Tampon Tim and the Unwavering Fear of Periods

Guest post by Dr. Hannah Taylor

Today’s newsletter is a guest post by Dr. Hannah Taylor, who we had the great pleasure to host at Presbyterian College a few years ago as our Women’s History Month speaker. Dr. Taylor is a Lecturer for the Thompson Writing Program at Duke University. Her research is focused on reproductive rhetoric, rhetoric of health and medicine, and digital rhetoric. She has published in Peitho, College English, and Composition Forum, as well as a few upcoming public-facing publications. To support more guest writers, consider upgrading to a paid subscription today!

By Hannah Taylor

When I was growing up, periods were almost an entirely taboo subject—we whispered to each other in the hallways when another girl started, and hid pads up our sleeves as we tried to avoid any consequence from the new thing our body was doing.

These days, though, menstruation is having a much more public moment. A culmination of the growth and ubiquity of the Internet, a rise in public feminism as a response to then (and now) presidential candidate Donald Trump, and a shifting public health landscape made periods prime for the spotlight. Cosmopolitan dubbed 2015 “the year the period went public.” In March, poet Rupi Kaur Instagrammed a picture featuring her period blood. Instagram took the picture down three times, leading to an online uproar. Karin Gandhi, a musician and activist, “free bled” as she ran the London Marathon, which was met with great controversy online That summer, Apple added a period tracking function to their Health app, comedians Key and Peele offered men a “menstruation orientation,” and Canada ended its tax on menstrual products. The #PeriodsAreNotAnInsult hashtag trended after presidential candidate Trump accused the GOP debate moderator Megyn Kelly of having “blood coming out of her whatever”. 

These events and others led to the development and widespread availability of alternative period products, such as menstrual underwear and Diva Cups, as well as more public mentions of menstruation. While we might assume that all this attention is positive, our culture never really resolved the ongoing belief that periods are something to be dealt with by menstruators. In other words, we can talk about it, but we shouldn’t expect anyone to do anything about the many issues surrounding menstruation.

One of the many reasons that the upcoming 2024 election feels so important to many feminists is that reproductive rights are really at the center of our conversations. From JD Vance asserting that childless women serve no purpose in society to increasingly restrictive abortion laws cropping up all over the country, the threats to reproductive justice feel more present than ever. It is no surprise, then, that menstruation is also part of the conversation: enter Tampon Tim. In 2023, as governor of Minnesota, now Vice-Presidential candidate Tim Walz signed an education law that mandated schools provide menstrual supplies to students in grades 4^th- 12^th. While providing menstrual products in schools is hardly a radical policy (even some of the most conservative states like Alabama have laws that mandate schools provide menstrual products), the Minnesota law makes it explicit that all menstruators, not just young girls, need to have access to care products.

However, the mere mention of action regarding period inequity sent conservative politicians into a tailspin, arguing that these legislative actions are a bad thing for young menstruators. "As a woman, there is no greater threat to a woman's health than leaders ... who support putting tampons in men's bathrooms in public schools," Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Fox News. She also added that "Tampon Tim put tampons in boys' bathrooms, wants men to play in women's sports, and supports gender transitions for minors." News outlets and X users picked up on this story and carried it to the farthest corners of human logic. Even Megyn Kelly, who is no stranger to critiques about her period, jumped on the Tampon Tim bandwagon. However, the Minnesota law said nothing about stocking tampons in boys’ restrooms—simply that menstrual products had to be available to all menstruators.

Personally, I think that Tampon Tim is an incredible nickname to campaign under, but it is clear that the Trump campaign is attempting to tie Gov. Walz to several hot topics in American culture—extreme fears of emasculation, transphobia, and toxic masculinity. At the crux of this discourse are two problematic assumptions: 1) menstruation is something that only menstruators should care about and 2) non-menstruators learning and caring about menstrual health is harmful to them and their “masculinity.”

The first assumption is not surprising at all—menstruation has been the domain of “women’s health” even as it has become less taboo in the past few years. However, I will be transparent in that even I, who have seen some wacky stuff around periods, am deeply confused by the logic of far-right pundits. Most men have grown up around menstruators, seen their products in their home bathrooms or on the shelves of grocery stores, and did not spontaneously combust. It is so transparent that this is not about menstruation at all. These comments are about bodily control.

Once again, reproductive bodies have become a symbol, a place for many lawmakers to fight out their various power struggles without actually considering the very real bodies and people that their language and policy affect. Men turning into women by seeing pads in their school bathrooms is not real. Period poverty is, particularly in schools, and countless girls, nonbinary, and trans menstruators struggle to find menstrual care products. According to the 2023 Thinx and Period Study, “Almost a quarter of teens (and one-third of adults) struggle to afford period products.” Additionally, 44% of teens report stress and embarrassment due to a lack of access to period products. Menstruators often report having to miss school if they don’t have supplies, leading to poor social and educational outcomes. Period poverty is a serious phenomena, one that is entirely avoidable through policies like the one Walz put in place. But many Americans are more afraid of imaginary threats than the real ones impacting young people and students. 

All of this to say, when many politicians say they care about the safety of students, they mean that they care about shielding young people from learning about their and other’s bodies—something that helps no one and furthers problematic assumptions about health. Safe menstruation is menstruation that is free from stigma, free from fear, and free from a lack of care. When we are discussing reproductive rights, that is not limited only to abortion. IVF, adoption, menstrual care, motherhood rights, and more are at stake this election. It is important that we continue to push local legislative efforts, as well as vote for officials who have shown that they care about the bodily rights of all people. Tampon Tim, it is!