Name: Io Weintraub
Social Justice Group: Menstrual Health
Date of Fieldwork: November 21, 2017
Name of Organization: N/A
Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Ingrid Nilsen
Type of Fieldwork: Interview
What I did:
We interviewed Ingrid Nilsen about her opinion and experience as an activist for menstrual equity. She believes that menstruation is an important issue that many people don’t discuss and it’s important to change that. As a youtuber, Ingrid has gotten to meet President Obama and talk about this topic. We had met with her at Period Con and set up an interview after listening to her, as the keynote speaker. At Period Con 2017, the thing that got us interested in talking to her was the way she spread her voice. What I mean by this is Ingrid shares her experiences in the field and how she uses her channel to spread awareness. For example her video titled Your Vagina Matters!, or her video called What Should You Use for Your Period?, and many more.
What I learned:
I learned that there are so many ways to spread awareness such as books, videos, social media, or articles. Ingrid Nilsen spreads it on her youtube channel. Ingrid thinks that its important to spread it to kids like us too, “I think what has to happen is just a lot more education and I think that the fact that all of you are sitting here today doing this project is just prove that the work that people have done for the past 10, 20 years is definitely working. It’s slow but I know when I was your age, nobody was doing stuff like this.” Another important thing that she talked about was helping people who are experiencing homelessness. “My advice wouldn’t necessarily be for people who are experiencing homelessness, it would be to the people who can help… it’s very clear that menstrual products are some of the most needed items,” Ingrid informed us about homeless periods and reminded us that menstrual products are a necessity for 50% of our country.
What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:
One thing that I learned is how she became such an inspiration on her own. The reason she has such an impact is not just because she was a natural youtuber, she worked for it. She’s an amazing public speaker and her motive is how much she cares about this topic. She has a connection to menstrual equity and that’s why she started this movement. An important thing about this is that she is not afraid to talk about such an unspoken topic to anyone. It’s important to inform people who don’t menstruate as well as people who do.
