Graphic by Sunny Wei ‘23.
Hope Frances Simpson ’24
Staff Writer
Content warning: This article discusses transphobia.
Students on the Mount Holyoke College campus may have noticed something shiny and new in various bathrooms around campus: vending machines for menstrual products. Based on my observations, machines have appeared in buildings such as Auxiliary Services and the library. There is a problem with this initiative. Although the menstrual vending machines in these buildings have been installed in women’s and gender-neutral bathrooms, they haven’t been installed in men’s bathrooms. Upon discovering this, I also learned that there is no proper menstrual product disposal in the men’s bathrooms either. This absence of menstrual vending machines or disposals makes it seem as though Mount Holyoke does not harbor as much respect for non-cisgender students as it does for others.
Menstruation has historically been associated with women, but in my time at Mount Holyoke, I have seen that this is not the case. I have acquaintances who menstruate and don’t identify as cisgender women. I myself use she/they pronouns, and I menstruate. Attending a gender-diverse women’s college has exposed me to all kinds of people who do not fit into the binary of male and female. Mount Holyoke is a gender-diverse historically women’s college, but it accepts a variety of students besides cisgender women, including transgender and nonbinary students. However, by not providing menstrual products and proper disposal for everyone, the school is reinforcing the idea that it is only cis women who menstruate.
In speaking with the Mount Holyoke Planned Parenthood Generation Action Treasurer Ally Contrini ’25, I got a better picture of how the menstrual product vending machines came to be. The initiative was brought to fruition by the Student Government Association and PPGA E-Boards. “This has been put into action by the current SGA E-Board and our menstrual product outreach coordinators, Nina Brothers ’24 [in] fall 2022 and Nina Baran ’25 [in] spring 2023,” Contrini said. Although they supply free menstrual products to students, PPGA is not in charge of the menstrual product vending machines, which are provided and stocked by a company called Aunt Flow.
On the matter of the machines only being present in women’s and gender-neutral restrooms, Contrini said, “This initiative is in its early stages, and at all stages of growth MHC PPGA will encourage the College to include access to people of all genders.”
While Contrini’s explanation addresses the lack of machines in men’s rooms, it does not account for the lack of proper menstrual waste receptacles. This unavailability forces students using men’s restrooms to dispose of their menstrual products in normal trash bins, which is a biohazard or resort to flushing them down the toilet, which could result in major plumbing issues.
Contrini affirmed that “The MHC PPGA believes that proper disposal options for used menstrual products should be available in all bathrooms for students and the safety of college janitorial staff.” However, it is important to note that the PPGA has no control over this particular matter.
Overall, this is an issue that could be easily resolved with time and effort. The school could show its respect for its non-cisgender students by installing the Aunt Flow vending machines in the men’s rooms around campus. More importantly, it should expediently install proper menstrual product receptacles in men’s rooms for the health and safety of janitorial staff and students.