This weekend we offer two extremely different examples of how menstruation is being referenced in social and political activism.
1. Michelle Obama, First Lady of the United States, is a menstrual activist. In an article for The Atlantic, headlined Let Girls Learn, also the name of a program launched last spring by the President and First Lady, Obama addresses the crisis in girls’ education, challenging cultural practices and beliefs that diminish access to education for girls.
“Scholarships, bathrooms, and safe transportation will only go so far if societies still view menstruation as shameful and shun menstruating girls.”
– Michelle Obama
SMCR member Giuliana Serena noted on Facebook the significance of this declaration:
2. Across the ocean, Enda Kenny, the (male) leader of the Irish political party Fine Gael, is getting an earful from Irish women. The headline of this Irish Mirror article says it all: Women are tweeting Enda Kenny about their periods in a bid to highlight abortion rights in Ireland. The hashtag #repealthe8th, references a campaign to repeal the eighth amendment that effectively “criminalises abortion in all cases except where to continue a pregnancy would result in death.”
Comedian Grainne Maguire started the movement on Monday, November 2:
The hashtag quickly gained momentum and was also used to bring attention to the tax on menstrual products.
