International Women's Day: talking women and periods

February 23, 2017 by Ray Morgan

International Women's Day: talking women and periods

I'm writing this on a train home from London, where I've just been in a meeting on the gender pay gap. In a lovely bit of syncronicity, I was suffering from period pains IN the meeting. It's like Mother Nature knew! Female issues all round! I walked back to Fenchurch Street and popped into Superdrug, where they sell "monthly care" (pfft) items at hugely inflated prices, pink packets of painkillers which are inexplicably FIVE POUNDS despite having the same ingredients as 36p ibuprofen ¯\_(?)_/¯ #ragtimeblues

I'm going to talk about periods for a bit, so if that makes you feel uncomfortable, sorry not sorry! Half of the population have them, and they're frankly rubbish. I mean, they're not rubbish. They're actually quite amazing. But... they're painful aren't they? Inconvenient. Messy. Horrible. Deflating of mood yet inflating of tummies. Draining. And not talked about enough.

If you believe the adverts, when we're "on" or "surfing the crimson" or it's "shark week" we jump around sandy beaches in white trousers, smiling and laughing, while a clear blue liquid gets tidily soaked up by some clever products that somehow have something to do with "pearls". The reality, of course, is that you cry over the advert for (not the actual programme, JUST the advert for) 'The Secret Life of Dogs' while hugging a hot water bottle, necking tablets and wondering how many bags of crisps is too many in a single day.

In the UK, us women often have to run into a chemist or Boots and buy jazzily-coloured packets of towels and tampons, massively overpriced. Sometimes in the supermarket they're on the conveyor belt seemingly with a big period klaxon going off around them, and even a feminist like me wonders if the boy on the checkout will get embarrassed, or if the person behind me notices and thinks "Urgh". I mean they are pretty gross. It's also galling to spend £5 on something that gets immediately ruined and thrown away isn't it? It's like buying a nice top in H&M, and someone throwing paint on it before you've left the shop.

But, despite the cost and vague embarrassment, we are lucky in the UK. We can confidently go into any pharmacy and stock up if we're caught short. TMI time: I have a short cycle, and often come on early, which is a real treat. But thanks to universe alignment, I work in an office that is opposite a chemist and a baker's, which means every time I need to suddenly rush out and buy my "monthly care" bits and bobs, I can do so easily, and I can buy an almond macaroon next door to take the edge off.

But what about women in other countries who don't have access to the wide range of products that we do? I find it astonishing that it's 2017 and in some countries, women have to refer to their periods as their "week of shame" and it's shameful for them to talk about it, or get the right products to ease their pain.

There's a brilliant local lady called Anita Philpott, and she's making great strides to help women in Zambia access knickers and sanitary towels, AND the means to make their OWN sanitary towels to encourage menstrual health and wellbeing. She's known locally as "The Knicker Lady" and is hosting an event to raise money for this brilliant project on International Women's Day.

I'm honoured to be performing poems at this event, along with my partner and a host of other great great performers. Come along and help women who aren't as fortunate as us have better health when it comes to periods. They're not going to go away, they're flippin' regular, and guess what: they need to be talked about more.

Talking Women for International Women's Day
Wednesday 8 March
7.30-10pm
Cafe Ciao, Thorpe Bay Broadway
£5 entry

To read all of Ray's previous blogs please click the link https://www.leigh-on-sea.com/blog/tag/picture-of-the-week.html