A Harvard MBA and self-described feminist and musician is generating an internet buzz for her stance on menstruation.
India West reports that Meghan Ghandhi this spring ran the London Marathon during her period without any sanitary protection.
In her own blog which she titled Going with the flow, Gandhi said:
Women and men have both been effectively socialized to pretend periods don’t exist. By establishing a norm of period-shaming, [male-preferring] societies effectively prevent the ability to bond over an experience that 50% of us in the human population share monthly. By making it difficult to speak about, we don’t have language to express pain in the workplace, and we don’t acknowledge differences between women and men that must be recognized and established as acceptable norms. Because it is all kept quiet, women are socialized not to complain or talk about their own bodily functions, since no one can see it happening. And if you can’t see it, it’s probably “not a big deal.” Why is this an important issue? Because THIS is happening, right now.
This was not something she planned. It just happened. Her period began one day before the marathon and she decided she was going to run without being impeded by sanitary products that could make her uncomfortable during the marathon.
“I knew that by the very nature of a marathon course, I could actually liberate myself from this type of oppression. That on a marathon course, I didn’t have to think about how I looked or what people thought of me. That no one can tell you anything if you’ve just run a marathon. The respect of running a marathon speaks first and foremost for itself.”
What kind of reaction did she get? You can read about it in India West.
Here’s a question for women–would you ever consider doing something like this?
