Exclusive: Boots Announces It's Renaming Its Feminine Hygiene Aisle
Boots is the latest brand to announce that it is renaming its feminine hygiene aisle.
The high street health and beauty retailer confirmed to Tyla that the category containing products such as tampons and sanitary pads was renamed on its website last week, while new signage is set to be introduced in stores later this year.
On the Boots website, customers can now find the newly-named 'period products' under the dedicated tab in the toiletries section.
Period products have traditionally been labelled with the words 'hygiene' and 'sanitary' however these terms have recently come under scrutiny for perpetuating taboos around menstruation.
Advert
Campaigners argue the word ‘hygiene’ could falsely imply that periods are unclean, and have been calling for the term 'feminine hygiene' to be abolished from supermarket aisles for some time.
Jamie Kerruish, beauty director at Boots UK, explained the change to Tyla: “When it comes to periods, we know retailers can play an important role in changing people’s perceptions, including the words we use to describe products.
“We are proud to be implementing this change at Boots, starting with removing words like ‘hygiene’ and ‘sanitary’ and much more proudly saying ‘period products’ on boots.com and the Boots App.
“We are currently reviewing signage in store too, which will be updated later in the year. Period products are essentials, and we want to ensure our customers can find and access all of the products they need with ease at Boots.”
Asda recently announced it had changed the name of its feminine hygiene aisle to ‘period products’ last month, a move which received praise across social media.
The supermarket chain, which boasts 631 locations across the UK, said it had made the change to be more inclusive.
An Asda spokesperson said: “We're proud to have made this change in our stores to better reflect shoppers' attitudes around period products. These items are an essential part of the shop for so many, so this change in wording helps us move towards removing the stigma from periods and period products."
Gregory Robinson