When visualizing a menstruating individual, the picture that usually comes to mind is one of a cisgender woman. This restrictive view, however, ignores one important fact: menstruation isn’t limited to cisgender women but is also experienced by genderqueer people, including non-binary and transgender individuals.
However, accessible, secure, and encouraging spaces for all menstruating individuals, irrespective of gender identity, hasn’t been a priority for Queen’s University as a collective campus—students and istration—and must be addressed to promote equality.
The stigma and negative connotations surrounding menstruation as well as other social factors such as race and socioeconomic status, contribute to menstrual inequality and further to period poverty, a frequently disregarded problem that has a significant impact on the lives of individuals, especially in educational settings.
The Government of Canada outlines period poverty as a lack of accessibility to menstrual products, sex education, hygiene facilities, waste management, or a combination of these. It’s a serious yet largely neglected topic that disproportionately impacts marginalized communities due to their intersecting identities of being both menstruators and systemically oppressed.
The matter of period poverty doesn’t end with a person’s inability to access sanitary products; it extends to a further emotional, physical, and psychological toll. It contributes to increased absenteeism, decreased mental health, and feelings of shame and isolation, which can impede one’s ability to succeed academically and grow personally.
Period poverty is happening in Canada. One in six Canadian menstruators have been personally impacted by period poverty; this statistic rises to one in four when the individual’s household earns less than $40,000 per year. The statistics suggest the expense of menstruation products, which are necessary for cleanliness and overall good health, puts a large percentage of Canadians in financial difficulty. This forces people to make tough decisions, such as allocating their few resources to menstrual products or other essentials like food or accommodation.
The Government of Canada’s Menstrual Equity Fund Pilot —a nationwide Canadian pilot initiative with the goal of lowering obstacles to menstrual product availability and sexual and reproductive health education—finds that one in every four Canadians agree that periods are “dirty and unclean”, it also finds one in every five believe that menstruation shouldn’t be publicly discussed and that menstrual products should be kept out of sight. These statistics demonstrate the pervasive societal shame associated with menstruation, which can contribute to a damaging concealment culture.
At Queen’s, with over 31,000 full- and part-time students, the issue at hand isn’t hypothetical; it’s happening right now.
Menstruators at Queen’s are experiencing issues such as struggling to manage menstruation in an environment where financial restraints, personal health, and academic obligations all intersect. Although Queen’s has implemented certain initiatives to address this problem, such as offering free menstruation supplies, these efforts have encountered opposition and remain inadequate in addressing the more profound effects of period poverty.
In a 2023 AMS survey, on the topic of increasing access to products, 76 per cent of almost 500 participating students said they had experienced a circumstance when their ability to function in meetings, classes, athletic events, or social settings was impacted by their availability to menstruation supplies.
The same AMS survey also revealed that 87 per cent of students feel it’s “very important” the Queen’s community has easy access to menstrual products; 81 per cent are “very comfortable” hearing people talk about menstruation; and 95 per cent feel the largest barrier to accessing menstrual products is cost.
These statistics, as compared to the aforementioned nationwide statistics, are encouraging and positive, initially displaying a progressive community at Queen’s, one not as stigmatized towards periods as the Canadian demographic. However, evident in a backlash against menstrual equity projects, Queen’s still remains a space where stigma surrounding menstruation can be a contributing factor to period poverty.
In 2020, a poster for the exclude men’s restrooms in the project.
The vandalism can be credited to the fact that these violent outbursts were perpetrated in spaces typically shielded from menstruation, such as men’s washrooms. These instances highlight the transphobic aspect of period poverty, where marginalized communities—such as the 2SLGBTQIA+—are disproportionately affected due to their intersecting identities as individuals who are both Queer and menstruate. This raises the concern that students may become hesitant to carry out a necessary hygienic task at the expense of being harassed, leading to a multitude of physical and mental health complications. This increases the risk of infectionssuch as urinary tract infection and bacterial vaginosis.
To eliminate negative socio-cultural stigmas associated with menstruation and promote a more accommodating environment, menstrual education must be incorporated into the secondary curriculum for students of all sexes. Increased on-campus tools and activities are also needed to further curb unpleasant acts that may foster a hostile climate, such as damaging posters and product dispensers that promote menstruation.
Dr. Jen Gunter—a well-respected gynecologist—says, in an interview for Toronto Metropolitan University, that universities should be “making sure that for people who have significant menstrual pain issues, for example, very bad cramps or they have endometriosis, have some kind of flexibility with scheduling exams”, and that institutions should survey their students to determine period poverty and inequality. TMU encourages their menstruating students to speak with medical professionals on campus and encourages them to speak to their professor for alternative options if time away from school is needed. Inclusive approaches as such foster a more secure learning and living environment.
A more welcoming and encouraging Queen’s University community can be built by tackling the social and personal stigmas that portray menstruation as dirty or unhygienic, by approaching these problems from an intersectional lens. Taking on not just the viewpoints and concerns of cis gender students but also genderqueer individuals will help to tackle the largely disregarded side of period poverty. This starts by surveying students of all gender identities on their standpoints in period poverty and inequality and ensuring every washroom, regardless of gender, has access to menstrual products.
Ultimately, this strategy will lessen period poverty and stigma on campus. We must enable all students who menstruate to succeed academically and socially without having to struggle with prejudice or exclusion. The lasting stigma associated with menstruation and the continual deficit of adequate assistance emphasizes the pressing need for more inclusive and comprehensive solutions at Queen’s to establish a secure, uplifting, and equitable learning environment for every student.
If Queen’s continues to not provide adequate assistance to students facing menstruation inequity and ignore the probable health impacts on genderqueer students, period poverty will only persist on campus. We must be a part of the solution and not the problem.
Natasha is a first-year Arts and Science student.
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