Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4A — Friday, November 8, 2019

Alanna Berger
Zack Blumberg
Emily Considine
Emma Chang
Joel Danilewitz

Emily Huhman
Krystal Hur
Ethan Kessler
Magdalena Mihaylova
Michael Russo

Timothy Spurlin
Miles Stephenson
Nicholas Tomaino
Joel Weiner
Erin White 

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Managing Editor

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BRITTANY BOWMAN | COLUMN

The harm in non-organic tampons

ALANNA BERGER | COLUMN

ZACK BLUMBERG | COLUMN

How pop culture sees mental illness

Has neoliberalism run its course in Chile?

A

s I settled in to catch up 
on HBO’s award-winning 
series “Barry,” an atypical 
opening announcement took me by 
surprise. In a show about a former hit 
man looking to start anew, pre-show 
warnings on violence are the norm. 
However, this disclaimer stated that 
“the following program contains 
post-traumatic 
stress 
disorder,” 
quickly followed up by “and it’s 
ok.” The next announcement was 
a reminder to call a mental health 
hotline run by both HBO and the 
National Institute of Mental Health 
if the viewer or someone they know 
is in crisis, with an additional website 
address for further information. 
These 
new 
mental 
health-
oriented “bumpers” are a part 
of HBO’s initiative to increase 
awareness 
for 
mental 
illness. 
However, as opposed to issuing 
viewer discretion warnings for 
depictions of mental illness, as 
Netflix did with the controversial 
“13 Reasons Why,” HBO’s alerts 
serve 
another 
purpose. 
They 
highlight the reality that living 
with a mental illness is normal and 
provide a reminder that there is no 
shame in seeking help. Rather than 
advising those who are sensitive 
away from certain scenes because 
of their content, these bumpers 
act as invitations of discussion on 
specific mental illnesses. These 
“viewer conversation encouraged” 
advisories will accompany some of 
HBO’s most popular programs, such 
as “Euphoria,” “Girls,” “Succession” 
and “The Sopranos.” In addition to 
the use of mental health-oriented 
bumpers, 
HBO’s 
partnership 
with NIMH includes a series of 
educational videos with expert 
commentary on myths surrounding 
mental health issues as well as 
discussion on their portrayal in the 
episode. 
This initiative by HBO represents 
the beginning of a larger societal 
change regarding mental illness. 
The media has a profound influence 
on the reinforcement of public 
perception of a certain population 
based 
upon 
their 
common 
portrayal. The American aversion 
to conversations on mental illness 
is often augmented by inaccurate 
portrayals 
in 
popular 
culture. 
However, 
current 
depictions 
in TV programs and movies 
demonstrate drastic progress in the 
understanding of mental health over 
the past century. 
In the 1950s, for example, the 
majority of the U.S. populace 
equated all mental illness with 

psychosis. During this era, issues 
pertaining to mental health were 
often avoided, contributing to such 
inaccurate perceptions. The danger 
and violence often associated with 
mental illness is highlighted by 
Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 horror 
film “Psycho.” In the film, serial 
killer 
Norman 
Bates 
develops 
what is now known as dissociative 
identity disorder and engages in 
a series of violent murders. The 
horror genre’s emphasis on violence 
and mental illness continues with 
John 
Carpenter’s 
famed 
1978 
classic, “Halloween.” The storyline 
of this film involves an escaped 
mental asylum patient, Michael 
Myers, and his deranged killing 
spree of teenagers in his suburban 
hometown. 
Breaking away from horror films, 
mental illness was again in the 
spotlight in the Academy Award-
winning 1975 film “One Flew Over 
the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Based on the 
popular 1962 novel of the same name, 
the film stars Jack Nicholson as 
Randle Patrick McMurphy, a convict 
who feigns mental illness to avoid 
a prison sentence. In many senses, 
“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” 
was a radical, innovative portrayal 
of mental illness. The oftentimes 
patronizing and inadequate care 
experienced by institutionalized 
patients is at the forefront of the plot. 
The characters involved are treated 
as children by their caregivers 
and have little hope for life after 
release. As opposed to portraying 
them as violent killers, the mental 
health patients here are humans 
condemned to life in a health care 
system that cannot properly care for 
them. 
However, 
the 
movie’s 
most 
memorable scenes involve terrifying 
moments as McMurphy’s character 
undergoes violent electroconvulsive 
shock therapy as a punishment 
for unruly behavior. Eventually, 
the 
once-lively 
McMurphy 
is 
lobotomized and left in a zombie-
like state before being euthanized by 
his roommate. “One Flew Over the 
Cuckoo’s Nest” certainly challenged 
the status quo in terms of typical 
representations of mental illness. 
However, the popularity of the film 
influenced common ideas of mental 
illness for years to come. A 1983 study 
finds that college students viewed 
those with mental illness more 
negatively after viewing the film.
Understandings of mental illness 
began to change at the end of the 20th 
century. In contrast to perceptions in 
the 1950s, Americans in 1996 showed 

