Menstrual Capitalism, Period Poverty, and the Role of the B Corporation

Abstract


 
 
 This Essay considers the profit to be made in virtue signaling solely for the purpose of attracting customers and driving sales: Pro-female, woke menstruation messaging that may merely be an exploitative and empty co-optation. Feminists should expect more of menstrual capitalists, including a commitment that firms operating within this space address the diapositive issue of period poverty and meaningfully assist those unable to meet basic hygiene needs who may never be direct consumers. This Essay serves as a thought piece that first presents, in Section I, the B Corporation as a relatively new direction in corporate law that redefines the corporation as a potential agent of social change. Section II considers the way in which B Corporation certification may serve as an implicit sorting device to distinguish companies performing hollow virtue signaling from those menstrual capitalists committed to socially responsible pro-female business practices.
 
 

Periods of austerity: The emergence of ‘period poverty’ in UK news media

“…While period poverty has no doubt been discussed prior to this article, and the article itself referenced Lennon’s period poverty campaigning since May 2015, it was this moment in September 2016 when the phrase first emerged in news media (see also Crossley et al, 2019; McKay, 2022). The surfacing of period poverty in news directly maps onto the rise of feminism in public discussion and the shift in menstruation discourse more generally (Haneman, 2021; McKay, 2022), as detailed above. It is therefore perhaps not that surprising that period poverty gained prominence then.…”

“…Other issues about Always are masked in the coverage too. Kenyan customers have detailed their negative experiences with their products causing burns, irritation, rashes and so on (Haneman, 2021;Røstvik, 2022). Røstvik (2022: 124-125) notes that under the #MyAlwaysExperience, Scheaffer Okore and others detailed their Always experiences in the 2010s.…”

“…Campbell et al (2021: 231) note that menstrual advertising changed post-2010 as menstruation became an ‘invisible presence’, rather than an ‘overt threat’ as in the 1980s/1990s, or through ‘uncontrollability’ as in the 2000s. They and others (Haneman, 2021; Koskenniemi, 2021; Røstvik, 2022) link this shift to brands taking on feminist values under ‘woke washing’ and ‘femvertising’ (see Sobande, 2019a). Exploring the US context, Haneman (2021: 9) analyses the emergence of ‘menstrual capitalism’, whereby ‘corporate virtue signalling’ around period poverty and capitalism combine to form a ‘menstruation industrial complex’.…”

“…They and others (Haneman, 2021; Koskenniemi, 2021; Røstvik, 2022) link this shift to brands taking on feminist values under ‘woke washing’ and ‘femvertising’ (see Sobande, 2019a). Exploring the US context, Haneman (2021: 9) analyses the emergence of ‘menstrual capitalism’, whereby ‘corporate virtue signalling’ around period poverty and capitalism combine to form a ‘menstruation industrial complex’. Similarly, in Cash Flow , using archives, interviews and visual analysis, Røstvik (2022: 2) analyses the ‘booming menstrual economy’ from 1945 to 2020.…”

“…Accordingly, increasing sociocultural attention to this issue has emerged under neoliberal austerity in the UK: from various forms of digital activism challenging period poverty like #FreePeriods, to celebrities and brands like Alesha Dixon and Always stepping in to #EndPeriodPoverty, to political parties including the eradication of period poverty into their manifestos. This is despite the issue being intertwined in an historic twofold taboo of menstruation and stigmatisation of poverty (Haneman, 2021: 1), and a relative ‘muted response to austerity’ from the public (Harrison, 2021: 159).…”