Tampon Detail of a tampon (Photo by Cristina Candel/Cover/Getty Images)
An Iowa cashier is under fire after refusing to sell tampons to singer-songwriter Mary Epworth and telling her that feminine hygiene products are “gross.”
Epworth is currently on tour with the absolutely brilliant Welcome to Night Vale podcast, which played a sold-out show at the Englert Theatre in Iowa City on May 3. Earlier that day, Epworth stopped at a gas station to pick up a box of tampons, and the male cashier refused to sell them to her. Instead, he got a female cashier to check her out:
He made the female member of staff serve me. I told him "50% of the population bleed". He said " I just think its gross"…
— Mary Epworth (@maryepworth) May 3, 2015
…" I wouldn't even let them in my bathroom."
— Mary Epworth (@maryepworth) May 3, 2015
If he has a girlfriend (or really, any women in his home ever), this could cause some logistical problems, and as Epworth pointed out, a very messy floor:
I told him he would have a pretty gory floor.
— Mary Epworth (@maryepworth) May 3, 2015
When Welcome to Night Vale co-writer Jeffrey Cranor heard what had happened, he was, to put it mildly, not amused, and he had a chat with the cashier as well:
the cashier said he thinks fem pads are gross. i asked him how he does selling toilet paper, condoms, & kleenex. he said that's not the same
— jeffrey cranor (@happierman) May 3, 2015
@Houckadoodledoo @maureenjohnson there was nothing religious about this man's choice to make a woman feel bad. he was just "grossed out."
— jeffrey cranor (@happierman) May 3, 2015
Everyone:
* go to the store
* buy some tampons
* insist that a male clerk ring you up
* do not back down— jeffrey cranor (@happierman) May 3, 2015
Both Epworth and Cranor said that they otherwise had a great experience in Iowa and that this one bad encounter was the exception, not the rule:
@enarsonist It was only one guy, Iowa is still cool to me.:)
— Mary Epworth (@maryepworth) May 4, 2015
@ShieldLA i would happily live in iowa if real estate prices were as insanely inexpensive as your tweet indicates.
— jeffrey cranor (@happierman) May 3, 2015
we're cool, iowa.
— jeffrey cranor (@happierman) May 4, 2015
There’s only one explanation for this cashier’s behavior, that he was raised by Carrie’s mother and believes that Epworth (and every other woman who menstruates) carries the sins of Eve. “Eve was weak! Eve was weak! Hers was the curse of blood! No tampons for you!”
Source: Daily Dot