By: Samantha Metlitz
Period, menstruation, time of the month, crimson tide, whatever you call it, most of us know something about periods and fifty percent of the world’s population have firsthand experience with it. Women get it once a month for the majority of their lives, yet all around the world periods are a taboo subject. People become uncomfortable talking about periods and women feel the need to hide when they get theirs like it’s something embarrassing and shameful to have. While in high school, I would try to hide tampons and pads in pockets or sleeves or bring my whole backpack to the bathroom. I felt the need to hide the fact that I was on my period as if it was shameful in some way. In other countries, the stigma surrounding menstruation and menstrual hygiene causes bigger issues. In some places, women are isolated during their periods or are forced to leave schools because of lack of proper sanitation and access to sanitary products. According to a World Bank blog post, girls in Sub-Saharan Africa miss 20% of a school year because of menstruation (Lusk-Stover, 2016). Lack of access to proper menstrual hygiene products, water, and sanitation is a major issue for women. A study on this issue found that menstrual hygiene in refugee camps was not being properly addressed because the emergency response workers were uncomfortably about the subject, causing them not to properly address the issue (Schmitt et al., 2017). Menstrual hygiene and menstruation need to become normalized so that they’re no longer taboo.
The article “In Some Countries, Women Get Days Off for Period Pain” by Aneri Pattani caught my eye because it shows how this stigma is being combatted, yet stigma is preventing this policy from being successful. Pattani talks about a company in India called Culture Machine and how a female employee, Akanksha Seda, goes to her boss, who is male, and asks for the day off because she has cramps. In the article, Pattani discusses how there are arguments against this leave, saying that “these policies may play into a decades-old prejudice that menstruation makes women unfit for work” and might cause discrimination when it comes to promotions or being hired (Pattani, 2017). These arguments show how the stigma surrounding menstruation affects women’s ability to work in a misogynist world. There are also arguments that these policies imply that all women are unable to work due to cramps and in countries that implement these policies, they aren’t successful because few women use these leave days citing “societal pressures” and “men who see it as a form of reverse discrimination” (Pattani, 2017). Stigma is preventing these programs from being successful and are not enough to combat the shame women feel for getting their period.
The most powerful part of the article is the though is the last couple of lines, “To Ms. Seda at Culture Machine, the debate seems ridiculous. ‘If the world had no men, if there were only women working, nobody would have been up in arms about a “first day of period” leave,’ she said” (Pattani, 2017). Women should be able to take a day off from work if they need to due to excruciating cramps. Having their period should not be seen as a weakness but as a normal biological function that 50% of the world’s population experiences once a month.
The key to making periods less taboo is to normalize them. We need to take away the shame that surrounds menstruation so people no matter their gender will feel comfortable about the subject. Policies like the one at Culture Machine take the necessary steps towards normalizing menstruation, yet stigma prevents it from being successful. Culture Machine is trying to normalize the topic of menstruation and has allowed women like Akanksha Seda comfortable enough to approach her male boss about taking leave for cramps instead of staying quiet and trying to power through debilitating pain.
Culture Machine is not the only place that is fighting menstrual stigma. The article “Blood, Sweat, and Cheers: 2017 Was the Year of the Period Thanks to These Activists” lists different places and people who are taking action to normalize menstrual hygiene and the topic of menstruation. Commercials are changing to fight the stigma (see link below) and people are finding ways to get menstrual hygiene products to people with limited access. We need to follow the footsteps of these places and people both mentioned and unmentioned in these articles to normalize menstrual hygiene and ensure that periods are not a barrier for women.
Blood Normal Commercial by Bodyform link:
Blood Commercial by Bodyform link:
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