[2] Some third-wave feminists, however, distance themselves from this view and criticise it as being manipulated by corporations and blinded by taboo. From this critique, two strands of activism have emerged: feminist spiritualist menstrual activism – focused on challenging the taboo and the denigration of menstruation and the female body – and radical menstruation, which sits at the intersection of third-wave feminism, environmental concern, and consumer rights.

Menstruation as a social concern

The Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) scandal of the 1980s marks a key moment in the history of menstrual activism. At the time, activism focused on reforms and holding corporations to account. When activists pushed for uniform tampon absorbency ratings, they were trying to improve the existing femcare industry. Health issues associated with tampons (such as micro lacerations of the vaginal wall) are often down to misuse due to a lack of information. Catering to the taboo associated with period blood, menstrual products are made to appear as clean as possible, often using dangerous and toxic products for bleaching. Consumers in the US have demanded more transparency on what is in menstrual products, and the State of New York now requires full disclosure of ingredients on product packaging. Whilst producers now must also mention the risk of toxicity associated with highly absorbent internal products, this is usually not clear enough to customers: many know about TSS but do not link it to the product’s absorbency. In the EU, no specific legislation is in place for menstrual products, which fall under the General Product Safety Directive (only safe products can be placed on the market); producers do not have to disclose what the products are made of.

Aside from human health, the taboos surrounding menstruation also have a negative ecological impact. The chemicals used for bleaching products can damage the environment as well as our bodies. Plastic is another issue, both in terms of production and waste. With the popularisation of plastic wrappers, corporations began to use plastic in all of their products. Tampon applicators, for example, went from being cardboard-based to plastic. Most menstruators are expected to produce around 150 kilograms of waste in their lifetime, of which a significant amount will end up in environmentally sensitive areas such as coastal regions. Today, tampon applicators are the fifth most common item found on European beaches. A report by Zero Waste Europe found that in 2017 the EU-28 generated about 590 000 tonnes of waste from over 49 billion disposable menstrual products.

Most menstruators are expected to produce around 150 kilograms of waste in their lifetime, of which a significant amount will end up in environmentally sensitive areas such as coastal regions.

Just as plastic straws are being progressively banned all over the world, menstrual products should not be excluded from debates about plastic waste. Sanitary pads are composed of up to 90 per cent plastic. The processing of polyethylene used in tampon applicators and pads requires large amounts of fossil fuel-generated energy. Each of those products takes 500 to 1000 years to decompose. Many component chemicals pollute groundwater and soil, while those flushed into the underground water system clog drains and pollute the oceans with microplastics.

Looking to the start of the product lifecycle, the raw materials used in production also create soil and water pollution. Most tampons and pads are made of cotton, or a blend of cotton and rayon. Cotton production degrades soil and uses large amounts of agro-chemicals and water. The production of rayon, a synthetic fibre created from wood pulp, is highly energy- and water-intensive, and causes deforestation and soil impoverishment.

When it comes to carbon footprint, the 46 billion tonnes of menstrual products used yearly in Europe equates to the equivalent of 245 000 tonnes of CO2, equivalent to the annual impact of 52 000 cars. Research has found that using sanitary pads for one year (approximately 240 products) amounts to the equivalent of 8.5 kilograms of CO2 (7.2 kilogrammes for organic pads). The figure falls to 5.3 kilograms for tampons and between 0.02 and 0.04 kilograms for menstrual cups. Environmental impact assessments of reusable menstrual products are currently harder to find but, on the whole, reusable menstrual products are far more environmentally friendly than single-use ones.

The economic dimension of menstruation should also not be overlooked. Buying menstrual products represents a significant cost, especially considering the socio-economic disadvantage already faced by women. This cost is compounded by the “pink tax”. Period products – in countries such as US and UK – are classed as “luxury items” and are taxed at higher rates. The rate applied to menstrual products varies from place to place, from 5 per cent in the UK to up to 27 per cent in Hungary in 2019. The estimated lifetime cost depends on various physiological and social factors but range from 1730 euros according to the BBC in 2017 to an estimated 5360 euros according to NGO Bloody Good Period. Whatever the cost, it is prohibitively high for some, with students and the homeless most affected.

