The Republicans have come up with a new nickname for the Democratic Vice Presidential contender Tim Walz, dubbing him “Tampon Tim”. They intend for the nickname to disparage Walz, though it remains to be seen whether the snappy moniker will have its intended impact.
The childish yet cunning design of the nickname bears a resemblance to a playground trick, wherein revealing its origin would paint everyone involved (excluding Walz) as immature. The ‘genius’ element of this trick compares to Donald Trump’s self-proclaimed stance as a “very stable genius”.
In the minds of the pro-Trump supporters, the nickname’s association with a feminine hygiene product is intended to belittle Walz, suggesting that he is less of a man for being associated with ‘women’s issues’. This is a perplexing perspective, given that a large proportion of the Republican base seem to find it demeaning for a man to be running alongside a woman for a presidential role in the first place.
However, such out-of-the-ordinary behaviour can be expected in this stage of the electoral cycle. With the entrance of a potential female President in less than three months, there is a sense of emergency among the Republicans.
To underscore how apparently embarrassing being associated with a menstrual product is for a man, the anti-LGBTQ conspiracist Chaya Raichik went as far as photoshopping Walz’s smiling face on a box of fragrance-free Tampax.
It certainly deviates from the traditional methods of marketing menstrual products. Unfortunately, Walz is not a laid-back tampon developer who invented a new type of applicator before transitioning into politics.
Nowadays, advertisers aren’t as inclined to depict menstruation as delightful, chuckle-filled experiences, reminiscent of Kamala Harris. A recent commercial by Always showed a lady reacting to a sudden menstrual flow with an alarmed and disgusted expression, quite akin to my own reaction whenever JD Vance is mentioned.
Tampon Tim sprung to life, somewhat inspirationally, from a law signed by Walz, Minnesota’s governor, necessitating schools to supply free sanitary products to all menstruating learners. The law did not mandate these products to be accessible in the boys’ bathrooms (potentially to cater to transmasculine students), but the gender-neutral wording offered the Republicans enough ammunition to criticise Walz, whom they perceive as overly supportive of LGBTQ.
Among the media allies of the Trump-Vance campaign on this issue is Megyn Kelly, a former Fox News host who was the object of Trump’s infamous 2015 diatribe speculating about her menstruation. Quotations from that diatribe spring to mind when my own eyes redden every three to four weeks.
Laws like the Minnesota school law are meant to end period poverty and reduce stress related to studying. These laws bestow confidence and security on menstruating students and pave the way for more open discussions about menstruation, rather than living in fear of men exploiting their cycles. The laws might occasionally lead to some students accidentally flaunting a tampon, however, this small embarrassment is a fair trade-off for long-term menstrual fairness.
Yet, menstrual equity isn’t just about affordable availability of sanitary products; it also concerns battling the stigma associated with menstruation, a battle that nearly every culture and country needs to step up their efforts in. Not to insinuate that Republicans are petrified of periods but when Florida’s Republican branch moved to limit reproductive health education prior to the sixth grade (around ages 11-12), effectively delaying menstrual cycle education until after some girls have begun theirs, it gained the moniker of the “don’t say period” bill.
“Menstrual surveillance” is a term frequently used by critics against period tracking apps and now it is in the spotlight again. This is due to the controversy around Vance, who was nominated for vice president by Trump. Vance is one of the few Republican senators that opposed a recent regulation safeguarding the privacy of patients’ reproductive health records. This restriction was aimed at preventing law enforcement agencies’ from accessing these sensitive medical details.
This policy essentially gives women in America the right to privacy concerning their reproductive health, even when travelling between states to undergo an abortion. This becomes significant when there is a possibility of travel bans imposed by Republicans. Vance, however, didn’t support this. His belief was that the police should have unrestricted access to all information. In another era, he probably would have personally inspected homes to ensure compliance.
In addition, the Republican party in Virginia voted to dismiss a bill last year that would have kept data from menstrual tracking apps protected from search warrants. It begs the question, what was their motive behind this decision?
This sort of exploitation of women’s menstrual activity is extremely disheartening, to use terms related to the menstrual cycle, it’s like the depressive symptoms of the luteal phase. This is clearly not the approach that would be taken by “Tampon Tim” or “Crazy Kamala”.
The slim hope left is that the voters in swing states will identify the agenda behind these humorous nicknames, which essentially is more antagonism against the massive population of women who are comfortable sharing details about their periods, but don’t want to be penalised for it.
It’s unfortunately apparent that there will be continuous endeavours to hinder menstrual equality in the US, these will be categorised with the other peculiar behaviours of conservative Republicans. Their existence is, on some level, a result of a prevalent societal habit of treating menstruation as a forbidden subject.