We Also Don't Poo In Public, Lady With "Period Pride"
I forgot to blog this when I saw it -- the story about a woman thinking that pride involves letting your excretions just flow out in public, and never mind who sees them. Char Adams writes at People:
Kiran Gandhi, who has played drums for singer M.I.A. and Thievery Corporation, decided to run the London Marathon without a tampon. Gandhi let her blood flow freely to raise awareness about women who have no access to feminine products and to encourage women to not be embarrassed about their periods...."I ran with blood dripping down my legs for sisters who don't have access to tampons and sisters who, despite cramping and pain, hide it away and pretend like it doesn't exist."
Does she also go without a roof over her head -- sleep out on the curb -- because some "sisters" go without housing? How about food? Does she eat out of Dumpsters because some "sisters" go without refrigerators full of food?
After the race, she took photos with her family and friends, wearing her period-stained running pants proudly.Gandhi tells PEOPLE that she decided to run without a tampon to highlight the sentiment of period-shaming and the language surrounding women's menstrual cycles. She wrote on her site that "on the marathon course, sexism can be beaten."
It isn't "sexism" that makes us not want to see your period running down your legs; it's our evolved sense of disgust at any bodily excretion, an adaptation that causes our ancestors to live while those who lacked this adaptation and played around in yicky stuff, likely died of awful diseases.
There's a terrific paper on disgust,"Microbes, Mating, and Morality: Individual Differences in Three Functional Domains of Disgust," by Josh Tybur, Debra Lieberman, and Vladas Griskevicius that I reference in "Good Manners for Nice People Who Sometimes Say F*ck." That's the link to the abstract above, but one of the researchers has made a full copy available on his research website. It's the first link that comes up on Google.
ewwww!
okay, now that I got that out of the way . . .
First, why are there so many folks who want to make running a marathon about some "cause"? Please, just run the damn race and shut the f&ck up!
Second, I think this woman is in need of mental help. period.
charles at August 31, 2015 7:03 AM
This is the state of our media today.
The woman who used the marathon as a publicity stunt? She gets lots of media attention.
The woman who actually won the freaking race? Not so much.
Cousin Dave at August 31, 2015 7:27 AM
Look at me. LOOK at me. Look AT me. Look at ME. LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME.
Ah. Now I understand her.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at August 31, 2015 7:41 AM
"period-shaming" is a thing? Who the fuck is she kidding?
Joe at August 31, 2015 7:55 AM
Bodily fluids are gross. There's a reason you have to stop cooking and go get bandaged up when you cut your finger. Booger-faced toddlers don't know any better. This lady does. She's not advancing any cause, she's just trying to get attention by being gross. Plus, she probably ruined her shorts.
ahw at August 31, 2015 8:37 AM
Meh. People have been using marathons etc to plug their causes for a long time now. And I'm not any more grossed out by this than the other bodily fluids that come out of people during physical exertion. I do a physically demanding sport myself, and I've ... seen things. Worse things than blood running down someone's leg (and yes, I've seen that too).
I only wish she'd done more to plug relevant charities. Lack of access to feminine products is a huge problem around the world, and, although she says she's championing that cause, I don't see links to charities from her website. She got a ton of interviews in major publications that linked directly to her blog.
I volunteer for a charity that got a bunch of extra money recently for a public stunt someone performed, so I'm all for people doing crazy, attention-seeking stuff to inspire people to donate to a worthy cause. I mean, heck, everyone dumping ice water on their heads and posting videos last year was incredibly self-involved and attention-seeking and did NOTHING to directly help people with ALS, but it was harnessed correctly to raise a ton of money.
sofar at August 31, 2015 9:14 AM
I pity her. If this is the "cause" that you have selected to champion, how empty is the rest of your life?
Radwaste at August 31, 2015 9:15 AM
What Gog said. Some people will do ANYTHING for attention!
Pirate Jo at August 31, 2015 9:34 AM
Hey this is a public health hazard. She should be arrested for assault with a bodily fluid. Just disgusting!!!!
momof4 at August 31, 2015 10:20 AM
Charities are one of the last things she should be plugging.
Kendra at August 31, 2015 10:28 AM
If she will forgo all modern medicines, procedures, health care products, and sanitation methods, in a few years I will be willing to make a suitable donation to her charity of choice - In Memoriam.
Wfjag at August 31, 2015 11:24 AM
IIRC, blood-borne pathogens are rated a higher danger than other secretions, sofar... and yeah in sports, I've seen all sortsa other things too, but the people who puke after a race, loose control of their bowels, or suffer actual damage...
are not trying to bring a point to some charity.
In yon olden days in highschool wrestling, we drew blood occationally, and it didn't stop us...
and then HIV and Hep. became a question. Now they wash the mats often with bleach cleaner, and will stop a match where someone is bleeding. But who were we bleedin' for?
If you really want things for charities like this, you would think that the aim would be to get people to open their wallets, and not recoil in revulsion.
I have seen more recently where different people with causes are no longer trying to persuade, rather they are trying to shame people into supporting something.
Like the guy at the big cat rescue that raised their entry fees to $50 per because he didn't think people were donating enough. Thus garundamnteeing that I will NEVER take the kids on a long roadtrip to visit, and maybe set up some kind of monthly payment to donate some money.
