Menstrual justice, a term first used by Margaret E. Johnson in her paper, dealt extensively with a menstrual injustice that occurs in various forms in the United States of America. However, Menstrual injustices as a universal phenomenon can be demonstrated in the Indian context as well. Menstrual injustice takes various shapes- such as patriarchy, casteism, Transphobia and gender discrimination, classism to list a few.
For a place to be period positive and sensitive, it is necessary to acknowledge the struggles of different marginalized sections of the society and their unique struggles of menstrual management.
Menstruation And Patriarchy
Since ages, anything that is related to women and her body is termed as inferior in a patriarchal society like ours. Patriarchy functions in a way wherein women themselves began to indoctrinate the shame and stigma that exists. Leading to a bodily function which is something as normal as breathing becoming a thing meant to be hidden and kept private. Starting from a young age, women are told to hide it, hide the blood, hide the pain, hide everything that might hint others- other men that she is bleeding.
The culture of shame is actively passed in a family and women suffer in silence.
The impact being, young girls grow up not knowing how to manage their menstruation, what are the diseases and menstrual symptoms that they might be suffering with and yet are not aware- all these hints at from breaking away from the culture that actively breeds silence. Patriarchy and hyper-masculinity are the reasons for menstruation being a gendered thing, which reduces periods and period struggle to a ‘women issue’.
Menstruation And Casteism
The concept of purity and pollution originally emerges from the caste system wherein the Brahmans are considered as the purest, and the Dalits as polluted. In this backdrop, the result is menstruation being treated as a condition which defiles and makes a brahmin woman impure for a temporary period. This results in women being treated as untouchables when they are on their periods.
Some common practices and taboos that Hindu upper-caste women are made go through include- not being allowed to enter the kitchen, the temple as well often to the extent where they cannot even touch other members of the family. In some families, menstruating women are made to stay in a separate room during the whole week when they are menstruating. While on the other hand, Dalits do not practice menstrual taboos culturally. Therefore, such practices not only perpetuate the Brahmanical idea of purity and pollution, it further stigmatises menstruation itself.
Menstruation And Gender
Whatever discussion that happens in the mainstream media or our society largely revolves around The experiences of women that are cis-gender. Starting from the advertisements that promote ‘female’ menstrual hygiene products to the medical research that is carried out. This considerably essentializes the process of menstruation. It furthers the idea that to have a period, being a woman is necessary and vice versa – excluding menstruators from the discussion who get their periods but perhaps do not identify as women.
It also puts a lot of pressure on the women who either never had menarche or had early menopause to feel less of women. It also heightens the gender dysphoria in trans-men and trans-women where the blood or absence thereof do not match their gender identity. Therefore it becomes increasingly necessary to make our language, products and discourse one menstrual positivity and management gender-neutral
Period Poverty And Classism
While some of us have the privilege to use a sanitary napkin as a tool to fight sexism, in our unequal society there are many menstruators who could not afford the products that they might need or want to manage their menstruation. Young girls are made to drop out of schools because there are no sufficient- clean toilets or access to safe and convenient menstrual hygiene products- leading to some of them resorting to using ash, sand, unclean rags during their periods.
For other women, who are homeless, or stay in crowded slums do not even have the privilege to use a washroom in private, low-cost sanitary napkins are not readily available making a necessity, a luxury for some. Therefore, while we talk about menstrual activism through our articles and poems, we need to keep in check our privilege and not romanticise the struggle and reality of some.