Author : Sarah Elizabeth Frank (Ph.D.)
Release : 2024
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Kind : eBook
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Book Synopsis Embedded in Menstrual Capitalism by : Sarah Elizabeth Frank (Ph.D.)

Download or read book Embedded in Menstrual Capitalism written by Sarah Elizabeth Frank (Ph.D.). This book was released on 2024. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Menstruation education and civil rights advocacy organizations along with lawyers and legislators in the United States have focused the past decade on efforts to repeal sales taxes on menstruation products. Since 2016, 20 states have enacted legislation to repeal or minimize the "tampon tax," with one revoking the repeal. Today, 22 states impose sales tax on tampons, pads, sanitary napkins, and menstrual cups at the state and/or local levels resulting in millions of dollars in sales tax on menstrual products nationwide. Despite the "tampon tax" repeal movement, actual social change and financial gains are calculably minimal and grossly overstated. Veiled in concern for the feminization of poverty, activists and lawmakers have spent years maneuvering ineffective and inefficient legal strategies to repeal this tax and drawn attention away from far greater inequities facing women and those who menstruate. The subjects of this dissertation include (1) a detailed descriptive overview of state laws and legal policies concerning menstruation accompanied by detailed calculations of menstrual tax impacts, (2) an examination of the gendered discourses through which menstrual tax repeals have been argued, and (3) a historical critique of the menstrual taxation repeal movement's leadership and information campaigns. The nature of this research is interdisciplinary, drawing from academic literatures in social movements, economics, history, and law to adequately detail the rise and popularity of "tampon tax" movement activities and communications. Ultimately, I argue that contemporary menstrual activists have reverted to politically digestible discussions about menstruation, focused on taxation, as it simply seems easier to achieve, despite negligent social change in return for years of activism and millions of dollars in spending. Veiled in concern for the feminization of poverty, activists and lawmakers have spent years maneuvering ineffective and inefficient legal strategies to repeal this tax and drawn attention away from far greater inequities facing women and those who menstruate. Activist leaders have claimed menstrual tax activism is "radical" feminism, whilst spreading disinformation, excluding trans people and women of color, and arguing over the movement's foundation and "ownership." The movement is not particularly radical, as it upholds the systems of oppression while attempting to correct the smallest aspects of them - the modern menstrual consciousness movement has reverted to reproducing menstrual capitalism rather than deconstructing it.