You can't SHAME me into supporting a pet project, to make me feel better about myself.
You could try and convince me it's a good idea, tho...
Charity hardball is the unfortunate handmaiden of demanding that the government oversee everything, and steal my money to redistribute it... because OBVIOUSLY I won't help people out on my own, or help the RIGHT people out. Seems like it's a projection to me, of people who actually won't give to charity, unless they are shamed into it.
Slide-rule aid, my god, people are hurting out there. :massive eyeroll:
/rant
SwissArmyD at August 31, 2015 11:28 AM
IIRC, blood-borne pathogens are rated a higher danger than other secretions, sofar
I still don't think blood absorbed into the inside of her own pant leg is the bio-hazard a lot of people are making it out to be. Icky, maybe. Dangerous to other runners/spectators, probably not.
sofar at August 31, 2015 1:03 PM
I still don't think blood absorbed into the inside of her own pant leg is the bio-hazard a lot of people are making it out to be. Icky, maybe. Dangerous to other runners/spectators, probably not.
I've see photos where the blood seeped thru to the outside - how else would anyone have known she was bleeding?
lujlp at August 31, 2015 1:54 PM
No women had access to tampons before World War One, and I presume they had menstrual cycles before then. What, exactly, is this world wide "crisis". I can see how alternatives would be less convenient, but come on. A crisis?
Steve Daniels at August 31, 2015 3:32 PM
"I still don't think blood absorbed into the inside of her own pant leg is the bio-hazard a lot of people are making it out to be."
We evolved to find excretions disgusting so we'd avoid them. We still find them disgusting when they are merely in photographs -- taken of people thousands of miles away.
I prefer to look at pictures of flowers to those of animals being torn apart by other animals. There's no danger to me from the latter. That isn't why I prefer the flowers.
Amy Alkon at August 31, 2015 4:35 PM
"I still don't think blood absorbed into the inside of her own pant leg is the bio-hazard a lot of people are making it out to be. Icky, maybe. Dangerous to other runners/spectators, probably not."
Anything she sat on is now a biohazard-and I'm betting she didn't walk home, or walk TO the marathon for that matter. Anything she brushed up against is too. And given the jostling that occurs every time the foot hits the pavement when running, I'm betting some got spattered.
momof4 at August 31, 2015 5:09 PM
When was I or anyone shamed for menstruating? Tampons/pads? It's called hygiene and beats cleaning a rag.
Have a full moon party!!
http://youtu.be/NEcZmT0fiNM
CatherineM at August 31, 2015 6:52 PM
This chick is disgusting. Period (pun intended). This is the type of "look at me" slacktivism that makes me want to throw my laptop across the room.
Daghain at August 31, 2015 7:02 PM
That sounds itchy. Maybe I'll use activism as an excuse next time I have an embarrassing leak.
Joking aside, Catherine and Radwaste, I believe she is calling attention to the parts of the world where people ARE shamed for menstruating. Third world girls not being able to go to school because they are menstruating and don't have disposable pads or a reliable way to wash reusable ones is a thing. So are taboos against touching menstruating women or eating food they have cooked.
Those are what she is calling attention to. And hey look, it worked. Now Catherine knows.
Luckily, if my FB feed is to be believed, a little inexpensive gadget that can easily wash reusable pads has been invented.
NicoleK at September 1, 2015 6:04 AM
"I believe she is calling attention to the parts of the world where people ARE shamed for menstruating. "
I'll take your word for it, and yes, that's plausible. There's some of that in our own Puritan past. However, today, it's not a Western problem. No woman that I come into contact with is being shamed for having a period. So why am I being shamed because it happens somewhere else that I have no control over? Why is it my problem,, specifically? Swiss hit on it above. There are thousands of charities, and things making themselves out to be charities, every day. I can only help a few of them, and I've already made my choices as to which ones they will be. Attempting to shame me will not convince me; rather, it will piss me off and assure that I will never consider contributing to that charity. Further, anecdotally, the charities that put the most effort into being aggressive towards their would-be patrons are often the charities that are least effective at supporting the causes they claim to represent.
Cousin Dave at September 1, 2015 7:22 AM
"I believe she is calling attention to the parts of the world where people ARE shamed for menstruating. Third world girls not being able to go to school because they are menstruating and don't have disposable pads or a reliable way to wash reusable ones is a thing."
And this gets them there how?
The "third world" isn't watching this, and the people sending aid just have to check a different box loading the truck to Donthaveshitistan.
On the other hand, the Bible™ commands us to consider a woman unclean during this time, so maybe it should be a religious message?
Radwaste at September 1, 2015 10:43 AM
Joe: "period-shaming" is a thing?
It is indeed. The people who love run-on sentences find them disgusting.
JD at September 1, 2015 9:04 PM
How long will it be until someone decides to take a public stand against the almost universal shit-shaming of two-year-olds?
Ken R at September 2, 2015 3:23 AM
Ouch Buuuuuuurn. You got me NicoleK. Well, I hope the third world heard you and them.
CatherineM at September 4, 2015 6:52 PM
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