“I can’t believe a film about menstruation just won an Oscar!”
I couldn’t believe it either, as I tearfully watched filmmaker Rayka Zehtabchi accept the award for Best Documentary Short for her film Period. End of Sentence.
The Oscar win was an amazing moment of validation for women and girls everywhere. Even though periods are an inevitable part of our lives, most women are socialized to feel shame around our periods. Many of us learn at an early age that it’s inappropriate to overburden others – especially men – with any information about our pesky “monthly visitor”.
But let’s be honest. Periods suck. At best, periods are uncomfortable, inconvenient, and costly. And as we see in Period. End of Sentence, it is far worse for women in societies that have high poverty rates and long-held patriarchal traditions.
In India today, an estimated 70% of women cannot afford sanitary products. That means the vast majority are using whatever they can get their hands on—leaves, scraps, even trash—to manage their monthly bleeding.
It’s not a surprise, then, that nearly a quarter of girls in India drop out of school just to avoid humiliation. It isn’t entirely hopeless, though. There are great initiatives like the Pad Project that are training women to make and sell pads, giving them some power to take control over their bodies and lives.
For most Americans, the natural reaction to a movie like Period is “Wow, it’s so horrible for those women in that country. We’re so lucky to be in America.” Some of us might take that sentiment one step further and decide to donate to the Pad Project (which I did, because it is a worthy endeavor that is literally changing lives).
This begs the question: Do American women have fair access when it comes to our periods?
The reality is, no, we don’t. The structural and societal inequity we see in Period. End of Sentence has some parallels in our own backyard.
First of all, there’s the “tampon tax”. Currently, feminine hygiene products are deemed “luxury” items and thus subject to sales tax in 38 states. In those same states, non-essential items like Rogaine, Viagra, gun club memberships, and chain saws have been granted tax exempt status. WTF.
Meanwhile, Kenya, Canada, Malaysia, Australia—and yes, even India—have eliminated the tampon tax, recognizing that it imposes an unfair burden on women and families.
The good news is that there are a number of efforts underway to repeal the tampon tax in states across the U.S., including California where legislation is currently pending.
But getting rid of the tampon tax is just one step in untangling the web of inequity in the United States. The high cost of sanitary products is prohibitive for many women in America. Much like our counterparts in India, some American women are being forced improvise with other materials and/or use their products for long stretches of time.
That’s why there has been a recent wave of advocacy groups pushing to make tampons and pads freely available in schools, prisons, shelters, and public places across the U.S. If toilet paper and hand soap are federally mandated to be available in public restrooms, why shouldn’t that be the case for feminine hygiene products?
It is important to remember that gender inequity has existed across the globe since the beginning of time. Inevitably, a story about the difficult circumstances of women in another society will likely have some parallels in our own. We can’t just sit back and watch a movie about a faraway place and breathe a sigh of relief that we don’t have it as bad. We must investigate our own assumptions, get informed, and take some action to undo a legacy of inequity.
And maybe next time a film about menstruation wins an award, we won’t be as surprised.
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