It all started with a resolute 2017 tweet from social media and brand specialist Karo Omu, after she learned that the prices of sanitary products were becoming increasingly unaffordable and could hinder underprivileged girls from accessing the essential commodity. Also, the tweet proved that crowd-funding on social media was effective, at least for a humanitarian cause. Thus, Karo’s Sanitary Aid for Nigerian Girls Initiative rippled from an humanitarian instinct into tangible reality, N800,000 raised in the first week and with more more financial contributions, Karo and her team were able to distribute sanitary pads beyond Lagos, reaching over 1,500 women and girls across 3 schools and an IDP camp in Jos.
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Going to put together funds to buy girls in public secondary schools& IDP camps sanitary pads for next month. Hit me up if you want to help.
— Slay Queen (Period Partner) (@duchesskk) January 15, 2017
The initiative laid the groundwork in sanitary pads activism on Nigerian Twitter, under-girded by Karo’s feminist politics. Then, though, she was mocked and ridiculed, her campaign reduced to casual banter which further showed how misogyny impacts women’s issues, from reproductive health to accounts of sexual assault and rape.
Two years have passed and now we’re seeing in real time how women are erased from causes they helped champion and their contributions diminished. Recently, a new hashtag landed on Twitter: #EndThe9jaTaxOnPads, a campaign spearheaded by UK-based doctor Dr. Harvey Olufunmilayo. Dr. Olufunmilayo belongs to a rising wave of healthertainers who rise to social media fame through a cocktail of educating and debunking health-related myths and the occasional troll. But he has veered into Twitter activism and harnessed fame from marketing hashtags, notably #Reform9jaBanks.
Soon enough, #EndThe9jaTaxOnPads caught momentum and Dr. Olufunmilayo continued to stoke it towards hashtag omnipresence. A couple of digital marketers and influencers jumped on the trend for clout, including the average Twitter user. From all indications, #EndThe9jaTaxOnPads is hinged on tax removal on sanitary pads and making the product affordable for women with low economic power. But the entire campaign feeds off from the existing pulse of Karo’s Sanitary Aid initiative, which has been going on for about two years. It is true that it has brought momentum to the conversation on period poverty and stigma, and how low-income earning women and girls are unable to purchase sanitary hygiene products.
Lmao you will do the work, but you will get under Karo’s umbrella to do it.
You will accept that she stared doing it when it was not sexy.
We’re no longer accepting the erasure of women’s work.
I’m disgusted.
— Odunayo (@OdunEweniyi) October 20, 2018
It is really insulting that just a couple of months ago men were insulting and shading Duchess for focusing on pads like we didn’t have “real issues we’re facing” and now because a man is talking about pads, its now being used to shamed Feminists.
— Inamorata (@Ayotundeee) October 20, 2018
But the move, even though well-intentioned, is a patriarchal attempt at erasing the work and contributions done by a woman – that a man (Dr. Olufunmilayo) had to weigh in on the sanitary pad discourse for it to be taken seriously only shows society’s sexist attitudes towards women, and that male privilege is powerful enough to hijack women-focused conversations and activism. It also gave impetus to anti-feminist men to bash feminists, men that are so brain-dead on feminism and jump on every single opportunity to discredit and find flaws in the movement.
Furthermore, my gripe with Dr. Olufunmilayo is that he never acknowledged the history and antecedent of the Sanitary Aid Initiative, nor did he express any interest in working with the organizations already on ground, all spearheaded by women. Through the effective system of patriarchy and far too often, men have historically benefited from the erasure of women, from science to research to politics. Also, women’s initiatives have been stripped down and used in male-centered agendas. Case in point: the #MeToo movement devolving into the #HeToo hashtag to show how men can be “victims” of false accusations.
That said, making sanitary pads tax-free or subsided would make it affordable for women and girls, preventing them from missing school or resorting to alternatives that don’t ensure protection from diseases. A Sanitary Pad Bill can also be the needed legislation towards making sure prices of sanitary products remained fixed irrespective of the economic climate. While it’s important to keep the conversation on period poverty going, it’s also imperative not to erase those who have contributed to the campaign.
