Fuuuuuck Tiger Woods
Hi Bestie!!
Only one subscriber (is that gauche?) has met my mom, but you’ve met me, so I think you can understand the tone implied in the email she sent her three adult daughters Sunday morning:
At the risk of a huge bolt of lightning, you may or may not know Tiger Woods has bowed out of the Masters. As you know, he thinks giving a fellow golfer who has lost to him, a tampon. Could every woman in America please send him a large box of Kotex??
Tiger handed a tampon “surreptitiously” to Justin Thomas in February. Because women are so gross and so weak. He's never seen A League of Their Own, has he?
My mom angrily pointed out that he has a daughter, but he has a son too, and this misogyny is why some of my male coworkers won’t clean the bathrooms at the end of the workday.
Anyway, instead of finding his address online and sending him a box of tampons, we (the Royal we, which is more than four) could donate sanitary products to food banks and shelters. (There's a real initiative from The Gist in British Columbia.)
In 2016 then-mayor de Blasio signed legislation supporting increased access to products in shelters, public schools, and jails (he killed the pink tax that year, too) but it's all so expensive. (And we’re not all in NYC. Or Maryland, DC, and California, which also support free period products in schools!)
In January 2021 the average menstruator spent $20 per cycle on supplies. The lifetime cost is estimated at $18k, the salary I was offered when I moved to New York in 2010. (Admittedly low for the time.) Do you know how many trips I could go to New Orleans with that lifetime savings? (Significantly more than North Dakota, oddly.) The pink tax and inflation have caused prices to go up significantly on pads, tampons, and wipes.
Anyway, now that I’m your period friend, join me in throwing money for this cause. (LaVonne is on board, by the way.)
NYC Food Bank's Woman to Woman campaign
City of Frederick (I can't remember which charities I like and which ones I don't in Frederick, because at least one of them makes you pray and I don't think you should be forced to worship just to eat! And don't even get me started on the pro-life women's shelter.)
Always your friend,
Katherine
Sources
Hernandez, Victoria. “Tiger Woods' Tampon Faux Pas Turned into Campaign to Donate Period Products Based on His Masters Performance.” USA Today, 6 Apr. 2023, https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/golf/masters/2023/04/06/tiger-woods-masters-performance-leads-campaign-donate-tampons/11614933002/. Accessed 9 Apr. 2023.
Jones, Abigail. “New York Terminates the Tampon Tax.” Newsweek, 21 June 2016, https://www.newsweek.com/new-york-tampon-tax-cuomo-periods-tampons-menstruation-donald-trump-482918. Accessed 10 Apr. 2023.
Kim. “Female Homelessness and Period Poverty.” Now.org, 22 Jan. 2021, https://now.org/blog/female-homelessness-and-period-poverty/. Accessed 9 Apr. 2023.
“Mayor De Blasio Signs Legislation Increasing Access to Feminine Hygiene Products for Students, Shelter Residents and Inmates.” Nyc.gov, 13 July 2016, https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/611-16/mayor-de-blasio-signs-legislation-increasing-access-feminine-hygiene-products-students-. Accessed 9 Apr. 2023.
Salathe, Sandra. “Inflation Adds Cost to Menstrual Products on Top of the 'Pink Tax' and Pandemic.” Yahoo! News, 19 Nov. 2022, https://news.yahoo.com/inflation-menstrual-products-more-expensive-182737880.html. Accessed 9 Apr. 2023.
Skinner, Paige. “Tiger Woods Apologized For Handing His Golf Buddy A Tampon As A Joke.” Buzzfeed, 17 Feb. 2023, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/paigeskinner/tiger-woods-justin-thomas-tampon-prank-apology. Accessed 9 Apr. 2023.