Does the notion of a Menstrual Party smack of an oxymoron?
For most, that’s a yes. And that’s why we need one.
There’s so much more to Period=Yuck, and a good party can show us how much.
Like any winner social event, this party is a time and place to gather and connect—with the added benefit of increasing our menstrual IQs.
Our friends at Be Prepared Period and You ARE Loved are hosting their First Annual Online Menstrual Party on Friday, July 13 from 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. ET. They are the perfect hosts for such an event, because they intimately understand the pressing imperative of menstrual know-how.
Readers of re:Cycling may remember You ARE Loved, the courageous educational foundation established by Lisa Elifritz, in honor of her daughter Amy Rae Elifritz. Amy Rae died from TSS in 2010. Because of a tampon.The Elifritz family is suing Playtex for negligence and liability, and they allege medical malpractice at the hand of the hospital where Amy Rae was treated. This grieving family rightly seeks accountability and justice and a world where not one more girl or woman succumbs to TSS. As Elizabeth Kissling reminds: we have to teach girls and women that “the femcare industry isn’t looking out for them—they’ve got to look out for themselves.”
Prepared Period and YAL have been deploying social media to get this message for a year now. Their online educational chats have grown from a few to fifty or more participants discussing a new topic each month. Past topics include “Periodic Stories: Ours and Yours”, “Exploring the Many Feminine Hygiene Options”, and “Puberty and Periods: Guiding Tween and Teen Girls”. So the July 13th menstrual party is their 1st anniversary.
The party can be accessed via Twitter using the hashtag #PeriodTalk, and will include conversation, questions, polls and lots of interaction on a variety of menstrual products and plenty of essential Q and A. There will also be numerous giveaways. FREE STUFF! Additional information, including links to register for multiple product giveaways, is available on the Tweet Chat pages of the Be Prepared Period and You ARE Loved websites.
Show up for Amy Rae. And stay for yourself and girls and women everywhere.
