This column is written for folks who menstruate, but even if you don’t, you might find it insightful.

 

            So I have done a few workshops on D.I.Y. menstrual health over the past year and have really grown to have a passion for this topic. There have been some awesome zines and articles written from a feminist/anarchist/radical perspective on this issue and I encourage further reading because I cannot fit everything (nor do I know everything, obviously) into one column. The following is inspired from my workshop.

 

            I usually begin with asking the folks in attendance to share, if they’re comfortable, what their introduction to menstruation was. This is usually very interesting. The majority of the stories shared are ones of embarrassment or when parent(s) (mainly mothers) get overly excited about their “daughter’s” “becoming” a woman. Some participants said they had celebratory dinners, others received a piece of jewelry or some kind of gift. In contrast, others said they wanted to crawl into a cave and hide it from everyone, even their mother or parent(s). The most shocking—and surprisingly common of older women—introduction was getting their first period. Meaning, they were completely unaware that a female even had a period until then. One person shared that they thought there was something unique and wrong with themselves. Another said she thought she was dying—her mother passed away when she was a child and her father never told her about menstruation.

            Among the stories shared, there is a similar strand throughout many of them which is, not surprisingly, shame. Shame for thinking your body is gross. Shame for thinking there is something wrong with your own body. And shame for knowing nearly nothing about this change that you’re facing simply because people generally do not talk about menstruation in a supportive manner.

 

            I don’t need to get into how hard it is for a person in their pre or early teens in life. We’ve all been there. I’m not saying life is easy for everyone after that, but we can all recognize that biological changes then are, in particular, difficult to deal with. But I find it interesting that amongst all of the changes people encounter when they “grow up”, none are hardly things to feel shame for except when it comes to a female’s period. Sure, maybe awkward feelings, but rarely shame.

           

            While this notion of shame may seem insane, it is actually a carefully cultivated idea by the “menstruation industry” that wishes to profit from it. It’s simple. You make someone who is young, vulnerable, and easily influenced by their peers and society that being dirty and gross is a bad thing, and you teach them through media, school health classes (yes Tampax advertises their products in sex ed. classes by providing videos and curriculum and in some cases a “tampon lady” to come and present their product), and parental guidance about how to take care of themselves so that they do not feel dirty and gross, and they will do it. Obviously. And if you’re a woman, you better purchase their products and believe what they say or else the girls in the locker room will shun you or gossip and spread rumors about how gross, or to use the industry’s phrase, “unsanitary”, you are.

 

            So getting young girls to use corporate menstrual products is obviously very simple then. Once a young female tries pads or tampons, she is hooked because of their convenience and availability and as they appear to be the only option for her, as she has most likely never known an alternative. The problem with relying on corporate products such as pads and tampons is that they are very unhealthy for our bodies. Tampons are filled with bleach (to make them white – and what does society tells us about whiteness in other contexts and its close association with purity, sterility, and superiority) and dioxins. They can tear the inside of you due to their jagged and fibrous properties which in turn can cause more bleeding (which is not menstrual blood) thus drying and absorbing an unhealthy amount of girl juice. They can also cause toxic shock syndrome (TSS) and endometriosis as well as make some people experience more cramping than what might be normal for them.

 

            The materials used to make tampons are also of the lowest quality. The vagina is one of the most sensitive organs of our bodies, but again, corporations that seek profit by any means will go to great extents to ignore that fact and even include very harmful materials in their products to save on production costs. In California, it has become illegal to feed the leaves, stems, and short fibers of cotton known as gin trash to livestock, because of the concentrated levels of pesticide residue. Instead, this gin trash is used to make furniture, mattresses, tampons, swabs, and cotton balls.

 

            Disposable tampons and pads are designed to be quickly removed, peeled out of our undies, or yanked harshly out of our vaginas, wadded up, and tossed. Most women can do it so quickly they don’t even really touch themselves or come into contact with their own blood or body. This lack of contact is also very intentional by corporations and very problematic. Again, being taught by society that vaginas and what comes out of them is disgusting further promotes the fact that society hates women—thus women learn to hate themselves and what is “down there”.

 

            But not only do these products teach us distance from our bodies on top of contaminating them, they pollute the environment as well. Proctor and Gamble and Kimberly Clark produce the majority of these products. I won’t go into details because there are too many for this column, but if you imagine how many people consume their products and consider that the average menstruator will consume approximately 10,000 to 16,000 commercial pads/tampons in a life time, that equals out to 250-300 pounds of waste per person! Experts estimate that tampon applicators alone may take 300 to 500 years to break down. The chemical bleaching processes, pesticides, commercial seeds (Monsanto), and industrial farming of the cotton used to create these products contribute to global warming, ecological devastation, and over all a world that I simply do not want to be a part of.

 

            Additionally, disposable pads and tampons sterilize and erase our beautiful history of traditional herbal and D.I.Y. menstrual care that have been carried on for decades. For years women have been making their own pads and rags, using herbal treatments to alleviate cramps and pain, and acknowledging a menstrual period as a natural and necessary time of cleansing as well as something that is not hidden.

 

             I recently was talking to a co-worker of mine about an alternative menstrual product called “the Diva Cup” (which I will discuss in part 2). The Diva Cup is a latex cup you fold and insert in your vagina which pops open and catches menstrual blood. You only need to change it once every twelve hours and one cup can last up to ten years. Quite an incredible invention. Anyway, as I was very briefly explaining the cup to her (and in no great detail at all), she made this awful hurling face and was disgusted by it. Another co-worker, who is a male, started to enter the room and she quickly silenced me and told him he walked in at the wrong time of the conversation. She was very grossed out by what I was telling her. I only said that the cup catches your blood and you empty it like once a day and that it’s also nice because you save money (approximately $6,150-$8,200 through out your menstruating years!) because they last a long time. Her reaction proved my point all too well.  

 

            Anyway, bottom line: secrecy, shame, and distance from our bodies is not positive for self-esteem. There have also been studies proving that women who are aware and familiar with their flow, cycle, and body become more confident in themselves which leads to being more assertive in sexual situations. So that’s one more reason to say “no” to these products and not let them capitalize off of our shame, our bodies, the environment, and our dignity!

 

 

            If you find this interesting and relevant, stay tuned for my next column, part 2, to learn about alternatives to corporate menstrual products, taking back our menstruation, and taking down their industry!