A red warning: menstrual activism

Menstrual activism attributes the harmful environmental, health and economic effects to the corporate and capitalist system, more concerned with profit than ecological concerns or consumer wellbeing.[3] It advocates not reform of the system but its outright rejection, and it challenges the corporate control of the femcare industry over menstruators through their creation of a manufactured dependency on disposable products. Radical menstruation activists oppose the stigma faced by menstruators and the association of menstruation with femininity and womanhood, preferring a more inclusive gender-neutral approach. They recognise the importance of including all genders, specifically trans, non-gender conforming, and non-binary individuals, as well as giving a voice to trans men who menstruate (by putting bins in all bathrooms, for instance) and trans women who do not bleed but still experience a hormonal cycle (through the appearance of certain symptoms). They use the term “menstruators” instead of “women who menstruate” as a strategy to disgender menstruation through language.

Inspired by the punk movement, menstrual activists propose taking power and control over their bodies and menstruation back from corporations. Through shock actions, festivals, and workshops, they present alternatives and deconstruct the “passing” ideal menstruator.

Inspired by the punk movement, menstrual activists propose taking power and control over their bodies and menstruation back from corporations.

The Bloodsisters are widely considered the leaders of the radical menstruation movement.[4] Founded in Montreal in 1995 by Courtney Dailey amongst others, the Bloodsisters fused aesthetic sensibility with political analysis to challenge the status quo on menstruation. Their actions were diverse: zines; activist information networks; graffiti; health, DIY, and self-help workshops; art exhibitions; and industry boycotts. Building on the work of second-wave activists before them (such as the Boston-based women’s collective Our Bodies Ourselves[5]), they rendered the invisible visible, translating menstruation into public actions.

But feminism was not the only movement taking action. The Student Environmental Action Coalition in the US led a campaign in the early 2000s to replace corporate menstrual products. Their Tampaction campaign included traditional workshops and talks but also radical cheerleading.[6] Today, the UK-based Women’s Environmental Network and the NGO Zero Waste Europe have campaigned on the environmental impacts of menstrual products. While the former focuses on education and awareness-raising (through a dedicated “environmenstrual” week), the latter has published reports on the environmental and economic costs of single-use menstrual products and potential solutions, calling for European countries to take action.

In recent years, menstrual activism has made a comeback in the mainstream. In April 2016, the premier news magazine Newsweek ran a feature on menstrual activism. As the movement has grown, it has become more dynamic and difficult to categorise. While their approaches vary, these activists all confront and resist a medical and consumer culture which exploits the menstrual experience for profit and devalues the menstruating body as inferior, dirty, and sick.[7]

The end of menstrual capitalism?

We are still far from having healthier, more inclusive and environmentally friendly menstrual practices and products. Our current habits have emerged from a patriarchal capitalist society and are shaped by increasing commodification. A feminist political ecology approach, which considers the social constructs around menstruation practices as well as economic and environmental considerations, challenges this. It looks at traditional gender roles and perceptions of menstruation as socioecological dimensions of economic processes.

Future generations should understand that periods are not something to be ashamed of and that menstrual practices and choices cannot be separated from the environment or our wider societies.

Menstrual activism frames menstruation and the practices surrounding it as an important factor in decisions concerning environmental and health policy. Recognising this would radically change the way we perceive menstruation. The stigmas around menstruation can be broken, through education and a conscious effort from governments to better promote reusable and toxic-free alternatives, still unknown to the majority of the population. Future generations should understand that periods are not something to be ashamed of and that menstrual practices and choices cannot be separated from the environment or our wider societies.

FOOTNOTES

[1] See for example Sharra Vostral. Under Wraps: a history of menstrual hygiene technology. 2008, Lexington Books.

[2] See for instance the foreword from Judith Lorber in Chris Bobel’s book New blood, third wave feminism and the politics of menstruation (2010).

[3] For more on radical menstruation activism, see Chris Bobel’s book New Blood: Third Wave Feminism and the Politics of Menstruation (2010, Rutgers University Press).

