The CEO of the tampon company August has announced that they want to be a “gender inclusive” brand and referred to women as “menstruators”.
August CEO Nadya Okamoto, 25, appeared on CBS This Morning to talk about her product and why it’s not just marketed to women.
The brand is currently sold at Target and online.
Okamoto was highlighted during a “Changing the Game” segment, which showcases women who are “making a difference.”
The company’s CEO said they were trying to combat “transphobia” with their “inclusive” message.
“We also want a period-positive and gender-inclusive brand,” Okamoto said. “It is August; on the package it says “we are here for all menstruating people”. And I think, especially in this age of transphobia, it really means a lot to us to be a proudly gender-inclusive brand.”
On ‘CBS This Morning’, CEO of feminine products company August, @nadyaokamotox, repeatedly refers to women as ‘menstruators’ pic.twitter.com/LLrV63shoA
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) July 6, 2023
“History and society have built the stigma that makes periods feel so shameful, yes, it makes us feel like there’s something wrong with our bodies,” Okamoto said. “We’ve been taught that period blood is so polluting, like something disgusting.”
“It always breaks my heart to hear so many stories every day of menstruating young men who have their period and never heard of it, doesn’t it? Because all of a sudden you think you’re bleeding,” Okamoto continued. “A lot of people think they pooped because blood can be brown and they don’t know, and menstrual blood is not only liquid, it can also clot -se, so we hear stories regularly from people who think this is how a piece of their heart came out.”
Okamoto added, “It’s just that it can be so scary if you don’t know the details.”
The New York Post noted that “in 2020, veteran activist Ileri Jaiyeoba called out Okamoto for allegedly “lying about his history of housing insecurity and exploiting a false experience of homelessness to push his platform under the term ‘legal homelessness.’
Okamoto, who is Harvard-educated, responded in a statement posted on Twitter, saying “I stopped using the term ‘homeless’ after I realized people assumed I was living in shelters… So now I’m talking more appropriately from my past experience as a period of housing instability.”
Hello everyone! I wanted to answer the questions that have come up about my instability/past housing experience. I was hesitant to post this considering everything going on in the world, but I’ve been seeing a lot of questions about this. Answer here: pic.twitter.com/YbuBxP7yMP
— Nadya Okamoto (@nadyaokamoto) June 6, 2020
The brand web site claims to be “period attention for everyone who menstruates” and features a woman holding tampons with her hands covered in orange goop.
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