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The Lens - October 2021
City of Iowa City sent this bulletin at 10/14/2021 04:00 PM CDT
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October 2021 |
The Lens, a newsletter to expand conversations on equity, justice, and human rights.
The Tampon Tax
According to Duquesne University, the average person who
menstruates will spend $1773 on period products such as pads
and tampons in their lifetime. The majority of this money goes to
covering the cost of actually purchasing the period product.
However, in many states across the country, there is an additional
tax placed on these items known as the tampon tax.
What is the tampon tax?
The tampon tax is an additional charge placed on period products
such as pads and tampons. Many states consider these products “non-essential” and thus are allowed
to place a “luxury item” tax on them. The line between “essential” and “nonessential” can be incredibly
confusing. For example, in the state of Wisconsin, Viagra isn’t considered a luxury item and is thus tax
free, but a box of Tampax will be charged with an additional tax.
Where does the tampon tax exist?
Twenty-seven states - including Iowa - have a tax on menstrual products. For a full list of states that
have a tampon tax, click here.
How much does the tampon tax cost consumers?
According to the Global Citizen, the average person who menstruates will have 450 periods in their
lifetime. That means that they’ll spend between $100-$225 in tampon taxes over the course of their
life. While that may not sound like an overwhelming amount of money, it can be an unnecessary
additional financial burden, especially for persons who are low-income.
Period products such as pads are also used by people who are not menstruating. For example, people
who have certain cancers or those recovering from surgeries. This can disproportionately affect elderly
persons who are low-income, as well.
How does the tampon tax impact persons who are low-income and people living in poverty?
A survey published in Obstetrics and Gynecology found that nearly two-thirds of women who are low-
income could not afford basic menstrual hygiene products. More than one in five women surveyed
said they had this problem every month. Period products are not covered by government assistance
programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or the Special Supplemental
Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). For people who are already struggling to
cover the cost of these important hygiene products, adding the additional financial burden of the
tampon tax may be enough to make these products unaffordable.
How do we eliminate the tampon tax?
Eliminating the tampon tax is not an unprecedented move. States like Florida, Nevada, and Ohio have
eliminated their tampon tax. If lawmakers would recognize period products as essential goods, they
would be exempt from the luxury goods tax, which would help make these products more affordable.
How can we make menstruation more affordable?
Menstrual inequality is a real issue in the U.S. While eliminating the tampon tax is a great first step,
there is still a long way to go to ensure everyone who menstruates has access to essential period
care. There are many ways we can fight to make these products more accessible. We can:
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Lobby to make sure these products qualify for government assistance programs.
Provide free period products at your workplace, school, community space, etc.
Help provide access to reusable period products such as menstrual cups or period
underwear.
What We're Reading
In 2013, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Andrea Elliott
wrote a series of articles introducing Dasani, a young girl living in the
Auburn Family Residence, a Brooklyn, N.Y., shelter. While other
children grow up in multi-million-dollar brownstones only blocks away,
Dasani shares one room with her parents and five siblings. As the
oldest sibling, the 11-year-old acts as a quasi-parent — changing
diapers, making sandwiches, and walking several younger siblings to
school through the city streets (including one with six lanes they have
to cross) before beginning her own school day.
The series exposed the lasting and dire effects of homelessness on
children. The shelter is a dangerous and unsanitary environment
where the family must hang food from the ceiling to protect it from
vermin and women stand guard for each other when they need to
shower. Staff ignore complaints of crime and themselves prey on residents. Dasani’s parents love her
fiercely but, having been raised in similar circumstances, struggle with their own demons.
Even when her extraordinary intelligence and spirit are rewarded with a place at a prestigious boarding
school, Dasani is not able to escape. She feels responsible for her family and the trials they face in her
absence. Soon, her trauma results in acting out and she is expelled. Elliott continued to follow
Dasani’s story, and by extension, that of children who are homeless all over the country, for a decade.
The result is her book, 'Invisible Child,' published this month. In his New York Times review, Matthew
Desmond, author of 'Evicted,' noted there are approximately 1,380,000 children without homes in this
country. Every one of them has a story. Dasani’s is heartbreaking and compelling.
