Social Media Outrage Over 'Always' Making Products Trans-Inclusive.

The Shade Room: 'Always' Announces Removal Of Female Symbol To Be More Transgender Inclusive

As I was scrolling through the instagram abyss a few weeks ago, I came across a friends story who re-posted an article written by the popular gossip blog "The Shade Room". I typically ignore stories posted by this gossip blog because the content simply doesn't appeal to me. The title of the article read "Always Announces Removal Of Female Symbol From Its Products To Be More Transgender Inclusive", and my friend re-posted it with her own comment saying "This has gone too far! They can't even get their period!". After clicking on the post and scrolling through the comments, my friend was far from alone in this sentiment. People were leaving a range of comments from plain ignorant to full homophobia. One comment even said "What are they going to do, put ketchup on their pad to feel included??". I usually try to ignore the ignorance I see on the internet but this time I really felt the need to inform people and try to come some understanding. I was shocked to see how many people still don't understand what it means to identify as transgender. I responded back to my friend informing her that Always is not necessarily trying to be more inclusive for people who have transitioned from male to female and now have a vagina without the periods, they're probably trying to be more inclusive for non-binary folk and people who identify as male although biologically still get their periods. This led to some more back and forth between us, where she still ended up stuck in the notion that to be transgender means you have fully gone through the surgery to transition. However to identify as transgender doesn't specify at what point of your transitioning journey you are. You may love your biological body but still identify as a different gender or you may not identify with any gender at all. Someone can even fully transition to male or female by getting the surgery and choose to drop the 'trans' and identify as the gender they feel they are, therefore they are no longer trans they are just male/female/ or something in between. Since I am constantly learning about gender and identity, I forget how rigid our society still is when it comes to the concept of gender and sexuality. Seeing how people were outraged and confused about gender identity makes me wonder what I can do to help inform people and open more minds around me.