A health and beauty retailer in the United Kingdom, Superdrug, has sparked another round of controversy by launching a range of plant-based sanitary towels for "people who menstruate" instead of "women".
Netizens have been abuzz with new tweets following the launch of the new towels, called Luna, on 30 August.
— Superdrug (@superdrug) August 30, 2020
Numerous Twitter users promptly responded to the new product's description, criticising the brand for "playing games" with gender and stressing that "men don't generally menstruate".
— TheBock *Sleep is overrated* 🍸🔥💄🔊🌹 (@Oh_So_Blunt) September 1, 2020
A woman menstruates. Men don't. They physically can't.
— Willee (@WilyWiIIy) September 2, 2020
Female erasure - cheer it on ladies! #WarOnWomen pic.twitter.com/nF4jQvoBDK
— rinkydinkliest (@jun_the_swan) September 4, 2020
Several people also started referring to JK Rowling in their tweets, adding some humour to the situation.
a certain children's author reading this rn pic.twitter.com/4fWh7yt3qr
— Adam England | Black Lives Matter (@garageflowrr) September 1, 2020
Wait until @jk_rowling hears about this 😂😂
— Greg_runs (@RunsGreg) September 1, 2020
Rowling has been bombarded with critical messages for speaking out on trans issues, including growing concerns that trans rights are erasing women's rights to single-sex spaces and suggesting that young women are being rushed into going through medical transitions.
Last month, she defended her right to speak about trans issues without fear of abuse in an essay and clarified that her views were over women's safety and derived from her own past experiences of domestic abuse and sexual assault.
In June, the renowned writer responded to a tweet with a headline that contained the term "people who menstruate".
"'People who menstruate'. I'm sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?" Rowling tweeted.