[4] While the Bloodsisters are the most well-known menstrual activist group (mainly for their “chocking” actions), individuals have been taking a stand on menstrual products since the 1970s. In 1976, Janice Delaney, Mary Jane Lupton, and Emily Toth published The Curse: A Cultural History of Menstruations, in which the links between environmental degradation and menstrual products were first exposed.

[5] Their book Our Bodies, Ourselves was originally published in 1970. A French version of the book was published in 2020.

[6] Radical cheerleading is a popular third-wave feminist street protest technique. One of the most notorious actions was carried out at the Colorado State University campus, where radical cheerleaders shouted the “Ax Tampax Poem Feministo”, later published in one of the Bloodsisters zines in 2002.

[7] Chris Bobel and Breanne Fahs distinguish four types of menstrual activism: “laughing while bleeding” (such as the UK-based stand-up comedian Chella Quint); “the visual is political” (for example, the 2015 global art show “Widening the Cycle”; “(going back) to Washington”(activism via legal reforms such as the 2017 Menstrual Equity Act); and “access and affordability” (for low-income, homeless and incarcerated menstruators).

Protests erupt in Brazil after supermarket security guards beat Black man to death

Issued on: 21/11/2020 - 

Brazilian police clash with demonstrators outside a Carrefour supermarket, where a black man was beaten to death by security guards, in Porto Alegre, Brazil, on November 20, 2020. © Silvio Avila, AFP

Text by:NEWS WIRES|

Video by:Erin Ogunkeye

The death of a black man beaten by white security guards at a supermarket sparked protests across Brazil Friday as the country celebrated Black Consciousness Day.

A video of Thursday night's incident in the southern city of Porto Alegre captured on a witness's mobile phone was broadcast on social networks and Brazilian media.

As the clip went viral, around 1,000 protesters in Sao Paulo marched to a branch of the French-owned Carrefour supermarket chain and stoned the glass storefront before storming the premises, trashing and burning goods, according to an AFP photographer on the scene.

"Carrefour's hands are dirty with black blood," read one banner held up by demonstrators.

Carrefour de Sao Paulo
pic.twitter.com/jYpp23b67l— Rene Silva (@eurenesilva) November 20, 2020

Police in Porto Alegre used tear gas and flash bang grenades to disperse a protest that had formed in front of the supermarket where the death occurred, according to local television


Protests also broke out in the capital Brasilia, Belo Horizonte and Rio de Janeiro, where a crowd picketed a Carrefour supermarket to prevent customers from reaching the checkouts.

"Carrefour can close, it has killed our brother, it will not work!" chanted dozens of young people carrying banners and masks with the slogan "Black Lives Matter".

The video on social media shows 40-year-old welder Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas repeatedly being punched in the face and head by a security guard while he is being restrained by another at the supermarket.

A woman stands beside them, filming with her mobile phone.

The military police in Rio Grande do Sul state said the man had threatened a female worker at the supermarket, who called security.

Silveira Freitas lost consciousness during the assault and died on the spot as medics tried to revive him.

'Could not breathe'

A friend of the victim who witnessed the beating told G1 news that as the security guards were hitting him, Silveira Freitas "screamed that he could not breathe," a scene reminiscent of the death of George Floyd, a black man who suffocated beneath the knee of a white US police in Minneapolis last May.

That killing sparked massive protests across the United States.

#USCitizens: Demonstrations against the Carrefour store chain have been reported throughout Brazil after a man was killed by security guards at a Carrefour in Porto Alegre. For your safety, avoid Carrefour locations while protests are ongoing. Monitor local media for updates. pic.twitter.com/qi1VhbgN8z— Embaixada EUA Brasil (@EmbaixadaEUA) November 21, 2020

Both the supermarket security guards were arrested. One of them was identified as a member of the military police who worked part-time at the supermarket.

In a statement, Carrefour's Brazilian subsidiary deplored the "brutal death" of Silveira Freitas and promised to take "appropriate measures to hold accountable those involved in this criminal case."

Carrefour said it would cut ties with the security company that employed the guards.

In a series of tweets in Portuguese, the French head of Carrefour, Alexandre Bompard, expressed his condolences and said the images posted on social media were "unacceptable."