Inclusion How-To: Accents
Many languages use various kinds of accent marks, known as diacritics. Rosetta Stone blog describes
a few of the most common: Spanish and French use the acute accent, Spanish and German use the
diaeresis/umlaut, and Spanish uses the tilde. English speakers may not think diacritics are important
and might be tempted to omit them when typing. However, they make a big difference. They are used
to indicate both pronunciation and meaning. For instance, in Spanish, mas means but; más means
more.
Perhaps the most important use of diacritics, however, is in people’s names. A person’s name is
intimately associated with their identity. Misspelling a person’s name is always off-putting. In a
professional context, it can signal inattention to detail, carelessness - or worse - disrespect. Correct
use of diacritics is part of correct spelling, but how do you make diacritics on an English keyboard? We
found there are many ways. Which ones work for you will depend on how often you need to type
diacritics and certain ones in particular.
1. For diacritics you use often, it may pay to memorize the shortcut. Language Testing
International has published this list of shortcut codes for French, German, and Spanish
diacritics on Windows keyboards. Use Google to discover code lists for other languages. Mac
users will find this list from freecodecamp.org helpful.
2. If you type in a specific foreign language often, you may want to switch to an international
keyboard or switch the language on your keyboard. For Windows 10, here is a guide from
Business Insider. For older versions of Windows, Microsoft support has published this guide.
Mac users can change keyboards using this link from Apple support.
3. If you only need to use diacritics once in a while, the “insert” feature on the Word menu is
helpful. Select “insert,” then “symbol.” If you haven’t used the diacritic recently, select “more
symbols” and use the menu to find the symbol set you need. The “Latin 1-Supplement” set
includes the most commonly used diacritics, those for Latin (French, Spanish, Italian,
Portuguese, Romanian) and Germanic (German, Dutch, Flemish, Afrikaans, Swedish,
Norwegian, Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, and English). Use the down arrow to scroll through the
sets if you need other diacritics, such as those for Cyrillic or Arabic names. On a Mac, use this
guide for two ways to insert diacritics. On your phone, press and hold the letter you want to add
an accent to—a menu of diacritics available for that letter will appear. iOS and Android phones
share this feature.
4. The library at Mount Holyoke College has published a condensed guide to typing accents,
which is very useful for quick reference. Find it here.
Gender Neutral Names
In recent years gender-neutral baby names have become increasingly popular. According to the Social
Security Administration, there was an 88 percent increase in gender-neutral names between 1985 to
2015. As more and more parents decide to raise their children without the pressure of societal gender
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norms, these gender-neutral names have shot up in popularity.
This trend has included names that were traditionally given to only
one gender becoming gender-neutral as well as the popularization
of new noun-based names. For example, according to Nameberry,
in 1880 100 percent of babies named Avery were male. However,
in 2012 the name had transitioned, with 81 percent of babies
named Avery being female.
Gender-neutral baby names may have real societal benefits for
children when they grow up. There is some evidence to suggest
that for women, having a gender-neutral or even a traditionally
male name could help them avoid unconscious sexism in both academic and professional
environments. In a 1990 study, researchers found that college students gave the exact same essay a
higher grade when it was presented with a male author versus a female one. In the same study,
authors whose first names were gender-ambiguous or who used initials rather than using a full first
name also scored better than explicitly female authors, despite there being no difference in the content
of the essays.
In a professional setting, these names may also help combat sexism. In a 2012 study, researchers
presented identical applications for a lab manager position to the hiring scientists. Half the scientists
received an application with a traditionally female name and the other half received an application with
a traditionally male name. Despite the applications being completely identical, the female candidate
was rated lower for competency, hireability, and mentoring.
There are many reasons parents may choose to give their child a gender-neutral name. Whether it’s to
avoid gender expectations, circumvent sexism, or just because you like how they sound. If you’re
looking for some gender-neutral baby names, here are some of the most popular gender-neutral baby
names from 2020 according to Babynames and Nameberry:
Elliot
Royal
Justice
River
Skyler
Jordan
Dakota
Reese
Angel
Francis
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