We are in the middle of a weekend of food collections by Restos du coeur. There were also non-food donations in the news this week. It is the association “Solidarity Donations” which takes care of this, it collected hygiene products in particular, and published a survey which reveals that one in two French people now say they are reducing their consumption of hygiene products due to lack of money.
We can go into a little more detail. 16% of women say they have already lacked periodic protection, for example. And then when it comes to hygiene and appearance, 40% say they limit themselves when it comes to makeup. Nearly one in five people now limit themselves in their purchases of razors, 16% on deodorant, in a trade-off, often, with food.
franceinfo: This association, Dons solidaires, Jean Viard, considers that the situation is alarming…
Jean Viard: There are two things about polls. It gives us an indication, but it’s interesting. It’s often a little increased in France where people complain a lot. Afterwards, poverty in France increased slightly, that is indisputable. Food prices have increased a lot, much faster than others, since we are almost at 20%. So, in modest circles, we had to make choices, it is absolutely indisputable.
In the previous century, we spoke of “No family”, we speak of the homeless, because the big question in our society is those who do not have a home, whereas in the previous century, it was were those who had no family. The change of word tells us something: the main exclusion is not having housing.
As soon as you have a house, a water point, a shower, you are already a little part of society, you have an address, you can wash, shave, etc. Do you still have to be able to afford razor blades? This is the first exclusion. The second actually is body care and particularly for ladies, because basically, these are subjects that we are starting to talk about now. Periodic protection, now, there are distributors in universities, there are companies that specialize.
So for a long time, it was a bit shameful, we didn’t talk about it. It was like free pills, up to a certain age, or condoms; all these questions which had a link to women’s bodies or sexuality, we hid them, we hide them less. It is a very good thing. Let’s not return to abortion which falls into the same category, the passage of abortion in the Constitution also enters into the inclusion of women’s right to their body, and indeed their sovereignty over their body. That seems to me to be the crux of the debate on these different subjects.
Coming back to this survey, there is also, apart from periodic protection, the question about other hygiene products, and young people are the most concerned: 41% of 18/24 year olds have already had to decide between a purchase food and a hygiene product. And this causes, according to the Dons solidaires association, a feeling of unease among young people which leads to social avoidance?
First of all, we are in societies of the image, in societies of appearance. Of course, self-confidence, when you don’t feel beautiful, when you’re not well shaved, when you don’t wear makeup, this study also concerns boys. In a way, we are not in control of our appearance, but what does that mean to us? This brings us back to the fact that with youth, we have a problem that we are not treating. We are in a society where from 16 to 26 years old, we learn to become adults. Sometimes we work, sometimes we don’t work, sometimes we are in a relationship, sometimes we separate.
It’s a propaedeutic of life, a period of learning. And then at 26, we stabilize, permanent contract, babies at 30, etc. In this generation, some are entitled to student social security, but I think that we must give social security to all young people. There is a lot of thinking to be done about young people, and after we help them to work, I am very favorable to part-time work for young people, but in fact, it needs to be much better organized.
This study precisely contrasts hygiene products versus food products, the sacrifice made on one or the other, we have the impression that it is somewhat reminiscent of this debate which was poorly experienced by many, on this which was essential and non-essential during Covid, when everything can seem essential during these periods…
Beauty is essential, pleasing is essential, eating is obviously essential, and eating to have a beautiful body, in a society where most of us spend our lives sitting, and that That’s why there are so many people walking, doing sports, etc.
We are in a society where we want to be attractive, without age limits. It’s a good thing, I think, this society of desire, and so it’s a real problem, this choice. We have to get this to decrease!