Always remove feminine symbol from products to be 'more inclusive' but it's getting backlash

21 October 2019, 17:08 | Updated: 24 October 2019, 11:25

Three sanitary pads on a coral red background.
Three sanitary pads on a coral red background. Picture: Alexmia/Getty Images
Jazmin Duribe

By Jazmin Duribe

Fragile people are now threatening to boycott the brand for "erasing" women.

Always have announced plans to remove the feminine Venus symbol (the symbol for a woman ♀️) from their products in an effort to make them more inclusive for their transgender and non-binary customers.

READ MORE: A man told women to "stop whining" about periods and the internet is dragging him

The decision came after criticism from transgender and non-binary activists like Ben Saunders, who felt that having the symbol excluded transgender and non-binary customers who still use sanitary products, but do not identify as women.

An activist named Melly Broom shared their disappointment in the sanitary brand on Twitter in July 2019. In a tweet – which appears to have been deleted – Melly said: "Could someone from Always tell me why it is imperative to have the female symbol on their sanitary products? There are non-binary and trans folks who still need to use your products too you know!"

After listening to their customers, Always have pledged to remove the symbol from its packaging from December 2019 with full distribution expected by February 2020.

In a personal letter to Ben, the North American customer care team wrote: "We listened to you and our marketing team worked a solution. We are glad to inform you that as of December we will use a wrapper design without the feminine symbol."

Whilst Always have been praised for the move, the decision has proved rather divisive too, with some threatening to boycott the brand.

In response, Proctor & Gamble (the owners of Always) released a statement to Metro.co.uk.

They said: "For over 35 years Always has championed girls and women, and we will continue to do so. We’re also committed to diversity and inclusion, and after hearing from many people across genders and age groups, we realised that not everyone who has a period and needs to use a pad identifies as female.

READ MORE: Model Carissa Pinkston is being called out for pretending to be trans

"To ensure that anyone who needs to use a period product feels comfortable in doing so with Always, we updated our pad wrapper design.

"Our mission remains to ensure no girl loses confidence at puberty because of her gender or period and we do this through our puberty education programs, by providing access to period products with programs such as #EndPeriodPoverty, and by using our brand voice to tackle societal barriers and stigmas like we did with #LikeAGirl."

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