Ladies, have you ever been ashamed to have your period? Why? After all, it’s a gift that, through womanhood, allots us the choice of bearing children. So, why is menstruation such a big deal, more so, why are women ashamed of it? To take that a step further, why are men shaming women over a natural occurrence?
These were questions that college student and dancer, Chance Ward (@blewthischance) had for the general population! Seemingly overnight, his Facebook post has gone viral, because it has sparked conversations about the ideologies behind period shaming. All he did was share a story about how he offered someone a tampon who ultimately felt ashamed for asking her own friend for one!
His post reads:
“So I’m in the gym today (getting my life to Truffle Butter on this elliptical ofc) when the girl next to me asks her friend if she has an extra tampon. Realizing that I overheard, she looked up and literally apologized to me, clearly embarrassed af.
Me being me, I hit ha with the “girl, u gucci” before reaching down into my fanny pack and giving her one of the tampons I keep in there. By the look on her face you would have thought I did a magic trick and pulled 36 titty-tasseled bunny rabbits out that damn bag.
This is so sad. Why don’t y’all love y’all friends that menstruate? Like men will make whole guest rooms in their house just in case someone needs to stay. But god forbid that person menstruate, because I bet you won’t be no extra pads or tampons under that guest bathroom sink.
Like why? Y’all know literally like half this world goes through this?
Ugh anyway to all my menstruating friends, if y’all need it, know I got it. I keep some in my fanny pack when I go to the gym, and some in my backpack all the time. Never feel embarrassed for asking for one. Never feel embarrassed for being human.
@everyone who doesn’t menstruate: keep your menstruating friends in mind and stop being so shitty.”
The Shade Room’s Talia O. spoke with Ward and explored the issues even further. He actually believes that there is an attack on women in the form of a “Pink Tax”. Get into it below!
Talia O: What provoked you to start carrying tampons in your bag?
Chance: Throughout high school and in college alike, I’ve always been really involved in extra curricular activities. In high school, I was the nerdy Drama Club President, and back then I used to carry pads because during the long rehearsals a lot of my cast mates would forget them. When I got to college and started dancing with the dance company here on campus, I noticed the same kind of trend amongst the women in my dance company. I go to Occidental, a super progressive school in LA and once I got here I found that the women were a lot more open and shameless about their periods. I fell in love with that and hopped right on the train, which is when I really got into advocacy and openly offering tampons/pads.
Talia O: Have you ever received any backlash for it?
Chance: Other than the expected racist and homophobic comments, I’ve surprisingly gotten a lot of backlash from women who have claimed my actions have “taken the privacy” of their periods away from them. I understand why a woman should have reservations about whether or not her cycle is public, but that only brings us back to the question of why these things should even need to be private in the first place. We keep bandaids in our purses and in our homes in case a person gets a cut all the time, so why doesn’t everyone keep tampons and pads since we KNOW someone is bleeding all the time?
Talia O: Why do you think period shaming exists and do you think there is a solution to all of the drama surrounding it?
Chance: Simply put, I think that period shaming exists for the simple fact that it’s one of the many things in the world that helps rich men stay rich and in power. The “Pink Tax” is a very obvious red flag to many that our government literally punishes women for menstruating by placing a completely arbitrary tax on feminine products. In the world, there are way more tampons and pads being used to stop bleeding than band-aids and gauze, so if anything deserves to be taxed it’s the latter.
Living under a government that is willing to tax women just for being women breeds a society where other citizens also feel that it is okay to punish women just because they are women. From pointing and laughing at the girl who bled through pants in middle school, to ridiculing the woman at the club who’s string you saw peeping out of her dress, it’s all period shaming and it’s all hating women just for being women. I feel that this is why we see so many men, specifically black men, embarrassing and even abusing women simply for menstruating. And when people hear that, they think “oh yeah in India and Africa they be…..” But no. Right here in America, we have people out here abusing and killing women left and right for bleeding on them during intercourse, for not “properly” concealing their feminine products before disposing of them in the trash, literally sometimes just for not doing a good job keeping their cycle a secret. THAT is what I want to stop.
I want to disrupt this system that tells us we she never know about a woman’s period, and if we do she needs to be punished. For that to happen, we need to abandon the idea that carrying around tampons is any different from carrying around band-aids. Because think about it, who do you think is collecting all the revenue from that Pink Tax? MEN.
Talia O: Have you inspired any of your friends to carry tampons for women?
Chance: Ever since that post starting gaining attention, I’ve had so many men tell me that they were going to start carrying these products for their friends as well. Every now and then I’ll get a SnapChat with someone picking up some products for the homies. I can honestly say I’ve had more of my friends join me in support than not.
Talia O: Do you care about how much it costs you?
Chance: No, I don’t care about how much it costs me. I could never have the audacity to say that I do knowing that my friends that menstruate have always had to pay for those products. Even beyond that, I could never say that I care about how much this costs me when I know there are so many women out there who do not even have access to sanitary feminine products. Me being able to provide these products for my friends in need is a privilege, and one that I practice happily.
Talia O: One last question, how much life did you get from Nick Minaj reposting your status?!
Chance: And when I woke up and saw that Nicki shared my post I literally threw my phone. I just lost my voice seeing her in concert last month so for her to even acknowledge me was basically all the refund I needed for them tickets! And I’ll attach a photo of me to this email!
There you have it, Roommates! The period conversations may be awkward to have, but in all honesty, it shouldn’t be! Will it ever not be taboo? We don’t know, but this is another advancement toward period shaming. Thank you for sharing your story with us, Chance!
TSR STAFF: Talia O. @theclosetratchet on Instagram & @tallyohhh on Twitter!
Source: @blewthischance
