The Patriarchy in Periods.

Chapter 2: Money.

This chapter talks about:

-Basic needs

- Pay checks

-The great expectation

-Sexual Harrasment

-Schools

Basic Needs:

For women basic needs include menstruation items. Needing Pads or tampons, is in fact a basic need for women, especially considering they can't control their period. Yet, not in all case, but most, men are typically the ones to make the menstruation items. I understand that the point of having a company is to make money off of it, but in this certain instance its not right. There are certain solutions (like reusable pads) where you pay about 20 dollars for pads you could reuse for years. But even with that a lot of women still prefer disposable pads, as they are more convenient, but the prices are ridiculous. Especially having to pay so much for something you have no power over.

PAY CHECKS:

For women pay checks tend to have a difference than that of a mans pay check. Even though in a lot of situations, their doing the exact same job. With the pay being smaller it can actually impact their view on their role. Let's say a man and a women do the same job, for example a newspaper write. But the men's check says 100 and the women's 90. It's a small difference but still a big one, especially because that women could be a single mom. Of course the man could be a single dad, but do men have to bleed out of their penises and buy products to contain the bleeding? No. Men have always had more than women, higher pay checks, more likely to be president, voting rights and much more. And men can always say they get it, but they don't get sexually harassed and get told "what clothes were you wearing?", "you should have been more careful." or "You should have stopped him".

THE GREAT EXPECTATION:

I have used the title "The great expectation" because I think it will sum up this paragraph well. The expectation for women has pretty much always been to be a stay at home mom who does all the house work. In fact women were not aloud to work until the mid 1800s. In 1840 only 10% of women had out of house jobs, ten years later and the number increased to 15% (which still is very little). When women were believed to be witches it was because they had survived the plague. The plague was brought by mice, and because most women had cats, the cats would eat the mice. Nowadays women are aloud to work, but are still very underestimated. In their jobs women, sometimes, can get normal treatment. But most times women are either over worked or under worked. People usually will be thrown off if a women takes any job that's considered "Handy". Also, job's aren't the only misjustice. The patriarchy also affects how a women can dress. They are expected to wear dresses and to always be polite. Pink is also commonly associated with girls and blue for boys. But blue was originally for girls and pink for boys. Pink had been seen as a bold/fierce color, also it was close to red, red=blood and blood is commonly associated with war. Blue on the other hand was seen more delicate/dainty, blue also associated with the common "barbie look" Blue eyes and blonde hair. Whereas pink for brown eyes and brown hair. Also barbie is simply just another example of how women's body can be compared to be skinny with blonde hair and blue eyes ( not to mention she has big boobs and butt.)

SEXUAL HARASSMENT:

When a women is faced with sexual harassment, it is typically blamed by them. It's mostly common that they ask "what were you wearing?". But something important to remember IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT A WOMEN WEARS! CLOTHES ARE NOT AN INVITATION! I don't know if you have heard of the bear V.S man thing, if you haven't i'll give a brief explanation. It's pretty much when a women would say if they would feel safer encountering a man or a bear. And most women had in fact said bear, because if they got eaten by a bear people wouldn't ever question it. They would immediately assume it was the bears fault, they would hunt the bear, kill the bear. But with a man, people who ask women questions, blame them over the man, and the man wouldn't even get questioned. So the lesson from this is that a man could posses more danger, more harm, to you than a wild animal. And it's actually unlikely that someone would get eaten/hurt. A bear wouldn't hurt you unless you hurt them and they wouldn't eat you unless they were hungry. Also usually people dismiss boys being assholes "Boys will be boys". Which sure 'boys will be boys' but boys are jerks so maybe instead of excusing their messed up behavior, we should change it. Because it's disgusting.

SCHOOLS:

Alabama:K-12 schools are required to give menstrual products in restrooms at no cost to students.

Arkansas: Alabama allows public schools and open enrollment to public charter schools to use the funding to provide period products at zero dollars.

California: All California schools have to provide free menstrual products in their restrooms.

Colorado: Colorado provides free menstrual products to each student in each school.

Connecticut: Connecticut requires all public schools to provide free menstrual products in bathrooms for students.

Delaware: Delawares requires all schools to provide free menstrual products.

Georgia: Georgia's Department of Education received budget funding to provide free menstrual products to Georgia's public schools.

Hawaii: Hawaiis makes sure all public school students have access to free menstrual products.

Illinois: Illinois school districts are required to make menstrual products available free to students in every bathroom of every school.

Maine: Maine's schools with students in grades 6 - 12 must make menstrual products free in all school bathrooms.

Maryland: Maryland's school boards ensure each school provides menstrual products in dispensers in women's restrooms free to students.

Minnesota: Minnesota requires all schools to provide free menstrual products to students in grades 4-12.

Missouri: Missouri's Department of Elementary and Secondary schools was provided $1,000,000 in there state budget to provide menstrual products to all public schools.

Nevada:Nevada provides access to menstrual products in some public schools around the state.

New Hampshire: New Hampshire school boards must make menstrual products free in public high school bathrooms.

New Mexico: New Mexico requires free menstrual products in every elementary school and every high school.

New York: New York's department of education must have free menstrual products free to students in the bathrooms of schools.

North Carolina: North Carolina's schools can receive grants for giving free menstrual products in public schools at no charge to students.

Ohio: Ohio has $5 million in funding for menstrual products and dispensers, in any school from 6-12.

Oregon: All of Oregon's public education institutions must provide free menstrual products in school bathrooms.

Rhode Island: All Rhode Island public schools must provide free menstrual products in all female and gender-neutral bathrooms with no cost.

Utah: Utah requires local school boards governing boards to provide menstrual products in specific restrooms within all schools.

Virginia: All Virginia public elementary schools , middle schools and high schools are required to provide free menstrual products.

Washington: Washington's schools must make menstrual products available free in all bathrooms.

NOTE : (Janitors don't forget to restock :P, it's a huge problem)

Seriously though the machines in my school are almost never restocked they have been empty since installed, which is really frustrating. Especially because this is illegal, they must have the menstruation products, not just the machines. And not all the states are on the list, I mean Florida is predictable to not be here. Florida is pretty but what's with the homophobia???? Also this is really important to remember. If you're state is on this list and they don't have menstrual products, it's kinda sorta illegal.

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1311 words, this took a lot of work but i'm really proud of it! AND THIS IS A REAL ISSUE GUYS!!!!!