Tennessee Republicans worry women will go on tampon-buying frenzy

During an annual three-day holiday, shoppers are allowed to buy computers and clothing tax-free, but a proposal to include tampons has gotten pushback

Arwa Mahdawi
Fri 14 Feb 2020 11.00 GMT
Last modified on Fri 14 Feb 2020 21.30 GMT

Women can’t be trusted around tax-free tampons. If you cut the price of menstrual products they’re bound to go tampon-mad and buy boxes of the stuff, just for the hell of it. They’d line their walls with super-plus, they’d polish their floors with pads; it would be absolute bedlam.

That appears to be what Republicans in Tennessee think, anyway. On Tuesday GOP lawmakers pushed back against a proposal that would include sanitary products in Tennessee’s annual sales-tax holiday. The three-day event, held at the end of July, allows shoppers to buy items like computers and clothing without paying the usual 7% state sales tax.

“I would think since it’s a sales tax holiday, there’s really no limit on the number of items anybody can purchase,” said Joey Hensley, the Republican senator, during a debate on the bill. “I don’t know how you would limit the number of items someone could purchase.”

Hensely’s legislative assistant later explained that his questions were prompted by concerns “that the possibility of people purchasing large quantities had not been factored in when determining the cost of the legislation”. One would not want Tennessee to be bankrupted by residents bulk-buying tampons, after all.

Menstrual products are a necessity, not a luxury; and yet, across America and around the world, they’re still largely taxed as the latter. Products such as Viagra and Rogaine, however, are not subject to sales tax in America because they’re considered medically necessary. Why is this the case? As President Obama joked back in 2016, “I suspect it’s because men were making the laws when those taxes were passed.”

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