By Amelia Pooser
Posters calling for free period products, full period product dispensers, and period equity can be found plastered across campus. The accompanying QR code links to a petition that has received over 200 signatures since its debut almost three weeks ago. In an interview, Ainsley Feeney, one of the founders of this new campus-wide campaign, shared her aspirations, goals and reasoning for this new bathroom movement.
The newly formed group “PMS,” short for People Menstruating in the Sound, advocates for period equity. Feeney explained the premise of the movement, “essentially, period equity is ensuring that all people regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation have equal and easy access to period products.”
Feeney emphasized that this issue is especially present among college students. “There’s a statistic in our petition that one out of 10 college students actually can’t afford period products. And it makes it extremely hard for people who don’t have period products to attend classes and live productive lives if they don’t have pads or tampons or menstrual cups or whatever.”
The goals of the campaign are far and wide, but for now they are specific to campus situated bathroom goals.
“I think in an ideal scenario, that there would be a universal like, pad and tampon dispenser open vending, you don’t have to put a quarter in,” Feeney said. In addition to this general goal, she also wants to ensure that the University makes it a priority to fill the dispenser and keep them full.
in all bathrooms around campus including, Feeney also explained the importance of trash receptacles in all bathrooms, which are small trash cans used for period product disposal. “I want to give credit to a couple of trans men that approached me and were like, ‘Hey, we don’t have this in our bathrooms.’ I’m like ‘Oh, my God, you are so right,’” Feeney explained in regards to trash receptacles
Another important goal of the group is to eventually have a school sponsored club on campus so PMS can hold “organized meetings where people can come and talk about what they want to see on this campus in this community related to period equity,” Feeney said.
Overall, this campaign seems to be gearing up to something amazing, and Feeney would love to see more students get involved. Her advice to students looking to help support campus period equity is as follows: “Keep an eye out for posters around campus, especially in bathrooms. And also, if you are on social media follow our social media account, or Instagram account, which is @PMS_UPS.” Students can also sign the petition through the use of the QR code below.