Em primeiro lugar, gostaria de expressar meus profundos sentimentos, após a morte do senhor João Alberto Silveira Freitas. As imagens postadas nas redes sociais são insuportáveis.— Alexandre Bompard (@bompard) November 20, 2020

"Internal measures have immediately been implemented by the Carrefour Group Brazil, principally on the question of security company contracts. These measures are insufficient. My values, and the values of Carrefour, do not allow for racism and violence," he wrote, calling for a complete review of employee training, diversity and intolerance.

Structural racism

The killing sparked outrage on social networks and overshadowed Brazil's Black Consciousness Day, a holiday in several states.

"From one November 20 to another, and every day, the racist structure of this country brings us brutality as a rule," social activist Raull Santiago said on Twitter.

"It seems that we have no way out... not even on Black Consciousness Day," Brazil international footballer Richarlison said.

"In fact, what conscience? They killed a black man, beaten in front of the cameras. They beat him and filmed. Decency and shame have been lost to violence and hatred," the Everton player said on Twitter.

In Brazil, the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery -- in 1888 -- around 55 percent of the population of 212 million identifies as black or mixed-race.

Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro had not commented directly on the death late Friday, but tweeted that the country's problems "go beyond racial issues" and that the "great evil" of Brazil continues to be "moral, social and political corruption."

- O Brasil tem uma cultura diversa, única entre as nações. Somos um povo miscigenado. Brancos, negros, pardos e índios compõem o corpo e o espírito de um povo rico e maravilhoso. Em uma única família brasileira podemos contemplar uma diversidade maior do que países inteiros.— Jair M. Bolsonaro (@jairbolsonaro) November 21, 2020

"As president, I am colorblind: everyone is the same color. There is no one color [of skin] better than the others. There are good men and bad men," added Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro's vice president Hamilton Mourao called the killing "regrettable."

Mourao said it was the work of "a security agent unprepared for the work" and denied that it was a racist act.

"For me, in Brazil, there is no racism. That is something that they want to import here to Brazil. That does not exist here," said Mourao.

Philosopher Djamila Ribeiro, one of the most influential voices in the fight against racism in Brazil, told AFP that "the naturalization and justification of the death of black people as a result of violence is present in political, legal, business and media discourses."

(AFP)

Rape, abuses in palm oil fields linked to top beauty brands


By MARGIE MASON and ROBIN McDOWELL today

SUMATRA, Indonesia (AP) — With his hand clamped tightly over her mouth, she could not scream, the 16-year-old girl recalls – and no one was around to hear her anyway. She describes how her boss raped her amid the tall trees on an Indonesian palm oil plantation that feeds into some of the world’s best-known cosmetic brands. He then put an ax to her throat and warned her: Do not tell.

At another plantation, a woman named Ola complains of fevers, coughing and nose bleeds after years of spraying dangerous pesticides with no protective gear. Making just $2 a day, with no health benefits, she can’t afford to see a doctor.

Hundreds of miles away, Ita, a young wife, mourns the two babies she lost in the third trimester. She regularly lugged loads several times her weight throughout both pregnancies, fearing she would be fired if she did not.

These are the invisible women of the palm oil industry, among the millions of daughters, mothers and grandmothers who toil on vast plantations across Indonesia and neighboring Malaysia, which together produce 85 percent of the world’s most versatile vegetable oil.

Palm oil is found in everything from potato chips and pills to pet food, and also ends up in the supply chains of some of the biggest names in the $530 billion beauty business, including L’Oréal, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Avon and Johnson & Johnson, helping women around the world feel pampered and beautiful.


This combination of November 2020 photos shows the hands of five generations of women from a family that has worked on the same palm oil plantation since the early 1900s, ranging in age from 6 to 102. They each hold products made by iconic Western companies that source palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia. (AP Photo)



The Associated Press conducted the first comprehensive investigation focusing on the brutal treatment of women in the production of palm oil, including the hidden scourge of sexual abuse, ranging from verbal harassment and threats to rape. It’s part of a larger in-depth look at the industry that exposed widespread abuses in the two countries, including human trafficking, child labor and outright slavery.

