2024-10-09 03:01:00
An image of the Emirates Stadium, where London’s Arsenal plays its games, went viral on social media this weekend. “We don’t think you have to pay for these products. Please take what you need”said a sign in the women’s bathroom, under which was a container with tampons and wipes.
This initiative is part of the campaña “On the Ball”which tries to facilitate access to feminine hygiene products for female football fans in the United Kingdom.
The campaign was born in Glasgow, Scotland, six years ago when Orlaith Duffy, Erin Slaven and Michaela McKinley came together to make the role of the fans visible in this sport, demanding the need for these products to be easily accessible on the courts.
“People don’t go around paying for toilet paper rolls or soap“said Slaven on the BBC at the time they launched the campaign. “One of the complaints we face is that people say if you can afford a ticket, you can afford a tampon. It’s very easy to refute it, because at Celtic many tickets are given to charities, so many don’t pay for entry or transportation, why would they pay for their hygiene products?” he challenged.
Celtic Scotsman was the first to listen to them and twenty clubs followed. He Liverpool, el Brighton & Hove Albion, Huddersfield Town y Dundee United are some of the clubs that have joined the initiative, which focuses on the fact that feminine intimate hygiene products should be accessible at zero cost, that this topic should not be taboo and that a conversation about menstruation should be created to that the social attitude changes.
According to a British study, a woman can spend about 4,800 pounds ($6,200) on these products throughout her life, while a 2017 investigation revealed that 10% of women and girls cannot afford these products, in addition to that 12% of them have had to improvise when they have had their period.
“I think at first, people thought ‘who are these girls?’ They thought we didn’t care about Celtic, that we were just crazy feminists with our own agenda. There was this medieval mentality that thought that football is a man’s sport and that there was no room for us. “It’s a predominantly male-dominated sport and thirty years ago, talking about menstruation would have been unthinkable,” Slaven added.
The campaign was active between 2018 and 2021 but several clubs have decided to keep the products free, as well as others like Arsenal have decided to join it in recent times.