a deeper understanding of the non-
psychotic symptoms of mental 
illness. However, these same results 
also found that U.S. society by the 
late 1990s still maintained negative 
attitudes toward those with mental 
illness. Representation of mental 
health in pop culture seemed to turn 
a corner with 2001’s “A Beautiful 
Mind.” The biographical film about 
the life of famed mathematician 
John Nash and his schizophrenia 
diagnosis 
demonstrated 
those 
with mental illnesses as capable 
of achieving remarkable goals. 
“A Beautiful Mind” depicted the 
vivid, haunting hallucinations that 
followed Nash throughout his life 
while also showing his triumphs, 
including 
a 
Nobel 
Prize 
for 
economics and his ability to have a 
family.
The relationship between public 
perception and pop culture portrayal 
of mental illness cannot be ignored. 
All too often, movies and TV shows 
fail to accurately demonstrate the 
reality of mental health problems, 
further stigmatizing an already 
marginalized population. However, 
the 
HBO-NIMH 
initiative 
represents 
changing 
ideals 
on 
popular 
culture’s 
handling 
of 
mental illness. While films such 
as 
“Psycho” 
and 
“Halloween” 
demonized 
those 
with 
mental 
illnesses, 
more 
contemporary 
depictions represent a different path. 
NIMH has praised movies such as 
“Silver Linings Playbook” (2012), 
“The Skeleton Twins” (2014) and 
“The Perks of Being a Wallflower” 
(2012) as examples of humanizing, 
accurate portrayals of mental illness. 
However, negative and harmful 
portrayals of mental illness still 
persist. “13 Reasons Why” received 
criticism for targeting a vulnerable 
teenage audience while highlighting 
a suicide revenge fantasy and 
failing to mention mental health 
or mental illness at all in the first 
season. M. Night Shyamalan’s 2015 
thriller “Split” once again features 
a violent villain with dissociative 
identity disorder, reviving a trope 
seen since “Psycho.” Despite these 
instances, Hollywood seems to be 
reversing the trend of demonizing 
mental illness. More and more films 
released recently have received 
praise for accurate displays of 
mental illness. The HBO-NIMH 
partnership represents a societal 
trend on opening honest dialogue 
surrounding 
mental 
illness, 
as 

Alanna Berger can be reached at 

balanna@umich.edu.

F

or the past several weeks, 
Chile has been rocked by 
massive protests, mainly 
in the capital city of Santiago. 
Traditionally, protests of this scale 
are the result of major political, 
social or economic decisions made 
by a government that citizens feel 
would dramatically impact their 
lives. However, in Chile’s case, the 
uprising was caused by a seemingly 
innocuous change: the city of 
Santiago’s decision to raise the price 
of metro tickets by 30 pesos, or about 
four cents. While this may seem like 
a strange catalyst for nationwide 
protests, the increased metro fare 
cannot be viewed in isolation. For 
many Chileans, this is representative 
of systemic problems with their 
nation’s society and government 
which have gone on for far too long. 
Since the mid-1970s, Chile’s 
socioeconomic identity has centered 
on neoliberalism, and this free-
market ideology helped spur a 
period of growth which economist 
Milton 
Friedman 
once 
called 
the “Chilean Miracle.” However, 
while some raw data may point to 
Chile’s neoliberal period as a time 
of success, this is misleading. In 
reality, Chile’s economic growth 
has almost exclusively benefited 
the social and political elites, and 
the country’s neoliberal policies 
have left most citizens struggling 
mightily. Ultimately, what Chile and 
Chilean citizens need is not a return 
to lower metro fares or a reshuffled 
government, but rather a systematic 
shift away from the neoliberal 
economic policies that have propped 
up economic growth for decades, 
but have simultaneously failed to 
provide for the vast majority of the 
Chilean people. 
To begin, it is important to 
critically evaluate the Chilean 
economy’s 
impressive 
statistical 
growth of the past 40 years, since 
on a purely numeric level, some 
of the numbers are undeniably 
strong. In 1980, Chile’s GDP per 
capita sat at $2,577.32 per person, 
essentially level with the world 
average of $2,530. However, by 
2013 Chile’s GDP per capita had 
risen to $15,941.40 per person, 

