Name: Noelle Raffo
Social Justice Group: 2018-2019, Women in the Media
Date of Fieldwork: January 26, 2019
Name of Organization: PeriodCon with PERIOD-The Menstrual Movement
Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Nadya Okomoto, PERIOD
Type of Fieldwork: Direct Action
What I did:
We went to PeriodCon. PeriodCon is an annual two-day convention where there are different panels and workshops focusing on menstrual equity. It is run by PERIOD-an organization who’s mission is to celebrate periods and provide products to those in need. PERIOD was started by Nadya Okomoto when she was 16 years old with her friend Vincent Forand. We went to the first day which was all of the panels and talks. The first speaker was Lynn Seely who works with Myovant Sciences who talked a lot about period diseases and how not much is being done about them. Then there was a panel of Period Poverty which was about how people who don’t have access to period products go about their cycle. Then we had time to walk around the “vendor hall” where there were about 6 vendor stands where different companies could promote their period products and a lot of them were available for free. We learned a lot about how the products work and how they were designed to work the best for every person who menstruates. Then, my favorite panel that I saw was the Period Policy panel. This panel was about the laws around periods and the politics around them. It was a super interesting panel and I learned a lot. We then had lunch and had time to talk to everyone that was there. We talked with Nadya-who is super kind and fun, and some other people who have their own companies that supply period products to schools. There was then a gender inclusivity panel where they talked about how not all menstruators are women, and not all women menstruate. (I had to leave at this time). Next was a panel on period in pop culture which I heard was very interesting, and then to close off the day, Wendy Davis-a former Texas state senator spoke.
What I learned:
I learned that the government doesn’t think of period products as medical necessities but instead they consider them “luxury items” and therefore are taxed. This is a problem since period products are very necessary things for people who have periods to have. To make this worse-some things that are NOT taxed (while period products are) are:
-cowboy boots
-skittles
-hot air balloon rides
-clarinet lessons
-fruit roll ups
I also learned that 86% of women have to miss work because there are not period products in their work bathrooms. This also happens a lot in school as when period products are put in ALL school bathrooms, attendance went up by 2.4%. It is also not required to list ingredients that are in tampons, so a lot of the time we don’t know what we are putting inside of us. Period products are also almost always listed or labeled as “feminine hygiene products”, but not all people who need the products are female.
What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:
I learned that change starts with US. Nadya and Vincent started PERIOD when they were just 16 years old and now it is helping thousands of girls around the country. We need to educate ourselves, pass on what we know and keep it going. To get rid of the stigma around periods, we have to be open about talking about them. When we talk about them we can’t whisper, we should talk normally. When there are people in power who may not agree with us, we need to get together with the people who have been left out of the conversation. If we want to make a difference, we have to find our rights, have our evidence, and keep on fighting.