Women are burdened with some of the industry’s most difficult and dangerous jobs, spending hours waist-deep in water tainted by chemical runoff and carrying loads so heavy that, over time, their wombs can collapse and protrude. Many are hired by subcontractors on a day-to-day basis without benefits, performing the same jobs for the same companies for years – even decades. They often work without pay to help their husbands meet otherwise impossible daily quotas.

“Almost every plantation has problems related to labor,” said Hotler Parsaoran of the Indonesian nonprofit group Sawit Watch, which has conducted extensive investigations into abuses in the palm oil sector. “But the conditions of female workers are far worse than men.”

Parsaoran said it’s the responsibility of governments, growers, big multinational buyers and banks that help finance plantation expansion to tackle issues related to palm oil, which is listed under more than 200 ingredient names and contained in nearly three out of four personal-care products – everything from mascara and bubble bath to anti-wrinkle creams.

The AP interviewed more than three dozen women and girls from at least 12 companies across Indonesia and Malaysia. Because previous reports have resulted in retaliation against workers, they are being identified only by partial names or nicknames. They met with female AP reporters secretly within their barracks or at hotels, coffee shops or churches, sometimes late at night, usually with no men present so they could speak openly.

A casual worker removes floating aquatic plants from a canal in a palm oil plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)

Female workers carry heavy loads of fertilizer at a palm oil plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)


The Malaysian government said it had received no reports about rapes on plantations, but Indonesia acknowledged physical and sexual abuse appears to be a growing problem, with most victims afraid to speak out. Still, the AP was able to corroborate a number of the women’s stories by reviewing police reports, legal documents, complaints filed with union representatives and local media accounts.

Reporters also interviewed nearly 200 other workers, activists, government officials and lawyers, including some who helped trapped girls and women escape, who confirmed that abuses regularly occur.

___

This story was funded in part by the McGraw Center for Business Journalism at CUNY’s Newmark Graduate School of Journalism

FEATURE LONG READ

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE https://tinyurl.com/y3ywj8j6

TRIFECTA

After malaria and covid, British man survives cobra bite in India

Issued on: 21/11/2020 -

An Indian snake-catcher extracts venom from a cobra. Snake bites are common in rural areas ARUN SANKAR AFP/File

New Delhi (AFP)

A British charity worker who survived coronavirus, dengue and malaria was recovering after a potentially deadly snake bite in western India's Rajasthan state.

Ian Jones was bitten by an Indian cobra in rural Jodhpur district of the desert state and admitted to hospital in Jodhpur city, about 350 kilometres (220 miles) from the regional capital Jaipur.

"Jones came to us last week after a snake bite in a village in the region. Initially it was suspected that he is also Covid-19 positive (for the second time) but he tested negative for that," doctor Abhishek Tater, who treated him at the local Medipulse Hospital, told AFP on Saturday.

"While with us, he was conscious and had snake bite symptoms including blurring of vision and difficulty to walk, but these are generally transient symptoms," Tater added.

Jones was discharged earlier in the week. "We feel that there won't be any long term effects. If he hasn't already improved, he'd do so within next few days," the doctor added.

He said snake bites were not uncommon in the rural parts of the region.

"Dad is a fighter, during his time out in India he had already suffered from malaria and dengue fever before Covid-19," his son, Seb Jones, said in a statement on a GoFundMe page set up to help pay his medical bills and travel back to the Isle of Wight in southern England.

"He had not been able to travel home due to the pandemic and as a family we understood his desire to continue to support the many people who relied on him," he added.

Jones works with traditional craftsmen in Rajasthan and through his charity-backed social enterprise, Sabirian, helps import their goods into Britain to help them escape poverty.

© 2020 AFP

Remains of two victims of 79 AD volcanic eruption unearthed at Pompeii



Issued on: 21/11/2020 - 

The remains of the two men, believed to have been a master and servant 

Handout POMPEI ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK/AFP

Pompeii (Italy) (AFP)

The remains of two victims of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius almost 2,000 years ago have been unearthed at a grand villa on the fringes of Pompeii, officials at the archaeological site said Saturday.

"Two skeletons of individuals caught in the fury of the eruption have been found," the officials at the Italian site near Naples said in a statement.

