Shh: Period Woos
The human civilization has come a long way with all of the technological advancements that most of the world has access to do yet there is still one thing that remains outdated - the lack of normalization of natural processes in the woman's body: sweat, breast milk and the monthly agony of menstruation.
Girls as young as ten are taught to keep this part of growing up and maturing as a topic that is best reserved for one’s gynecologists alongside their mothers. While this does not seem serious at all, it poses a great threat to women all over Asia. In essence, this means that only 12% of the Indian population has access to sanitary products while the rest resorts to using unhygienic alternatives like socks, newspapers, tissue papers, and even leaves.
Furthermore, it is even more difficult to demand a solution when it comes to accessibility of menstrual products like pads, tampons, and other items that are necessary when girls are being silenced into shame as menstruation is continually branded as something hideous and disgusting.
It is oddly ironic how the things that signify life, nourishment, and fertility is perceived as something shameful all across countries and cultures when the man himself was born from it.
This, in turn, poses a controversial question of why this remains the current predicament for women.
The long history of misogyny and subtle hate for women can be attributed when religion, which is predominantly practiced all over the globe with various traditions, started to brand such thing to be dirty and shameful.
This then led other communities to completely segregate women during their menstruation. The underlying misogyny held most women back as it became a topic that has to be discreet and be discussed in bathrooms instead of wide-open spaces where there is a thorough conversation on the matter.
And because it remains a secret, a lot of things are left unsaid about the human body along with a deep understanding of how the reproductive system works. This creates a domino effect when it comes to topics that aim to discuss sexuality, sexual liberation, and hinders girls from truly understanding the change that is happening in their bodies.
Not being able to anticipate such change can be a horrifying experience for some: there are multiple reports from across the globe with girls fainting from terror as they assume a life-threatening disease instead of being able to calmly address nature taking its course.
There are a lot of consequences from not being able to take part in the conversation: unwanted teenage pregnancy, lack of accessibility to necessary products and not being able to embrace it fully.
Fortunately, there are a lot of non-profit organizations that want to change the stigma that revolves around it. Girls should be able to ask for help as easy as one would request for a condiment in a café. If you want to be a part of the change the world desperately needs, there’s one thing you can do for a start- say it. Period.