Just to let you know that this post will feature words like ‘period’, ‘menstruation’, ‘vagina’, and ‘bleeding’. If you’re uncomfortable with any of that then I urge you to stay because you’re precisely the type of person that I want to read this post.
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On 25th April 2015, Kiran Gandhi did two things that I could never do. The first was to run the London Marathon and the second was to show the world how to absolutely boss a period.
For those of you not familiar with the story, Kiran Gandhi got her period the day before she was due to run the marathon. Instead of saying “sod all of the training I’ve done, I’m staying in my duvet fort and crying at Netflix all day”, she decided she’d run the marathon anyway. I actually feel like this is a feat worthy of some kind of street parade in itself because, as anybody who has ever menstruated will know, that second day can be a complete bitch. Stomach cramps, heavy bleeding, back ache, boob ache, head ache, feeling like every damn thing is a struggle, feeling like you could eat an entire supermarket shelf worth of cheese… you know the feels. But not only did Kiran decide to run the marathon despite all of the usual menstrual nightmares, she also made the unconventional decision not to wear a tampon*.
As you can imagine, reactions to this have ranged anywhere from mild surprise to utterly disgusted, and social media has been abuzz with discussion. My own initial reaction, before I’d really had time to process what I thought about it, was “wow, she’s brave”. Okay, before anybody gets on their high horse, maybe she’s not brave in the same way as a firefighter running into a burning building, but what Kiran Gandhi did certainly took a lot of courage.
We live in a world where issues of the body are supposed to be kept private and that’s rarely more evident than in the case of women’s bodily functions. Menstruation, childbirth, and even just vaginas at a very basic level are regarded as completely taboo and become shrouded in some kind of mystery that means they are kept away from the rest of the world lest they cast some magical curse that damns us all to fiery hell. We’re obsessed with vaginas being tight, clean, and readily presentable but, unfortunately, periods are a direct contradiction to all of that so the further we can keep it from everyone else, the better.
Think I’m exaggerating? A quick look at tampon adverts tells you everything you need to know. In these adverts there are no women eating their own body weight in chocolate, there are no women trying to get through a day at work whilst feeling like they might be bleeding to death, there are no hot water bottles or paracetamol or tears or tantrums. Everyone is fucking rollerskating or riding ponies because we’re supposed to be hiding this perfectly natural thing from everybody and engaging in this performance of a menstruation that is completely unobtrusive to those around us. As a result, we’re encouraged to feel ashamed of admitting how it really makes us feel, told not to talk about the gory details, and made to be embarrassed of our bodies.
So the fact that Kiran Gandhi just went ahead and bled all over herself is pretty huge statement. Whether you agree with it or not.
source: Kiran’s own website (www.kirangandhi.com)
I actually support Kiran’s decision and don’t personally find it disgusting. We see blood all the time because we’ve watched horror films where people are hacked to death, or crime scene programmes where there are blood spatters up the walls of a cheap motel. Good grief, I know I saw a truckload of blood pouring out of my own head after a misunderstanding between myself and a row of lockers during a high school open day. Mostly, apart from the fainters amongst us, we’re alright with all of these circumstances but, holy hell, bring menstrual blood into the equation and everybody loses their shit simply because it comes out of a body part that we’re not supposed to acknowledge the existence of anyway.
I also think it’s extremely easy for us to sit around and criticise Kiran simply because she had access to tampons and decided not to use them. As a person, I am extremely privileged to have access to the things that make my period go as smoothly as possible (because I also try to conform just like everybody else). I can afford to buy tampons so that I can remain clean and, well, I was going to say comfortable but that’s too hilarious to write down seriously. I can buy painkillers, a hot water bottle, a Netflix subscription, a bar of chocolate, a really cosy blanket, a pair of sweat pants, a trashy magazine; whatever it takes, I’ve got access to it and that makes me a privileged menstruator.
On the other hand, there are girls and women in this world who can’t afford sanitary products and this is an issue that is closer to home than you think (ever thought about homeless women cope when they come on their period?) There are still huge social and religious stigmas in some cultures that mean that women are physically sent away for a week until they are considered clean again.** There are places of worship that do not admit women who are menstruating and there are discourses around menstruation which denote it as a ‘failure’ (i.e. the failure to conceive which, interestingly, isn’t applied to any other shedding of waste that the human body does). So calling Kiran Gandhi disgusting, in my opinion, shows a complete lack of acknowledgement that some women have no choice but to bleed on themselves and their clothes and that this isn’t something to be ashamed of.
I applaud Kiran Gandhi for the statement she decided to make during that marathon and at least she forced everyone to discuss periods for at least a second which, frankly, is an achievement in itself.
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* You can read Kiran’s own thoughts on the matter here.
** There is a lot of research to suggest that women in these cultures feel liberated by their time away from society with other women during menstruation so I’m not trying to force a position of oppression on them in any way.
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