Is #TamponTim Supposed to Be an Insult?

Under Donald Trump, the Republican Party has become more like the Party of Childish Insults. There was Sleepy Joe for Joe Biden and Crooked Hillary for Hillary Clinton. Members of his own party weren’t safe either; who could forget Ron Desanctimonious (aka Ron DeSantis) or — throwback — Low-Energy Jeb for Jeb Bush back in the 2016 primaries?

It’s become so ubiquitous that now Trump’s supporters are doing the nicknaming for him. When Vice President Kamala Harris announced Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate, it was only a few hours before #TamponTim started trending on social media, baffling the rest of the Internet — and the confusion didn’t stop after the story behind the nickname came out.

“Tampon Tim” is an apparent reference to a bill that Walz signed into law in Minnesota last year, which required public and charter schools in the state to “provide students with access to menstrual products at no charge.” Schools are to provide them in bathrooms “regularly used by students in grades 4 to 12,” which sounds like a great idea to us, especially as kids are getting their period at younger ages and menstrual products aren’t always readily available at home. The part that’s presumably triggered Republicans is that the products are required to be placed in restrooms and “available to all menstruating students,” including those who use boys’ restrooms. In other words, there are pads and tampons in male-designated bathrooms in Minnesota schools.

That, and the fact that Walz has passed other trans-supporting pieces of legislation and executive orders, has triggered a wave of MAGA panic that smacks of transphobia and misogyny. It’s all pretty predictable, as transphobes have historically been weirdly obsessed with what goes on in public restrooms. But, as liberals began seeing the derogatory tweets, another response rose up: what’s so outrageous about free period products?

“Governor Walz made sure menstrual supplies were available in schools because he understands that period insecurity is real and that girls’ periods are unpredictable and somehow I’m supposed to be upset by this?” one person wrote on X.

“Some of us are old enough to remember what it was like being a young girl on her period and living in fear that your period was going to a) start in school when you were unprepared or b) you weren’t going to have enough supplies with you in school when you were on your period,” added Jemele Hill, a contributing writer for The Atlantic. “A governor providing free tampons and pads for school students, particularly when 1 in 10 girls miss school because of their period is thoughtful governance. Seriously, why are y’all so damn strange?”

Another person pointed out that many boys may already have period products around them on a regular basis, so what’s all the fuss about? “They’re mad that Tim Walz made period products available in girls and boys bathrooms. They’re ‘worried’ that this will encourage boys to be trans.” (Which, side note, is laughable in its own right. Do we really think seeing tampons in a bathroom can change someone’s gender identity?) They added, “You know that boys have period products in their bathrooms at home right?”

And this is an important point. At most, putting period products in boys’ bathrooms will just encourage boys and young men to get comfortable around these items, which is a good thing for everyone. Half of the world menstruates; by definition, it’s normal. The products we use to manage it are normal too. The fact that there’s still a stigma around periods, the fact that we can put “tampon” in a derogatory nickname because it’s assumed to be something negative? Now, today, in 2024?

It just goes to show how much work needs to be done to address this stigma, because there’s nothing bad or shameful about menstruating and definitely nothing embarrassing about making products available to help young people deal with it.

Might be time to look for a new nickname.

Before you go, shop these innovative new period products:

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