Have “periods” really been normalized in this 21st century era
A few months ago I was doing my college project with my teammates and one of my teammates was too dumb to solve simple arithmetic mean problems thus calling me, again and again, to seek help and bothering me too much. After several phone calls, I got too exacerbated and therefore started yelling at him not to eat up my head, I can’t handle stress, I am already going through my periods. As soon as I mentioned the word “Periods”, he gave such a weird, suspicious reaction, titillated as if I mentioned the term “sex” (although sex is also a normal phenomenon, in India its not that much normalized and it is also considered immoral to use such terms to a great extent).
We are living in the 21st-century era where the government is doing so much to normalize the term “Periods”, trying to break down the taboo related to periods thus trying to break down the social barriers.
- The supreme court of India grants entry of menstruating women to enter into temples.
- The government launched its own sanitary pads so that girls from the economically weaker section could afford them.
- Government advertisement in which the famous and influential actor Akshay Kumar tells people that it's heroic to buy sanitary pads for their female loved ones rather than using that money to buy cigarettes.
Now I won’t mention other points because it would become too boring to continue reading this.
On one hand, the government is doing so much to eradicate the century-long taboo and end sexism, on the other hand, some crackheads in our society still find it a ‘taboo’.
Now the big question arises where does this problem start? Why do some sections of society still find it a ‘taboo’?
I still remember when counselling sessions were organised in the school where girls were taught about the problems related to menstruation and how hygiene could be maintained and boys were debarred from entering that place.
This is where the problem starts!!!!!!!
Boys should also get to know what kind of problems girls face while going through periods. Periods are a natural phenomenon just like breathing, feeling hungry or anything like that. Taboos in our society have been created because men don’t know fully about periods or the related problems. Not in my family but in many families girls are asked to keep it confidential from the male members of society.
This is where the problem starts!!!!!!!
Whenever we girls buy sanitary pads from pharmaceutical shops they wrap it in a newspaper or black colour bags.
This is where the problem starts!!!!!!!
Why feel ashamed of buying or be made feel ashamed while buying this basic necessity ??
Although this taboo has been broken down to a great extent still some segments of our society find it a “taboo" subject.
It's not just about gender prejudice but if someone laughs while watching ads related to menstruation, or laughs after listening to the word “periods” or makes a joke out of it, then definitely it's a problem which needs to be eliminated from the society.