The “Always” brand apparently wants to sell its sanitary pads to men from now on: According to a report, the company believes that words like “women” and “girls” should no longer appear in online articles about menstruation. Should be given. This may offend menstruating men.
Author Millie Hill writes for a parenting website and has written an article about how to help teens get their first period. The article was sponsored by sanitary towel brand “Always”. But the company apparently had a problem with Hill’s text, as she told the “Mail”: she naturally wrote about “women” and “girls”. According to those responsible for “Always”, this language is clearly not “inclusive” as these words were quickly replaced with words like “bodies” or “people”.
When the author recorded changes to her article she ran into roadblocks. An editor at the site explained to her that they “always” insist on using “inclusive” language because “not everyone who menstruates identifies as a girl/woman.”
Hill now accuses “Always” of censoring it to favor trans activists. “When I saw the full article I was absolutely furious because it was obvious I was censored.” He said: “My words have been twisted to suit an ideological agenda, which is a very frightening thought experiment that I don’t think people have ever given much thought to – in the pursuit of ‘inclusivity’.”
In her article, Hill wrote, among other things, that periods are “a normal part of the experience of being a woman.” However, the word “women” was removed. Instead of “all women” he elsewhere wrote “all bodies” – as if men’s penises bleed every month.
In response to Hill’s complaints, individual explanations were initially changed, but the article was later removed from the website entirely.
Ironically, this is probably not the first time that “Always” has let down its own target group: The same year, Millie Hill drew attention to the fact that the company was dehumanizing women and girls as “bodies with female sexual organs” in a booklet for children. In 2019, Venus was banned from sanitary pad packaging as a symbol of the female gender. A women’s rights activist commented on the company’s behavior in the “Mail” with the statement that “Always” had taken an ideological decision to “eliminate” women and girls – i.e. the entire customer base – in the company’s communications and advertising. She considers it “sheer bad” that this decision is being imposed through censorship on an author who has long been committed to denigrating the period.
The website on which the article appeared is now defending itself “as usual” and saying it takes full responsibility for the “mistake”. However, author Hill stated: “The only reason articles from that period were made ‘gender neutral’ was ALWAYS – as one of the editors of Good to Know (note: the website in question) told me directly.”