The Two Faces of Plastic Restrictions
As the media never tire of reminding us, plastic destroys ecosystems and threatens human health. In the form of microplastics, it is even said to make its way into our blood and our brain. Faced with these environmental and health concerns, a rational public policy should therefore ban single-use plastic items as quickly as possible. All the more so when they are designed to be inserted into the human body.
Guided by these common-sense principles, the European Union therefore banned the sale of single-use plastic straws and cutlery in 2021. The initiative is commendable, except that it curiously omits another disposable item, just as polluting and likewise inserted into the bodies of its users: the tampon applicator. The omission is all the more striking given that an applicator contains, on average, four to five times as much plastic as a simple straw. Worse still, even before the straw ban, a European Commission study had already painted an alarming picture: on European beaches, pollution from menstrual products exceeded that from straws. How, then, can the preferential treatment afforded to tampons be explained?
The LFE offers an answer so obvious as to be almost boring: leftism is the political expression of female preferences. Female comfort therefore naturally takes precedence over environmentalism. This interpretation is further supported by market research. In the United States in particular, tampons with applicators accounted for 91% of sales in 2005, with almost two-thirds featuring a plastic applicator. Even in France, where they have traditionally been less popular than across the Atlantic, they still accounted for 65% of the market in 2014. Women therefore regard tampons with applicators as more convenient and more hygienic than their alternatives. Yet nothing would in principle prevent these devices from being made from materials more sustainable than plastic.
The industry has in fact already tried to adapt by offering cardboard applicators or compostable alternatives. These environmentally friendly solutions, however, run into a wall: women reject them. A comparative study, for example, asked around one hundred women to rate eighteen models of vaginal applicator. Where did the only cardboard model rank? Dead last. Unsurprisingly, the top spots went to smooth plastic applicators. Needless to say, the market will not save the environment.
To keep up appearances, the European Union nevertheless resigned itself to regulating tampons. Not by banning plastic applicators, but by requiring brands to indicate their presence with a logo displayed on the packaging. Thus, whenever female comfort is at stake, leftism prefers awareness-raising to coercion.
Conversely, leftization is sometimes achieved through the rigorous application of environmental principles, provided that they penalise a male preference. The ban on plastic plates and cutlery, for example, complicates the daily lives of young single men by depriving them of a pragmatic means of escaping the chore of washing up. Even the ban on single-use plastic bags can be interpreted through the LFE as an alignment with female preferences. After all, it forces both men and women to bring their own bag when shopping. Yet carrying a bag remains, even today, a behaviour strongly associated with femininity. A French researcher has even quantified this phenomenon in an urban setting. His findings are unequivocal: on the street, 94% of the women observed were carrying a bag, compared with barely 46% of the men.
Moreover, the overwhelming majority of the bags carried by women were handbags, carried over the shoulder, in the hand, or in the crook of the elbow. The female bag therefore ties up at least one hand or restricts movement. Men, by contrast, favoured backpacks and laptop bags worn across the body. That is, bags that are more likely to leave both hands free. But what does the ban on disposable plastic bags actually accomplish? It forces everyone to anticipate their purchases and, as a result, to burden themselves with a tote bag or a bag for life when shopping. These bags are also generally carried by hand or over the shoulder, rather than across the body or on the back. The ban therefore penalises the man who, with his hands in his pockets, normally carries nothing but his phone, keys and bank card. In short, it encourages everyone to adopt a feminine behaviour. Exactly as the LFE predicts.