Name: Jemma

Social Justice Group: Menstrual Health

Date of Fieldwork: November 21, 2017

Name of Organization: No organization

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Ingrid Nilsen Youtuber and Menstrual Health Activist

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did:

We interviewed YouTuber and Activist for Menstrual health Ingrid Nilsen. We met her at Period Con and we contacted her and she agreed to come to our school and give us an interview.

What I learned:

We learned that a lot of people don’t feel comfortable using products such as tampons or menstrual cups which makes it more difficult to use reusables. (Ingrid is one of those people) We also learned that even though there was a lot of positive feedback when she began discussing menstruation there was also a lot of backlash which is something that most people face when publicly talking about this topic.

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

We learned that any social justice topic you publicly discuss will be met with complaints. When it comes to fighting for any human right, not everyone is going to agree with it because most social justice topics are controversial. If Social Justice topics are not controversial then they are not social justice topics at all because there is nothing to fight for. It also takes many people fighting for one thing for it to happen. Menstruating has been happening since the beginning of humans and many areas surrounding it such as taboo and access to products is still difficult for women. One person like Ingrid Nilsen speaking out about Menstrual Health is not going to change much. We all need to help speak out or there will be no progress.