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Letter to the Editor: Tampon tax not cut for equality

This Letter to the Editor is in resposne to the article The Oracle ran on June 1 titled "Eliminating the tampon tax is one small victory for Florida women"

An article caught my attention recently regarding Florida and the “tampon tax”, a.k.a sales tax on menstrual hygiene products. Personally, I’m against the tax. It should’ve been cut a long time ago though not for reasons of perceived discrimination between the sexes.

The article, published on June 1 asserted the elimination of this sales tax was, “one small victory for Florida women.” I do not believe this to be the case. This tax cut was not the result of the protests of women. Of course, I wouldn’t deny women were outraged over this tax, but this cut was not influenced by those protests.

Not to rain on anyone’s parade, but people are patting themselves on the back for a victory won by chance. The June 1 article writes that, “[the] slashing of the tampon tax is only one part of a $180 million tax cut package that goes into effect January 2018.” 

This should surprise nobody on either side of the political aisle; Democrats are usually for more taxes for government spending while Republicans viciously oppose them for anything more than the bare necessities. The tampon tax was not singled out to right some patriarchal wrong, especially not in the state that gave Donald Trump 29 electoral votes last November. One thing is clear; this oppressive, anti-XX-chromosome, misogynistic tax was not cut for any other reason than it being a tax.

Republican Florida Governor Rick Scott sought not to stamp out an injustice towards women, but rather to eliminate $180 million that he believed the government did not need nor deserve.

No disrespect to any ladies reading this, but aren’t Republicans the enemies of the feminist movement? Why would a straight, white male (read as cis-gendered and heteronormative) have any desire to aid women, the very people Republicans go out of their way to oppress? It makes no logical sense. All satire aside, this “victory for women” does not follow feminist or liberal logic. It’s just economics.