The researchers believe the figures are those of a young slave and a richer older man, around 40 and presumed to be his owner, based on the vestiges of clothing and their physical appearance.

The ruined city of Pompeii was submerged in ash after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. It is now Italy's second-most visited tourist attraction after Rome's Colosseum, receiving nearly 4 million visits last year.

The massive site that spreads over 44-hectares (110-acres) is what remains of one of one the richest cities in the Roman empire. Layers of ash buried many buildings and objects in a nearly pristine state, including curled-up corpses of victims.

After the latest human remains were uncovered, the bones were analysed and then plaster was poured in, a technique invented by Giuseppe Fiorelli in 1867.

This creates a plaster cast which shows the shapes of the bodies of the two victims, in a supine position, where they fell.

The two skeletons were found, during ongoing excavations at Civita Giuliana, around 700 metres northwest of Pompeii, at a villa overlooking the Bay of Naples where previously a stable and the remains of three harnessed horses had been found.

The two bodies were found in a side room of the "cryptoporticus" a corridor below the villa where the could have gone to seek shelter.

While excavations continue at the Pompeii site, tourism has stopped due to coronavirus measures.

© 2020 AFP

 

ALBERTA Contact tracing is broken and it’s the canary in the coal mine Your weekly update on Alberta politics for November 17, 2020 on the web at theprogressreport.ca/progress_report_242 Dr. Hinshaw told us on November 5th that contact tracers would now only be contacting people in “high priority settings.” Only the close contacts of health care workers, minors, and individuals who live or work within communal facilities (like long term care homes) would be notified that they had been exposed to COVID-19 and that they should self-quarantine. People sick with COVID in a non-priority setting were now expected to now do all of this on their own.  Alberta’s team of contact tracers had worked diligently since March to do the epidemiological shoe-leather investigative work of finding out who COVID infected people had been in contact with and where, logging that information and contacting those people. Keeping track of who has COVID and where they’ve spread it has been the primary tactic used by every country and jurisdiction that has had any success against this bug.  Yet an incredible 86 per cent of reported cases between Nov. 6 and 12 had an unknown source of suspected transmission. In Alberta, we’re flying blind. One contact tracer we spoke with even told us he was working on two-week old files.  On Nov. 12 Tyler Shandro said that Alberta has posted 425 new positions to the contact tracing team. There are 22 positions posted on the Alberta Health Services careers website that have “COVID-19 contact tracing” in the job description. Even if 400 some contact tracers were hired tomorrow it would still take 3-5 weeks at minimum for them to get their police checks completed, get their training and be on the phones.  “AHS and Shandro don’t want to admit that this has taken a toll on us, the contact tracers. We get threats, we get treated terribly,” said a contact tracer who wishes to remain anonymous.  The ratio of good to bad calls is about 80/20. “But the 20 per cent sometimes take it very personally.” “There is so much hostility to the government here it’s not like Jason Kenney is making calls. He wouldn’t last 5 minutes on the phone,” said the contact tracer.   That’s just the manual side. On the digital side of things, the Premier continues to refuse the federal COVID tracking app, and is stubbornly keeping the province on its own proprietary version – a version that hasn’t been working since he hastily dumped a pile of money on consultants to avoid collaborating with hated foe Justin Trudeau months ago. The Globe and Mail just revealed that the province’s app, ABTraceTogether, has identified only 70 close contacts in 19 cases since it launched in May. This means the app traced contacts in about 0.05 per cent of cases since it launched.  I’ll leave you with the words of Dr. Carrie Kollias, a Canadian doctor living in Melbourne, Australia, a place that’s nearly eradicated COVID-19 after a successful lockdown. “Once you have overwhelmed contact tracing capabilities, the horse has bolted from the barn.” It doesn’t have to be like this. Australia, South Korea, Taiwan, New Zealand, China have all done a far better job at containing COVID than we have. But on all sides it seems our Premier is constrained by problems of his own making – ideologically the conservatives refuse any of the real policy measures, like paid sick leave or a circuit breaker lockdown, that would help. Working with the federal government would require cooperating with Trudeau, and Kenney can’t have that, and most importantly, he has just too much of an ego to admit that his administration’s approach has been lazy and negligent. Thanks to that negligence we’re entering a terrifying phase in the pandemic. COVID is still here, it’s spreading faster than ever, our hospital capacity is being overwhelmed and our best tool, contact tracing, is broken.  Sundries Good news though! Jason Kenney’s government has cut thousands, nay hundreds of thousands of red tapes. Congratulations to the red tape cutting team, you never stopped cutting. This is a very important metric that is not at all made up.  Alberta ICU admissions could double in 2 weeks, leaked AHS email says.  Shades of Colour sent an open letter to the Hope Mission about a very important issue that we republished, The latest UCP anti-labour bill means a crueler world for sick and injured workers and even more power for the boss, writes Ryan Wright for The Progress Report. Arguments that the chief medical officer of health is being held back by Kenney aren’t right: Dr. Hinshaw has an incredible amount of power to curb the spread of COVID. She is choosing not to use it.  Thanks to a new bill passed by the UCP we can now depend on your ability to be farmed for plasma by literal blood sucking corporations in order to survive.  That's all for this week. Please share our newsletter with any friends or family who better information about what's going on in Alberta that what you'll usually get.    http://www.progressalberta.ca/

