New York: This week, in a crowded room in New York City, council member Julissa Ferreras-Copeland whipped out a small, wrapped tampon and waved it in the air.

She did not sneak it from her purse or secretly shove it up her shirt sleeve. She was not on her way to the bathroom. The councillor was trying to make a point, and this tampon was her prop.

Tammy Compton restocks the tampon shelf in a store in Sacramento. Credit:Rich Pedroncelli/AP

"They're as necessary as toilet paper," she said.

It was a defiant act against period stigma and a taboo Ms Ferreras-Copeland has been fighting against in her quest for what she calls "menstrual equity".