This was never a discussion when I was growing up, but I have noticed it popping up now and then in the UK and Sweden since I have been living here. Nowadays you often see dispensers like the one above in workplaces – free sanitary protection. Some of the dispensers only release an item every minute. I guess there is a problem with people emptying the machine to take the items home with them.
I can see the point, particularly coming as I do from a country where period poverty is real. Many girls in developing countries have to drop out of school because they have no way of managing their periods. Nowadays a menstrual cup could be a one-time investment by the municipality and would last a long time. My local municipality sometimes gives out free clip on shoe crampons to people over 65 in the winter if it is very icy. This means fewer falls and broken bones, so is a saving in the long run.
But where do you draw the line? Should razors be free? Or toilet paper? It’s a slippery slope… There are discussions now and then as to whether sex for disabled people should be subsidised by the state, helping them financially and logistically to visit sex workers. I see the point but that is a difficult line to draw. What happens if you have an awful personality or are very unattractive and no one wants to sleep with you? Should the government also pay for you to visit a sex worker, if sex work is legal in your country.
I have never been in the position of being disabled but I have not ever felt it is my right to have sex. I have also only ever had physical intimacy within relationships so maybe I am not the person to give this kind of opinion.
