France rejects bid to reduce price of tampons

The Socialists had put forward an amendment to the 2016 budget, stating that tampons should be taxed at a lower rate as fell under the “basic needs” umbrella.

French MPs on Thursday, however, disagreed, voting to keep the tampons, towels and menstrual cups at their current tax rate of 20 percent.

The Socialists had planned to reduce the tampon tax to just 5.5 percent.

The decision not to lower taxes on the items prompted an outcry from both men and women on social media – especially after France's Secretary of State for the Budget Christian Eckert drew parallels between tampons and men's shaving foam.

Feminist group Georgette Sand kicked off the outcry, releasing a statement that the group was “seeing red”, noting that the decision was carried out “in a meeting where women are underrepresented anyway”.

The group was joined on Twitter by social media users who were also unimpressed by the decision. 

“Wow, so I'm paying taxes on my uterus? So now when I have my period I have to pay socially, physically, and financially?” wrote one.