Man Enrages Twitter By Claiming Period Poverty Isn't Real - And The Responses Are Perfect
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One man has felt the full force of Twitter after he claimed that period poverty was not a real thing.
Not only did @MarcusStead call not being able to afford sanitary protection 'nonsense', he also used the social media platform to suggest that it wasn't true that people don't have enough money to feed their children in the same tweet.
Retweeting a news report on school's offering free period products to students to his timeline, he declared: "Can we please stop all this nonsense about people not being able to 'afford' to give their children breakfast or sanitary products?
Can we please stop all this nonsense about people not being able to 'afford' to give their children breakfast or sanitary products? A bag of porridge to feed a family for a week costs £1. 3 packs of sanitary towels cost £1 in Home Bargains:https://t.co/ePhDTJeI1K
- Marcus Stead (@MarcusStead) April 13, 2019
"A bag of porridge to feed a family for a week costs £1. 3 packs of sanitary towels cost £1 in Home Bargains."
Marcus then followed up his controversial tweet, by writing: "Taking a look at my Twitter timeline, it appears a lot of people have no concept of 'personal responsibility' or 'parental responsibility'.
"Most of us are well off compared to our grandparents' generation, yet they didn't expect the school to give their children breakfast."
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He added: "If you say you cannot afford to give your child a piece of toast or a bowl of porridge, you're doing something wrong with regards to budgeting. That's my final word on the matter to the Twitter mob."
And naturally, Twitter reacted accordingly to the misinformed string of tweets:
Until you have suffered the indignity of having bled all the way through the cheapest pad you could buy (because that was your only option), your opinion on this specific subject is worth less than nothing. Sit down, pipe down, and count yourself very lucky #StayInYourLane,
- Charlie (@CJABradbury) April 14, 2019
I've never understood why toilet paper is apparently an essential for human health that employers and schools should provide for free as standard, while sanitary products are a luxury that women should be expected to purchase themselves and remember to take in advance. Oh wait -
- Ruth Ware (@RuthWareWriter) April 14, 2019
What if you don't have a car or bus fare and the only shop near you sells sanitary towels for £3+ and you need two packs/month? What if buying fruit and vegetables and porridge from there is prohibitively expensive? It's very middle-class to assume everyone can shop around.
- Jane Casey (@JaneCaseyAuthor) April 14, 2019
When some people have no money, they ACTUALLY have no money and no way of obtaining any money. When was the last time that happened to you? Perhaps never. Thankfully I don't remember it in my adulthood but do remember it from my childhood. The world hasn't moved on for everyone.
- Deirdre McIntosh (@deewallace32) April 14, 2019
Unless you've had to stick a sock up your chuff Marcus, while living literally on nothing but porridge for days, you can shut your god damn property developing mouth. Tired of rich white men and their nonsense opinions (yes men, poverty disproportionately affects women). https://t.co/mNfmwtLkrP
- Jack Monroe (@BootstrapCook) April 14, 2019
Hi Marcus, last month my period was so heavy that I bled through 8 maternity pads in 24 hours. Please tell me and other heavy bleeders more about bargain sanitary products, we're dying to hear it.
- Danielle Capdevila (@dcapdevila_) April 14, 2019
It should come as no surprise that people were so infuriated by Marcus' statement as statistics clearly show that period poverty is still alive and kicking, and life on the breadline is real.
Plan International UK recently found that one in 10 young women (aged 14-21), and one in seven in London, can't afford to buy tampons, pads and other period products.
This often prevents them from not attending school on a regular basis and miss out on vital education. Plus, there's also the issue of tampon tax, meaning there's even more for women to contend with when it comes to being able to afford period products.
And according to a 2018 study by the Social Metrics Commission, more than 14 million people in the UK - including 4.5 million children - live in poverty.
Maybe don't comment on something you know nothing about, ay?