May is going to be a menstravangaza. We’re saying that with jazz hands because this month:
- women will be menstruating all over the world, every day of the month;
- 73 million women are menstruating right now;
- women are having period sex without the mess;
- Menstrual Hygiene Day is May 28th.
Menstrual Hygiene Day. In this the third annual installment, launched by Berlin-based NGO Wash United, we’re all about undoing the taboo of menstruation. Because for the first time in America, women and men are talking about gender equality and social change through the narrative of women’s periods. Over the last year (dubbed “the year of the period” by NPR) pop culture propelled menstrual equity into the mainstream, moving us from a picture of period pants being removed from Instagram (twice) to a TV show that flaunts period pants as a lifehack. That’s progress. The latest iteration of Hollywood lifting the flame for menstrual equity aired last week in the season finale of Broad City, when a main character used period pants to her advantage and made us shout out “no shame in the stain!” in between fits of LOLs.
For women around the world, menstruation signals ostracization, feelings of shame, or straight-up discrimination. But shows like Broad City and days like Menstrual Hygiene Day are coming about to both reframe the dialogue and enact policy change. Here’s one way menstruation is being reframed- what if feeling “icky” during your period was the least of your problems, because being on your period meant not getting an education? Only 12% of India’s 355 million menstruating women use feminine hygiene products. And if changing your feminine hygiene product is a normal part of your day, would you go to school if you, like 83% of girls in Burkina Faso, had no place to change your product of choice? Reframing is also being done by notable policy makers, who have carefully chosen their statements to reflect that menstrual hygiene is not a women’s rights issue, but a human rights issue.
Guaranteeing the right to water, sanitation and hygiene is “an enormous human rights challenge of the twenty first century that has yet to be met.” — Craig Mokhiber, Chief of the UN Human Rights Office Development and Economic and Social Issues
Chandra-Mouli, a WHO scientist for adolescent health, underscores this message, stating “menstrual problems don’t kill anyone, but for me, they are still an extremely important issue because they affect how girls view themselves, and they affect confidence, and confidence is the key to everything.”
Menstrual Hygiene Day isn’t just about chipping away at stigma. It’s about spurring policy changes, so that menstruation is no longer a debilitating or deadly outcome for the 2.5 billion people who face inadequate access to sanitation and hygiene at home and in schools. We’re getting somewhere, from this month’s abolishment of the tampon tax in New York (saving New York women $14 million/year) to the legal outlawing of chhaupadi (the practice of segregating menstruating women from their houses and men) in Nepal. But there are still 39 states that charge luxury tax on tampons, and chhaupadi as a practice had been slow to change since 2005.
How about this week, in honor of Menstrual Hygiene Day, you tell us why #menstruationmatters to you? And when your period hits this month, take a tip from J.Law and maybe don’t suck in your uterus. It’s too sacred.
