Name: Io Weintraub

Social Justice Group: Menstrual Health

Date of Fieldwork: January 16, 2018

Name of Organization: Period Piece

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Liliana Tandon

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did:

We interviewed Liliana Tandon, the founder of Period Piece. Period Piece is a website with short clips of people getting their period throughout history and how the reaction to menstruation changed in time. Liliana and her friends made it not thinking that it was such a big issue, but made an impact and brought the attention to Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, Women’s Health, Marie Claire France, India Today, and many more. We asked Ms. Tandon questions like why she made the site and how it affected people who don’t menstruate in her life. For example, “Did they feel comfortable helping her with the videos?” or “Did they willingly act in the clips?”

What I learned:

I learned that because the issue is surrounded by taboo and stigma, people might react to it as an awkward topic. That is the reason Liliana and her friends started the site. They thought such an uncomfortable topic is humorous to others. It’s important to change that because when so many people in our world do something so unspoken, it’s hard for those of us to prepare for menstruation. Liliana’s site educated viewers in a comedic/engaging way. She included jokes such as heightened emotions (exesive crying and mood swings) as she was menstruating in one episode. It was funny to me because it’s teaching the symtoms of PMS as well as adding some humor.

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

I learned the different reactions from different time periods that people had about menstruation. For example, 18th century France thought that the smell of menstrual blood in seductive. Another one is how in Ancient Rome, when people who menstruated uncovered their bodies, they would scare away anything that would affect their crops. Also, the Cherokee believed that menstrual blood would overpower enemies.