Proctor & Gamble Removes Venus Logo Over Gender Identity Issues [EDITORIAL]

Progress in society is not always met with flowers and hugs; sometimes it is met with uproar and criticism, like when Proctor & Gamble decided to remove the Venus logo from its Always brand packaging for sanitary pads.

The decision to remove the Venus logo from sanitary pad packaging was made in order to appeal to a wider audience, a decision that will no doubt increase sales. This decision has the added benefit of appealing to people who need sanitary pads but don’t identify as women.

Some of those people might not even know there are more than two genders, and many of those cisgender identities are assigned at birth, not from personal gender identity changes later in life. Many people born cisgender undergo sex-change surgery early in their lives without their consent, so they better conform to western societies’ gender ideals.

UW-Milwaukee Professor Eric Lohman has dedicated much of his career to researching gender and the media as well as intersex people and how they are treated by our society. He spoke more specifically about intersex people here.

Some people might see the removal of this logo as an attack on femininity and what it means to be a woman. The fact is women are not the only gender to use sanitary pads, and femininity does not pivot on the Venus logo on sanitary pads packaging.  

It’s also common for people to confuse sex, gender, and gender identity.  But they’re actually all different things.

According to an article by Planned Parenthood: 

• Sex is a label — male or female — that you’re assigned by a doctor at birth based on the genitals you’re born with and the chromosomes you have. It goes on your birth certificate.
• Gender is much more complex: It’s a social and legal status, and set of expectations from society, about behaviors, characteristics, and thoughts. Each culture has standards about the way that people should behave based on their gender. This is also generally male or female. But instead of being about body parts, it’s more about how you’re expected to act, because of your sex.
• Gender identity is how you feel inside and how you express your gender through clothing, behavior, and personal appearance. It’s a feeling that begins very early in life.” 

There are regular people who grow up being told they are one gender only to later find out that their body identifies in a completely different way than what they were told, and they then have to go and buy hygiene products that are only available in women’s size. Nobody likes having their gender questioned, especially not when buying things in the checkout line of a convenience store.

Making the transition from woman to man in modern society is a bit easier than it used to be, but it is in no way a comfortable process trying to fit into a society that has embraced the binary gender rhetoric so wholly. Buying sanitary pads that are branded as products meant for women to keep your boxers and jeans from being stained by a natural bodily function does not improve that level of comfort either.

Many older societies that our own western society holds in great regard, like the Greeks, had far different views on gender and sexuality than we have. The binary gender format has existed for a short time and has been largely influenced by religion and capitalism.  

Producing products that promise to enhance your gender identity in whichever way you swing are sure to be big sellers because they offer something that is intangible in reality and desirable by all. Even the way we think of gendered baby colors today is different from what those colors were 100 years ago.

Religion has also played a major role in influencing binary genders. Binary genders tend to influence reproductive rates, and since most kids born into a religion tend to become faithful members of that religion, binary genders promote the growth of religious faith. However, even gender identity within different religions is defined differently, so clearly gender identity is not a characteristic of human nature.

Ancient Greeks also defined sexuality and gender roles differently from our current society. Greek men used to have sex with their boyfriends and talk with their wives. Sure, they did mate with their wives to produce successors, but the loving relationships were usually between other partners.

Hopefully Proctor & Gamble’s decision to remove the Venus logo from Always sanitary pads is a sign that capitalism and our society can adapt to human biology and become more empathetic of people in general. Many of the people you walk by in your everyday life are going through struggles you could never imagine just based on how they present themselves, so why not try to give at least some of those people a bit of a break?

This editorial was the result of a JAMS 504 editorial board.