Name: Io Weintraub
Social Justice Group: Menstrual Health
Date of Fieldwork: November 18, 2017
Name of Organization: Period. The Menstrual Movement
Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Assembly Member Linda B. Rosenthal, Carinne Chambers (Founder and CEO of DivaCup International), Nadya Okamoto (Founder & Executive Director of PERIOD. The Menstrual Movement), Ingrid Nilsen (Lifestyle Expert and Online Video Personality), U.S. Congresswoman Grace Meng, Nicole Cushman (Executive Director of Answer), Alma Gottlieb (Cultural Anthropologist), Damaris Lewis(Top Model and CEO of Gorudo Candles), David Linton (Co-Editor for the Society of Menstrual Cycle Research), Elizabeth Yuko (Health & Sex Editor at SheKnows), Eudora Olsen (PERIOD Programs Director), Alison Nakamura Netter (Chief Communications Officer of ZanaAfrica), Alaina Wayland (Educator in Buffalo, NY), Sarah Hillware (Founder and Executive of Girls Health Ed), Mari Malek (Model),Tracy Puhl (CEO – GladRags), Kenneth Alvandi (CEO – Maxim Hygiene), Siobhan Lonergan (VP of Brand for Thinx), Cathy Chapman (President of Lunette Cup), Cass Clemmer (Creator of Toni the Tampon), Jax Gonzalez (Ph.D. Student and Gender Studies Scholar), Mason Pierce (President of Portland Menstrual Society), Claire Coder (Founder and CEO of Aunt Flow), and Nancy Kramer (Founder of Free the Tampons)
Type of Fieldwork: Tour of Organization
What I did:
we met with Sarah at Ramscale Studio for the first Period Con in history after a night at Olivia’s house. Zoe, Jemma, Olivia, and I all met will many inspiring people including Assembly Member Linda B. Rosenthal, Carinne Chambers (Founder and CEO of DivaCup International), Nadya Okamoto (Founder & Executive Director of PERIOD. The Menstrual Movement), Ingrid Nilsen (Lifestyle Expert and Online Video Personality), U.S. Congresswoman Grace Meng, Nicole Cushman (Executive Director of Answer), Alma Gottlieb (Cultural Anthropologist), Damaris Lewis(Top Model and CEO of Gorudo Candles), David Linton (Co-Editor for the Society of Menstrual Cycle Research), Elizabeth Yuko (Health & Sex Editor at SheKnows), Eudora Olsen (PERIOD Programs Director), Alison Nakamura Netter (Chief Communications Officer of ZanaAfrica), Alaina Wayland (Educator in Buffalo, NY), Sarah Hillware (Founder and Executive of Girls Health Ed), Mari Malek (Model),Tracy Puhl (CEO – GladRags), Kenneth Alvandi (CEO – Maxim Hygiene), Siobhan Lonergan (VP of Brand for Thinx), Cathy Chapman (President of Lunette Cup), Cass Clemmer (Creator of Toni the Tampon), Jax Gonzalez (Ph.D. Student and Gender Studies Scholar), Mason Pierce (President of Portland Menstrual Society), Claire Coder (Founder and CEO of Aunt Flow), and Nancy Kramer (Founder of Free the Tampons). We heard panels from Menstrual Educators to people taking actions. One thing that I learned is how we should not use names such as “feminine hygiene products” because first of all, it’s not just women who use these menstrual products but anyone who menstruates. Second of all, the word “hygiene” sounds like it’s cleaning something dirty but Periods should not be seen as dirty, they should be seen as care products. Ingrid Nilsen (Lifestyle Expert and Online Video Personality) was one of the speakers that brought this to our attention, “… and not using terminology like feminine products because that’s just outdated and I think using language that actually captured what it is that we’re talking about, using the words that represent these actual products, so instead of saying feminine hygiene products, saying tampon or pad or menstrual cup, what ever it happens to be, say what it is. That within itself can be really huge,”
What I learned:
I learned that language is the first step to changing the norms and it’s such a big impact when you just twist what you say because it represents gender inclusivity and how it’s a natural growing thing for anyone who menstruates. It shows that it’s not a luxury and anyone who changes there words is further stating that. I discovered how big of a cause this is. I was thinking about this during our topic picking because my mom’s friend had done a campaign for tampon tax. I was thinking of taking about this subject in social justice but I didn’t think I would win over my group because we had not known all of these problems facing menstrual equity.
What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:
After seeing this convention, it brought to my attention that this is affecting so many people around the world. But, the reason that we had no idea was being our society hides this subject. They think it’s gross and not to be spoken of. Even people in our community at LREI feel uncomfortable talking about this and that’s what we want to change in our social justice project. Saying things like period, tampons, pads, or vagina are shown to children as forbidden words because they are dirty or inappropriate. How is something that half our population experiences inappropriate? This is what my group knows we want to change. Such a small thing like language can go a long way. After this period con, we wanted to reach out to Ingrid Nilsen personally for an interview, which we did with her organizer Eileen. This motivated me to start thinking smaller because now I know small things can go a long way. We have to look inside our community not just with our teach-in but we could do a survey about this topic or ask questions. We should take information from them to know what we can do to educate them about menstrual equity. I was definitely surprised to see how big a topic this was. I want to remember in our teach-in to change the language.