substantially higher than the global 
average of $10,764 per person. In 
South America specifically, Chile’s 
economic trajectory has followed 
a similar path. Around 1980, the 
nation’s wealth was in line with 
the regional average, but by 2013, it 
was one of the wealthiest nations in 
South America. 
However, these statistics don’t tell 
the whole story of Chile’s economic 
development under neoliberalism. 
First, overall economic growth 
has been stagnating in Chile in 
recent years. Since the nation first 
introduced its neoliberal economic 
policies in the 1970s, annual GDP 
increases of over 5 percent have been 
common. However, in recent years 
this growth has tailed off, and since 
2014, Chile’s GDP annual growth 
rate has never surpassed 2.5 percent 
(the five year period from 2014 to 
today is the only period in which this 
has happened). More importantly 
than the country’s overall economic 
standing, Chile’s neoliberal policies 
have created massive inequality 
within the country, which is at 
the heart of many protesters’ 
discontent. Today, Chile is the most 
economically 
unequal 
member 
of the 36-country Organisation 
for Economic Co-operation and 
Development, with a greater wealth 
disparity than countries such as 
Mexico, Turkey and Hungary. 
Additionally, while the country’s 
overall poverty rate has declined, 
much of the urban population is still 
impoverished.
Unsurprisingly, 
Chile’s 
focus 
on privatization and market-based 
policies has created a societal 
structure 
which 
worsens 
the 
difficulties 
already 
inherently 
associated with working-class life. 
The most prominent inequality 
in Chile’s current political system 
is the nation’s tax plan, which has 
two major problems: It both fails to 
raise sufficient revenue for federal 
projects and is highly inequitable, 
frequently foisting a great deal of the 
nation’s costs onto the lower class. 
First, Chile has by far the lowest 
tax revenue of any OECD nation, 
which prevents the government 
from effectively providing public 

services to the people, a problem 
which is particularly pertinent for 
lower and middle-class Chileans. 
Intertwined with this is Chile’s 
second problem, which is the 
nation’s extremely unprogressive 
tax system. Today, Chile only has 
three income brackets taxed at 
above 20 percent (for comparison, 
under President Trump’s tax cut, 
the United States has five). The 
nature of Chile’s neoliberal tax 
system means the nation misses out 
on a chance to actually raise revenue 
from society’s wealthiest members, 
leading to limited government 
spending 
or 
disproportionate 
taxation of the working class, either 
through increased income taxes or 
an excessive reliance on regressive 
policies such as sales tax. 
Taking all this into account, it’s 
easy to see why protesters across 
Chile have taken to the street. 
Their nation’s economic model has 
promoted growth overall, but has 
left the vast majority of the citizenry 
behind. This is not a protest over 
a particular leader or corrupt 
government official, but rather over 
an entrenched economic system that 
requires substantial overhauling. 
So far, Chilean leadership seems 
unwilling to acquiesce to the 
protesters demands, with President 
Sebastían Piñera removing some 
hardline government officials, but 
not making any drastic changes. 
Furthermore, the government has 
cracked down on protests with 
violence, something that has a very 
ugly history in Chile. Unfortunately 
for Piñera and the government, 
the endemic problems behind the 
citizens discontent are omnipresent 
and are unlikely to simply fade 
away. In order to truly counter 
these problems, Chile must finally 
drop its focus on neoliberalism and 
make a systematic shift toward 
raising taxes, nationalizing certain 
goods and services, and focusing 
on providing for its working-class 
citizens — then, and only then, will 
the problems behind this movement 
be abated. 

Zack Blumberg can be reached at 

zblumber@umich.edu.

W

ith so many new 
companies 
offering 
organic 
cotton 
menstrual products, my housemates 
and I got to talking one night and 
wondered why so many people were 
making the switch. There are the 
obvious reasons: There’s less waste 
with silicone cups, and the smaller 
companies are run by knowledgeable 
women versus huge corporations. 
There’s also the glaring concept that, 
compared to non-organic items, 
organic products are simply better 
for you due to the lack of chemicals. 
My friends and I began to look up 
the ingredients of commercial and 
conventional tampons and realized 
we actually knew nothing of what 
goes into them. 
Like many things, the Food 
and Drug Administration doesn’t 
thoroughly require toxicity testing 
for menstrual products or that all 
ingredients and the manufacturing 
process be made transparent to 
consumers. They do recommend that 
tampons should be free of pesticide 
residue, but many still contain trace 
amounts due to the manufacturing 
procedure. 
Furthermore, 
the 
cotton that constitutes non-organic 
tampons is commercially produced, 
meaning it goes through rigorous 
bleaching and chemical cleaning 
that exposes the cotton fibers to 
toxins. More insecticides are used to 
grow conventional cotton than any 
other commercial crop.
First, let’s consider the area of the 
body that tampons regularly come 
into contact with. As many of us 
know, tampons are inserted directly 
into the body to absorb blood and stop 
external leakage. The tampon then 
resides in the upper two-thirds of the 
vaginal canal, an area rich in blood 
vessels and mucous membranes. 
Additionally, the vaginal epithelium 
is covered in multiple layers of dead 
and dying cells, and the vaginal 
mucous membrane helps to protect 
against harmful microorganisms 
and bacteria. However, this tissue 
is nowhere near as thick as our 
external skin, and this tissue is 
efficient 
at 
carrying 
chemical 
messengers and other materials 
throughout the body. 
A report from Women’s Voice for 
the Earth, a nonprofit organization, 
states 
that 
within 
menstrual 
products, there are ingredients used 
that are known or suspected to be 
endocrine-disrupting 
chemicals, 

