I'd be interested to see the sales figures. And the maintenance cost figures. Are the sales of tampons in the men's rooms paying for the cost of maintaining and refilling the machines?

Clearly the only need for tampons in the mens room is for genetic and biological females who identify as males.

Unless men are shoving them up their butts to atop rectal bleeding for caused by either a case of piles or vigorous anal sex.

Which makes it more important than ever to bring back personal responsibility for ones own basic personal needs because it will never end.
Next it will be toothbrushes and toothpaste, and free combs brushes, and nail files. Arent they alrady handing out free condoms?

Conan, these are "free" products, so there are no sales figures.

Hey, snowflakes! You wanna know why your tuition is so damn high? you're buying tampons to put in mens rooms. And the people necessary to order, distribute and stock said items...

Every woman in the world must know the feeling of needing to stuff half a roll of tp in your pants for lack of a tampon at least once. Remember being a self-conscious kid and not want to be seen carrying your item or purse containing item to the bathroom? Been to an outdoor concert where you don't want to carry a bag around? Maybe a formal event where your bag is a tiny wristlet not actually intended for holdong things? Its interesting that the suggestion of providing these items in the room one needs them for use actually generates controversy, rather than a meh response. If you just never thought of it before, say "you're right, it would make sense!" Or say "meh, I don't see that as my problem.." or whatnot. Why get worked up?

Conan, these are "free" products, so there are no sales figures. ~ I R A Darth Aggie at May 17, 2017 7:17 AM

Ah. Well, the usage figures would still be interesting. Do they really move enough product from the men's rooms to justify having the machines located there and the expense of maintaining them?

I agree with Allison but probably for different reasons and a different type of personality.

If you are really really interested in "taking back" or even "making equal" the collage experience PICK SOMETHING AND EXPOSE THE HELL OUT OF IT.

There are a lot of issues (rape culture, treatment of white males, treatment of conservatives, allowing ROTC, "free speech", dead old white men topics (i.e. the "classics"), and so on.

Why let MSM and Dems "define" everything? They have shown us the playbook (ex. Trump's EO would be fine from Clinton) SO USE IT. Stop letting Congress off the hook at least in your own State.

Follow the money, take away the money, ask justification for __________ "studies", and so on.

It's easy. It's fun. But get Congress or your local pols to do it. (no votes so ...)

After all, it's the colleges budget/monies so let them prioritize it.

Here you go Amy - it's all yours:

https://img0.etsystatic.com/000/0/5180893/il_570xN.116053344.jpg

Congrats!

Somehow, I managed to buy my own tampons
___________________________________________

For the last few decades, there's been no need to spend that much money.

"The Keeper" (made of gum rubber) costs between $30 and $40, but it pays for itself in maybe less than a year, when you compare it to the cost of tampons. It can last for at least 25 years. Any woman who cares about thrift AND the environment should know this - and teach the use to preteen girls. (A woman still needs panty liners, as a rule, but with practice, not that many, and she can buy 30 at a time from a dollar store.)

"Its interesting that the suggestion of providing these items in the room one needs them for use actually generates controversy, rather than a meh response. If you just never thought of it before, say "you're right, it would make sense!" Or say "meh, I don't see that as my problem.." or whatnot. Why get worked up?"

Umm. I've never needed a tampon Allison. The likelihood of me ever needing one is essentially zero. This is true of approximately half of the populace. And they are already divided that way for bathroom use.

Umm. I've never needed a tampon Allison. The likelihood of me ever needing one is essentially zero. This is true of approximately half of the populace. And they are already divided that way for bathroom use.

Ben at May 17, 2017 10:24 AM

It is true of way more than half the population. Older woman and young girls dont need them either.

Perhaps more conservative women would be feminists if the feminists were not always demanding such silly things at taxpayer expense.

Its interesting that the suggestion of providing these items in the room one needs them for use actually generates controversy

How many times have you gone to a men's room?

How many times have done so and cursed the lack of tampons in said room?

Good SNL skit but they won't.

Women in need running into Men's bathrooms and not finding:

1. Tampons etc.

2. Diaper changing table (though to be fair it is more common)

3. Coloring books

4. The morning after pill

Its interesting that the suggestion of providing these items in the room one needs them for use actually generates controversy, rather than a meh response. ~ Allison at May 17, 2017 7:24 AM

First, it's not a "suggestion," it's a demand.

Second, the demand is to provide tampons in the men's rooms at taxpayer expense or government mandate. You may not care what the government does with your money or forces people to spend their money on, but many people do. And wasting taxpayer money or forcing businesses to spend money on feel-good equality programs that do nothing to help further equality rubs some people the wrong way.

Now, if a business owner wants to put a tampon dispenser in the men's room for the convenience, real or imagined, of the customers, that's different.

I must have missed the taxpayer expense part. Really? I guess that's par for the course with the justice warrior type, start off reasonable and work up to shrill and crazy- mostly for troll-like purposes, I suspect. But I meant, well, why not stock tampons in restrooms? Along with the tp? I assume at restroom owner expense. Ok, that's 5 or 10 bucks a month in bulk, which I get could be a problem, but seriously, who cares enough to get mad at the suggestion? And really- taxpayer expense? Is that for real, or hyperbole?

nd really- taxpayer expense? Is that for real, or hyperbole? ~ Allison at May 17, 2017 12:02 PM

For now, more hyperbole than real. It's universities spending tuition dollars and their federal taxpayer dollars on nonsense. Soon, it will spread beyond the universities, like the gender identity bathrooms and locker rooms nonsense did. Can't wait for the "dear colleague" letter from the DOE on this one.

