Always says it’s removing the Venus Symbol ♀ historically used to represent the female sex, from the packaging of its menstruation products to be inclusive of transgender and nonbinary customers.
This is coming after the transgender activists and allies began speaking out, arguing that not all people who menstruate are women and that not all women menstruate.
This is the latest in a series of actions by companies and governments are taking to affirm the identities of transgender people as transgender equality activism surges.
The move has unfortunately sparked a transphobic backlash, particularly in the UK, where the Daily Mail published an article about the packaging change with the title, “Transgender lobby forces sanitary towel-maker Always to ditch Venus logo from its products.”
Proctor & Gamble is standing by the decision — which they made in response to feedback, but which was not “forced.” In a statement to Snopes, they said, “After hearing from many people, we recognized that not everyone who has a period and needs to use a pad, identifies as female. To ensure that anyone who needs to use a period product feels comfortable with Always, we’re adjusting our pad wrapper design as part of our next round of product changes. As a global brand, our design updates will be adapted by multiple markets at various dates beginning in January/February 2020.”