or EDCs. The endocrine system is 
a complex physiological network 
of glands and organs that work to 
produce and secrete hormones. 
When 
the 
endocrine 
system 
functions 
normally, 
it 
works 
brilliantly 
to 
regulate 
healthy 
development and body function. 
However, when exposed to EDCs 
— which can be substances in the 
environment, food, personal care 
and/or 
manufactured 
products 
— this system is disrupted. Some 
EDCs can act as “mimic hormones” 
and trick our bodies while others 
can stop natural hormones from 
doing their job. They can increase 
or decrease natural hormone levels, 
change how sensitive our bodies 
are to hormones and have the 
ability to ultimately cause various 
injurious health outcomes. These 
deviations of healthy processes can 
include abnormalities in sex organs, 
endometriosis, 
early 
puberty, 
changed nervous system or immune 
function, 
including 
respiratory, 
metabolic, cardiovascular issues and 
more. 
The breakthrough concerning 
EDCs came following a time when 
female researchers realized there 
was really no scientific research 
into the development or effects of 
conventional tampon usage. Vaginal 
research desperately needed more 
attention, and women such as Penny 
Hitchcock and Nancy Alexander 
took this opportunity to begin 
research 
programs 
on 
vaginal 
physiology, 
microbicides 
and 
immunology. These new programs 
founded by women led to the 
knowledge that certain chemicals, 
many of which were conventionally 
used in or around reproductive 
organs, could irritate or even damage 
vaginal epithelial cells. While nearly 
everyone who menstruates uses 
some type of tampon or sanitary 
pad, the chemicals in those create 
a perfect environment for altering 
normal vaginal physiology. In a 
study conducted in 2000 to provide 
numbers for how many people use 
which menstrual hygiene product, 
a range of 50 to 86 percent use 
tampons, 75 percent use panty 
liners, 62 to 73 percent use pads 
and so on. With a rough majority 
of users opting for the tampon 
route, 
many 
people 
choosing 
conventional tampons are directly 
and unknowingly subjecting their 
body to microdoses of chemicals and 

parabens. 
Groundbreaking 
menstrual 
health research, which has only 
started in the past few decades, 
creates 
greater 
awareness 
surrounding chemicals in hygiene 
products, but there’s still a large data 
and funding gap. This means people 
who menstruate really don’t know 
what is going into their bodies and 
how those products are affecting 
their health. 
This brings us to the upside of 
organic cotton tampons. To be 
labeled organic, any product must go 
through considerably stricter FDA 
guidelines than their nonorganic 
counterparts. For this reason, we 
know exactly what we are getting, 
and that is often pesticide-free, 
rayon-free, 
synthetic 
fiber-free, 
all-organic, cotton tampons. The 
wonderful women who started the 
organic tampon movement industry, 
pioneering companies like LOLA 
and Cora, ensure their consumers 
that their companies do not contain 
synthetic fibers, chemical additives, 
fragrances, dyes, chlorine bleach, 
GMOs, pesticides, toxins, latex 
or formaldehyde. We can assume 
that if a company specifically states 
those ingredients are not involved in 
their products, it would be logical to 
believe those bad ingredients go into 
the widely purchased, conventional 
tampons — But we don’t really know, 
do we?
Of course, the FDA does regulate 
tampons 
as 
medical 
devices 
and provides many guidelines 
companies should follow. However, 
this doesn’t mean the micro-
amounts of chemicals still allowed 
in 
non-organic, 
conventional 
menstrual products are necessarily 
safe for you or ideal to put in your 
body. For the same reason many 
people made the switch to organic 
foods to avoid consuming trace 
amounts of pesticides, fertilizers or 
carcinogens, many are now making 
the switch to organic tampons 
to avoid those same things. For 
some, including myself and my 
housemates, organic tampons have 
anecdotally reduced menstruation 
time or lessened period cramps. 
These results could be due to a 
variety of reasons, but it gives us 
peace of mind to know what we are 
putting in our bodies. 

Brittany Bowman can be reached 

at babowm@umich.edu.

SOFIA ZERTUCHE | CONTACT CARTOONIST AT SOFZER@UMICH.EDU

