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Periods! Well, they are so natural that I don’t even get why do we have such a hue and cry about it in our society. Any person who understands biology knows that periods are just a part of the natural cycle of a woman’s body. Instead of changing the age-old customs, the society has dragged them in the modern world along with the tagline of ‘IMPURE’ attached to it!
Saloni Chopra is an actress and a model. She has always been very vocal about the problems women face due to the patriarchal attitude of the society.
In a recent Instagram post, Saloni writes powerfully about the stigma attached to periods. She talks about the irrationality of it all and I am sure you will relate to it. Here is the post.
That’s right, it’s just blood.. Y’know who gave it more importance than it needs? You. You who celebrated my very 1st menstrual cycle.. said it made me a woman. Then you told me to never discuss it publicly. First, you made me feel proud of becoming, then you made me feel there was something wrong with me. You told me I couldn’t visit holy places. You conditioned me to love cooking, but you wouldn’t let me, that day. You yelled when I lit the diya in the mandir that morning. The kids at school laughed at me & my friends didn’t sit next to me, bcos my blue skirt was red. I ate my lunch alone, crying in the washroom. I wasn’t very proud of being a girl that day.
Then I grew older & I met boys.. boys that liked me.. boys that knew nothing about periods, but got disgusted every time a pad fell out of my bag. I couldn’t fathom that women raised such men. My girlfriends always whispered about it.. were they ashamed? My colleagues thought I was being a bitch bcos I was “PMSing” – my boss thought that was just my lame excuse to take a day off. I guess his penis never bled, he didn’t know what it felt like to have his hormones go on a rollercoaster ride every month, yet all they could grasp from it was that periods were “yuck” & girls act “crazy” on them. I’m not mad at you cos I’m on my period, I’m mad at you for the ignorant moron you are. You think I’m overreacting when I speak about inequality, then you cringe at the idea of vaginal blood. You think it’s impure.
From you who gave birth to me, to you that wants to marry me, listen carefully – there is nothing about me that is “impure” every month. I’m not the creation of the devil. I’ll have as many conversations about my menstrual cycle as I please, I will cook as many meals as I like & enter as many places of worship as I want to. For those 5 days, maybe you should keep your impure selves out of my kitchen, my temple, my work place & come back when you’re ready to accept my body. I will never, ever accept my tampons wrapped in a newspaper again – there’s a lot more dirt printed in that than a woman’s body could ever produce. And if you try to hush-hush me, I’ll only scream louder.
Sincerely,
Every. Damn. Girl.
Sincerely,
Every. Damn. Girl.
It is hard hitting, isn’t it? I feel enraged sometimes just by thinking that it is 2017 and women still have to fight for the most basic of their rights. If she is on her period, let her decide if she wants to cook or not, if she wants to pray or not! You cannot tell her how to live her life!
You can read the entire post here.
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