"And really- taxpayer expense? Is that for real, or hyperbole?"

It's for real. It's part and parcel with the demand that birth control should be free for women. There's a part of postmodern feminism (soon to come to a campus near you) that will try to make the case that all personal and medical care for women should be free. Because it's fair, or something.

I worked in a place that tried stocking free tampons for the female employees. Two things happened. First of all, because people generally do not value what is free, every time they put some out, they all disappeared in the first 30 minutes or so as hoarders came in and grabbed handfuls of them. Second of all, the complaints started about what kind of tampons they were. What about women who preferred another brand? And what about women who wanted pads instead of tampons? It quickly become a self-parody. They went back to machines that charged a dime for them. Problem solved.

There is something interesting that's going to happen shortly, and this article is the leading edge of it: as the social expectation goes that women should be rewarded with all kinds of free stuff, that will come into conflict with the notion that anyone should be allowed to decide for themselves if they are a woman or not. What happens to things like college admission and hiring preferences for women when everyone, regardless of dangling bits, is a woman?

That's the kind of response the feminists are trolling for, Cousin Dave. And no, it doesn't have to be free, but as long as the powers in charge are going to force me to attend an annual sham physical to access the pill, your darn straight it ought to be covered by my insurance. Covered by insurance isn't free, btw. My premiums under obamacare are $755 a month for a healthy family of four, for as long as it takes for the repubs to eliminate it. Tampons don't have to be free, but maybe they could quit taxing them as luxury goods or whatever it was the fems started out on before they jumped on the crazy-train of stocking mens rooms. And seriously, your coworkers stole the tampons? Do they also jack the toilet paper and squirt the soap into baggies?

IKea in my area stocks diapers in the restrooms, and I've never seen them be out. Clearly not a significant number of folks will take stuff.

Around here it is the cleaning people who tend to steal the toilet paper. And security guards tend to steal the candy.

Being a guy I really don't know the answer to this question (and yes, it is a serious question on my part); so, I'll ask any of the ladies willing to answer to speak up.

Isn't there a difference in the quality of tampons? I mean, aren't there some that are of such inferior quality that one would rather NOT use them?

If the answer is yes, then just how many women who need them would be willing to use them if they are of the "free" quality?

While I get it that some one might expectantly need one and not be prepared; but, how often does that happen that there needs to be a stock pile, even, in the women's room?

"Isn't there a difference in the quality of tampons? I mean, aren't there some that are of such inferior quality that one would rather NOT use them?"

Yes there is a difference, however a tampon is a lot like a diaper. If you need one, it is pretty much any port in a storm.

The difference in quality is pretty much how long they will last, and how easy they are to insert. ( I always hated the cardboard tubes). A super absorbent good fitting one will last several hours or most of the day.

A cheap one might last a couple of hours. Still a whole lot better than nothing at all, or a wadded up piece of toilet paper.

Public bathroom tampons are alot like public bathroom toilet paper. I imagine there are people broke enough to stock themselves with them, but for most they'd be a last resort.

Anyone else see the word "equity" (rather than equality) and imagine a terribly unpopular financial instrument?

We need not invest in or trade menses. They are always, always making more... The quintessence of waste.

"And no, it doesn't have to be free, but as long as the powers in charge are going to force me to attend an annual sham physical to access the pill, your darn straight it ought to be covered by my insurance."

Hey, I have to see a doctor every 90 days to get my Androgel prescription renewed. Mind you, nothing ever changes, but the federal government won't allow a doctor to write a prescription for it longer than that. (And they are talking about reducing it to 30 days. I'll have to go to the doctor every month.) And one month's worth of it, even after insurance pays part, costs more than a year's worth of your birth control pills. We won't even get into all of the legal hoops that I have to jump through in order to obtain it.

"Tampons don't have to be free, but maybe they could quit taxing them as luxury goods or whatever it was the fems started out on before they jumped on the crazy-train of stocking mens rooms. "

Enlighten me on this. Where I live, tampons are considered medical supplies and are not taxed. Are there a lot of states that tax them? And who the hell taxes them as "luxury goods"? If they are taxed, wouldn't it be the same sales tax rate as everything else?

College age young men might like to have access to free tampons in the men's room. You can use them for pranks.

A 13-year-old girl patient where I work stuck a tampon inside the top of a ketchup bottle in the cafeteria and put the lid back on. She was such a sweet little thing, no one expected her to do something like that. It was discovered later that afternoon by an emotionally fragile woman from one of the adult units. We heard all about it. Then some of the boys started asking for tampons.

Men who hunt might want to keep a couple in their first aid kit to plug a bullet wound. Plus they can be soaked in doe scent and hung in trees to attract bucks. Also they can be used to clean and oil a shotgun barrel and to keep moisture and debris out of the barrel.

They're cheap, sterile, compact and extremely absorbent. There's no limit to the uses men could come up with for them. If tampons are made easily accessible to men, men might end up using them more than women do.

It was apparently the sales tax they were talking about, Cousin Dave. Necessities are supposed to be exempt, so taxing tampons indicates they're not necessities, ergo they're luxuries. Somewhat hyoerbolic, I guess, but not really. Shrill, but accurate?

Allison, I'll give you that point... the sales tax treatment should be consistent with other OTC medical items.