UK schoolgirls told ‘men have periods’

A UK company selling period products is getting slammed for their “inclusive” marketing techniques that involve telling pre-pubescent schoolgirls that men can also have periods.

Despite its name, “Hey Girls” product materials claim that “not all women have periods and some men have periods” and that girls should use language like “people who have periods” when talking about menstruation, the Daily Mail reported.

Hey Girls, which is a main supplier of period products to the Scottish, Welsh and Australian governments, offers a booklet that includes a “gender and diversity” section with a cartoon of four people carrying bi-sexual and pansexual flags, along with those for LGBT and non-binary people.

Hey Girls also provides videos for girls in which the words “woman, women, girl or girls” never appear. 

Heather Finlay, who runs Luxury Moon, a reusable menstrual products firm, used Hey Girls as one of her suppliers for five years before she cut ties with the company over its new ordering protocols.

Ms Finlay shared a photo of a Hey Girls menstrual cup delivered to her in 2021 that said it was for a “girl or woman in need” and said profits went “directly to help girls and women in need.”

Today, the menstrual cups sold by Hey Girls do not mention women and girls.

Instead the packaging says, “We’re on a mission to give everyone a better period’ and that ‘for every product purchased from us, we donate a whole box to someone in need.”

Finlay claimed that a new younger generation at Hey Girls has taken over “with this new woke language.”

“It just seems like gobbledygook,” Finlay told the Daily Mail. “How is that supposed to be of help? I don’t think it’s appropriate. I think most parents wouldn’t want their children to receive it. [Women] feel dehumanized.There’s a trend to be inclusive, which means you do not talk about women or girls at all. You are excluding a huge number of women and girls.”

Lucy Marsh, a spokeswoman for the conservative nonprofit The Family Education Trust, told the outlet: ‘My youngest daughter has just turned 13 and has recently started her periods. 

“Girls this age should be taught about their changing bodies in an age appropriate and sensitive way, so that they feel able to share their worries and ask questions about becoming a woman. Telling them that boys have periods is confusing and wrong. It also affirms the idea that girls can be ‘born in the wrong body,’ which is incredibly harmful, especially for those girls who are already feeling distressed about how their body is developing.”

Hey Girls co-founders Celia Hodson and Kate Smith said: “Hey Girls is an inclusive social enterprise working to eradicate period poverty in the UK.

‘The language we use in our materials has changed in response to feedback from our customers and is deep rooted in our belief that period education and the access to products should be inclusive for all who menstruate, no matter how they identify.”