Episode 12
“It's not cute, it's not nice - it's necessary.”
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Sound credits: Levels by Yung Kartz ($HMONEY theme song - intro/outro music)
Edited and produced by Anastasia Barbuzzi, founder and creative director of $HMONEY ($HMONEY Radio).
Episode Summary
On today's episode, @anastasiabarbuzzi kicks off a very special series that she's worked on with two incredible women in the health advocacy space over the past year: Why Money Matters In Achieving Menstrual Equity.
If you saw $HMONEY’s latest Instagram post, you may already be asking yourself: What do periods have anything to do with money or personal finance? Well, they’re more related than you think.
Today’s guest began rooting for menstrual equity — which she’ll define in this episode — after being inspired by the taboo surrounding “anything to do with vaginas” in conversations with friends, family, and even co-workers in her former career as a morning radio and TV host.
In 2017, @rachettinger founded @shophereforher, a social enterprise that discusses health and challenges norms surrounding health education and compassionate healthcare for all folks. It was through Here for Her that Rachel discovered discussing the challenges that come with menstruating wasn’t cute, it wasn’t nice — it was necessary.
Think about it: Affording toilet paper is already an issue for many, so can you imagine how the cost of menstrual products affects women, gender non-conforming and trans folks too? Especially during the pandemic?
Rachel’s fight for #menstrualequity is based off of one hard fact: menstruation disproportionately affects people who menstruate compared to those who do not, and with having to afford menstrual products on top of all other expenses (rent, tuition, food, etc.), it becomes an equity issue.
Menstrual products are also unaffordable for people in shelters where Rachel does a lot of advocacy work, and she points out that they will use other means to get by, which only creates more health problems. If you’ve ever had to miss school or leave work due to being unprepared for your period, then you know what she’s talking about. The solution? Free menstrual products in public buildings for all.
Through Here for Her, Rachel has already managed to secure free menstrual products in all city-owned buildings in London, Ont., and now she’s working on a petition that will hopefully have Canada’s federal government make good on their promise of providing free menstrual products in federally regulated workplaces, which they fell back on in 2019.
In this episode, Rachel and Anastasia discuss all of this and more. Stay tuned for more on Part 2!
Also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Castro, Castbox, Podfriend, Pocket Casts & Stitcher.
