Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene ‘Tampon Shortage’ Remarks

On June 14 2022, a Reddit user shared a claim to to the subreddit r/nottheonion (“for true stories that are so mind-blowingly ridiculous, that you could have sworn it was an Onion story”) that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) had blamed a tampon shortage on transgender people:

Comments attributed to Greene were not uncommonly the subject of public confusion and mockery. Previous instances include references to the “gazpacho police” and taxes during ice ages; Greene also made outlandish statements of a more serious nature, such as one about a peaceful transfer of power, and another about white supremacists‘ voting patterns:

As for a tampon shortage in 2022, supply chain disruptions and staffing issues, not transgender people, led to reports of tampon scarcity. A June 14 2022 BBC article reported:

Major tampon manufacturers in the United States have pledged to make more of the sanitary products to address shortages in the country.

One firm told the BBC the pandemic had caused staff shortages at its plants.

Social media users have been posting about their experiences as they struggle to find sanitary products.

One Reddit user said they visited eight stores to find tampons with a cardboard applicator, before deciding to buy them online “at a noticeable mark-up”.

It comes as the war in Ukraine is making the raw materials used in sanitary products more costly.

The shortage is also adding to concerns that supply chain disruptions could further push up prices for essential goods around the world.

Greene tweeted at least twice about a tampon shortage, on June 13 and June 15 2022:

Greene also made similar statements during a June 2022 podcast appearance. Clips of that appearance were shared to Twitter on June 13 2022:

In the clip, Greene described transgender women as “men,” claiming:

Men have taken over everything, they’re women of the year in every category, in women’s categories. Now there’s a shortage of tampons — and that’s probably because men are buying tampons.

On and after June 13 2022, a popular social media claim held that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) blamed a tampon shortage on transgender women. In the context of Greene’s remarks, she first said that transgender women have “taken over everything, they’re women of the year in every category.” She then referenced the tampon shortage, stating it was “probably because men are buying tampons.”