Growing up in an orthodox household with complicated rules for what I could touch and which rooms I could go to during that time of the month, I had always rued the lack of privacy. Monthly cycles of the women folk were inescapable to the extended family then. It's been empowering to not to be that way anymore, to go about as normally as I could and keep it strictly private; it's none of the others' bloody business after all. We have come a long way from the times of our mothers and grandmothers, largely no doubt due to the availability of modern sanitary products, medications and such.
But clearly not enough as the actions and reactions to Kiran Gandhi and even more so to Rupi Kaur show us.
Age, mature male presence, events like childbirth, urban setting all contribute to the comfort levels of talking about such matters. But all said and done, it is a topic that I'd freely discuss with the sisterhood, but not with any random guy. Who knows maybe there is some latent shame.
Either way no doubt the world uses every opportunity, be it banning refined pictures about periods, making PMS jokes about strong women or freely expressing their disgust about period talk, as means to subjugating women in subtle and not so subtle ways. When you read about Muruganantham about how many women would rather resort to unhygienic products than talking to a man about other options, you realize the seriousness of the matter.
Honestly to address all that, intellectual ruminations in sundry blog posts like mine are useless. Bold actions like those mentioned above that can capture the attention of this distracted world is what we need. But even that can only go so far and is just a start.
But clearly not enough as the actions and reactions to Kiran Gandhi and even more so to Rupi Kaur show us.
Age, mature male presence, events like childbirth, urban setting all contribute to the comfort levels of talking about such matters. But all said and done, it is a topic that I'd freely discuss with the sisterhood, but not with any random guy. Who knows maybe there is some latent shame.
Either way no doubt the world uses every opportunity, be it banning refined pictures about periods, making PMS jokes about strong women or freely expressing their disgust about period talk, as means to subjugating women in subtle and not so subtle ways. When you read about Muruganantham about how many women would rather resort to unhygienic products than talking to a man about other options, you realize the seriousness of the matter.
Honestly to address all that, intellectual ruminations in sundry blog posts like mine are useless. Bold actions like those mentioned above that can capture the attention of this distracted world is what we need. But even that can only go so far and is just a start.
