"If menstruating is something so natural and common, why are tampons still considered beauty products? How is it to live in a society where a basic need is treated as a luxury?"
As much as it is natural, normal, common and commonplace, there are still many myths surrounding the subject of menstruation.
Currently in Brazil, 4 out of 10 girls stop going to school because of menarche/menstruation. This is due to several reasons. Some of them are the lack of information and sex education that generate doubt, fear and shame.
There are also women who, for various reasons, do not have access to adequate products to manage their periods safely and end up using plastic bags, paper, newspaper or even breadcrumbs to stop menstrual blood, which causes serious illnesses, also becoming a public health issue.
But you might be wondering what this has to do with you, who always had conditions and options at hand. Yeah, we are part of a whole, if one of us suffers, we all suffer.
Menstrual poverty is not only linked to the physical part of this context, but also and essentially to taboos, self-knowledge, sexual identity, mental health, self-management of emotions, healthy eating, basic sanitation.... In other words, it is very bigger than it looks.
Menstruating is a natural, physiological and cyclical process. All people who have a uterus usually menstruate. Yet, in our economy, menstrual hygiene products are taxed as "cosmetics". Now, if menstruating is something so natural and common, why are pads still considered beauty products? What is it like to live in a society where a basic need is treated as a luxury?
When we talk about this there is astonishment in everyone's eyes, but yes, something that should be available in health centers, or in public schools or even in any institution or public building, is looked at and compared to a moisturizing cream for cellulite or a lipstick .
AND WHAT DO PEOPLE DO TO SOLVE THIS?
The problem of menstrual poverty can only be solved when there are public policies that guarantee the RIGHT TO MENSTRUATE in good health, with hygiene items of your choice, sustainable (if possible), with a clean bathroom, with privacy and security, without taboos, without uncertainties and without ignorance.
The first step in starting to fix this flawed structure is to talk about it. Education is the key to ending all kinds of misinformation . Knowing more, studying, creating a chain of true information and demystifying taboos, I would say that much of the path has been walked, because knowledge is power and self-knowledge is freedom.
A second step would be to ensure that the State makes menstrual products accessible by reducing taxes, distributing them free of charge through social programs, in schools, health units and in all public buildings. Thinking about all this, we created two bills at the state and municipal level where we presented these proposals to the public authorities. Now it's time to wait for them to do their part.
And finally (if there is an end to this fight for equality) each one of us has to do what we can, whether by sharing experience and knowledge, or making donations to projects that already exist, or else working with community leaders and even municipalities to co-create public policies that meet the real needs of the city. Don't expect from the state, just do it. This fight is ours, it belongs to everyone, and what we want is freedom, to be who we want, to go where we want, to bleed without shame or fear, without getting sick, without polluting, without anything stopping us.
This fight is just beginning!
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Adriana Rebicki is a photographer, artist, mother and creator of the Menstrual Equality project
Lauren Ahn art at Cosmopolitan .
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