Tampax is copping backlash from people accusing it of 'virtue signalling'. Photo / 123rf
Tampax is copping backlash from people accusing it of 'virtue signalling'. Photo / 123rf
Tampon brand Tampax faced a backlash yesterday after claiming "not all people with periods are women".
In a tweet championing transgender rights, the firm also insisted "not all women have periods", adding: "Let's celebrate the diversity of all people who bleed!"
But some feminists branded the post "virtue signalling"and accused Tampax's owner, Proctor & Gamble, of "erasing" female identity.
Writer and feminist Susan Dalgety, who backed author JK Rowling amid a transgender row earlier this year, said: "It's a biological fact you need a uterus to menstruate, and that only females have one. Males do not.
If your internal organs from birth, resemble the diagram on the left, you don't need tampons, if it resembles the diagram on the right, you do.... hope that helps. pic.twitter.com/Of7xZAF0pj
Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, founder of the Standing For Women campaign group, said: "They are virtue signalling. It's quite frightening. When you try and include all identities into womanhood, you ultimately exclude women."
It comes after high street chain Superdrug last month unveiled a new range of sanitary products "for people who menstruate".
In June, JK Rowling was accused of being "transphobic" after insisting only women experience menstruation. She had challenged an article entitled: "Opinion: Creating a more equal post-Covid-19 world for people who menstruate.
