For most women in Western cultures, periods are seen as normal. Pads and tampons are readily available at pretty much every convenience store and you can go about your daily life while menstruating. But for women in India, it’s a completely different story. In the Netflix feature titled Period. End of Sentence, we get to see what menstruation is like for women in rural India.
The show starts out with numerous interviews from men and women, asking what a period really is. The men interviewed didn’t even know that it is something that only affects people with uteruses, and most of the women didn’t know what a period meant. The lack of sex education available in India further proves why it’s so important to have sex education, regardless of how religious or conservative you are.
As the feature progresses, we get to watch The Pad Project come in and teach women how to make low-cost sanitary napkins. This is such an empowering moment, as we see women who have been shunned for having a period being able to learn about their bodies and what they can do to stay clean during menstruation. Most women in rural India do not have access to pads and tampons, so they were forced to wear cloth underwear when menstruating. Not only is this unsanitary, but it also makes it hard for women to go about their daily lives while having to worry about bleeding through a cloth. Some women have to choose between having a period or education, and in the end, there’s not much of a choice.
I really enjoyed this show, as it was very educational and opened my eyes to the adversities women have to face for simply being women. The Pad Project was also something that I didn’t know about, so this show introduced me to that, as well. It’s such a great cause and could be the start of a more empowered generation of women in India.
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HCXO
Period. End of Sentence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrm2pD0qofM
The Pad Project
https://thepadproject.org/educate/