Women and several prominent feminists have called for a boycott of Always sanitary pads after it was revealed that the company decided to remove a female symbol from their products amidst pressure from transgender activists groups.
An 18-year-old British trans activist named Ben Saunders complained to Procter & Gamble (P&G), the maker of Always sanitary pads, saying that not everyone who menstruates identifies as female.
Another transgender activist, Melly Boom, tweeted that: “There are non-binary and trans folks who still need to use your products too you know!”
Procter & Gamble, the maker of Always, capitulated to the demands of the activists, announcing: “We are glad to inform you that as of December we will use a wrapper design without the feminine symbol.”
The decision to remove the ‘Venus’ symbol from the sanitary pad wrapper across Europe prompted widespread outrage from women, with some calling for a boycott of Always products.
Prominent feminist writer, Julie Bindel, told The Mail on Sunday: “Removing the female symbol from sanitary towel packaging is basically denying the existence of women. We’re now moving towards the total elimination of women’s biology. The women’s symbol has been used by feminists for decades. This is pure cowardice and virtue signalling from these big corporate brands who are capitulating to the trans agenda.”
Maya Forstater, a woman who was fired from her think tank job for saying that men cannot change into women, wrote: “The venus sign in biology is used to represent the female sex (you know, the ONLY people who will ever need these products). It does not represent gender identity.”
In a statement after the decision, Procter & Gamble said: “For over 35 years Always has championed girls and women, and we will continue to do so. We’re also committed to diversity and inclusion, and after hearing from many people across genders and age groups, we realised that not everyone who has a period and needs to use a pad identifies as female.”
They added: “To ensure that anyone who needs to use a period product feels comfortable in doing so with Always, we updated our pad wrapper design. Our mission remains to ensure no girl loses confidence at puberty because of her gender or period and we do this through our puberty education programs, by providing access to period products with programs such as #EndPeriodPoverty, and by using our brand voice to tackle societal barriers and stigmas like we did with #LikeAGirl.”
The two transgender activists who started the controversy have since set their Twitter accounts to private.