 

Producers need immediate action on BC’s meat processing crisis   The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed a meat processing crisis in BC. Abattoirs are critical for small-scale livestock producers, but provincial policy and regulatory structures currently prevent them from meeting the high demand for local, sustainable, and niche meat products. The critical shortfall in abattoir and cut/wrap capacity is making it impossible for farmers to provide consumers with the meat they want, even in these times of heightened concern about food sovereignty. Today, Monday, November 16, the National Farmers Union (NFU) submitted its report, “A vibrant small-scale meat industry for British Columbians: NFU recommendations to BC Ministry of Agriculture”, in response to the BC Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) Intentions Paper on “Rural Slaughter Modernization.” The NFU outlines the current crisis and proposes a path forward. Over 13 organizations have joined with the NFU in urging the Ministry to take immediate and meaningful action to ensure a vibrant and resilient meat sector in BC. The BC Chamber of Commerce, David Suzuki, BC Farmers Markets, FarmFolk CityFolk, Small-Scale Meat Producers Association, and several food policy councils were among those to sign onto a letter endorsing the NFU report. “Resolving the meat-processing crisis in BC will determine whether I can pursue livestock farming in the long-term. As a young farmer, it is very encouraging to see the MoA tackling this complex situation. I hope that the MoA will immediately take meaningful action,” said Freya Kellet (23), NFU BC Climate Coordinator. “Many producers are unable to harvest their animals this fall and this puts their direct-to-consumer business model at risk. Farmers, agricultural organizations, and other stakeholders are telling me that a place-based meat system is integral to the food security of British Columbians, rural economic and community development, animal welfare, COVID-19 recovery, as well as for mitigating the impacts of the climate crisis.” When COVID-19 spread in Canada’s big processing plants, it exposed the vulnerability of a concentrated meat industry and disrupted the national beef and hog market for producers and consumers. At the same time, consumer demand for local meat greatly increased. Although COVID-19 has created an unprecedented opportunity for many farmers and ranchers in BC to grow their business, and contribute to their local economies and food security, these opportunities will be lost without access to slaughter and processing services in all regions. “We hope this issue will be a central focus in the upcoming Ministerial mandate, and that concrete details and timelines will follow. NFU members and the many organizations and people who have signed-on to our letter, are willing to step forward to participate in task forces, committees, and other engagement processes to ensure that the voices of farmers are heard and that any modernization leads to a more resilient, climate-friendly, financially-prosperous meat sector in BC.” concluded Kellet.   Organizations/People in Support: FarmFolk CityFolk David Suzuki BC Chamber of Commerce BC Association of Farmers Markets Small-Scale Meat Producers Association Certified Organic Associations of BC BC Goat Association Kent Mullinx, Director, Institute for Sustainable Food Systems, Kwantlen Polytechnic University Vancouver Farmers’ Markets Kamloops Food Policy Council Central Kootenay Food Policy Council Capital Region Food and Agriculture Initiatives Roundtable South Island Prosperity Partnership