Period Jargon in Supermarkets

When my period is due, I want to walk into a supermarket or pharmacy and know where to find period products. I don’t want discreet wording and confusing signs. Aldi, Morrisons, Asda and Sainsbury’s all use the classic ‘Feminine Care’. Tesco opted for ‘Sanitary Protection’ and Iceland decided on ‘Women’s Toiletries’.

Whether you think it’s trivial or not, period products should be described as just that- period products. They don’t help you to care for your feminine side (the least feminine menstruators still bleed!), they don’t protect and keep you sanitised (we can’t be comparing it to hand san!) and they certainly aren’t just plain old toiletries (these are what I have to limit when going through security at an airport!).

They are PERIOD PRODUCTS. We encourage you to say it how it is. Words are powerful and period talk will begin to be normalised when we start questioning the use of such damaging terminology in the corporate world. There is an industrial standard to beat around the bush and signpost period products as discreetly as possible. The whole complex about keeping periods discreet leads to less conversation, more hushed wrappers in the toilet cubicles and around half of the world’s population being told to shush with regard to their period.

Join us in using the correct terminology.