Stop taboo: let's talk about periods!
Periods? They are not a taboo, they are just ordinary things, soo… LET’S TALK ABOUT PERIODS!
But how did this idea come to us, two teenagers that live in a world full of taboos? We read about the periods kit that brings girls back to school, thank to the association “Days For Girls” that had this idea. Currently, it is made for girls that live in Ethiopia, India and Nepal: in this kit there are washable cotton pads, slip, towel and a bar of soap. Every kit lasts three years and “Days For Girls” has distributed it over a million worldwide.
After reading this article, we did some research and we found interesting curiosities:
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30-40 milliliters: it is the quantity of blood lost on average each time, equal to 2-3 spoons. 24 liters in total in a lifetime. But how many periods does a woman have? Today it is estimated that the amount of ovulations, in the life of a woman living today in an industrialized country is 450-500. Once they were only 160. Why so many less? The reason is that the menarche (first menstrual cycle) began later, pregnancies arrived earlier and were more frequent, longer periods of breastfeeding. In many cases, perhaps menstruation ceased due to malnutrition. And then ... life in general was shorter.
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From 1945 to 1951, Disney dedicated itself to producing educational films for schools, including this 10-minute video on the functioning of the female body and the cycle. It was commissioned by the International Cello-Cotton Company, a manufacturer of sanitary napkins and baby diapers, and it was probably one of the first films to use the term "vagina" in the script. (https://youtu.be/bjIJZyoKRlg)
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Carrie was the first film to graphically show period blood.
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In Victorian times menstruating women were not allowed access to the gardens because people thought they dried up the plants,. Another belief is that the woman with menstruation can make the food go bad or even make the wine become sour. Beliefs and legends that seem to be distant in time, but not in space: still today, as evidenced by this sign at the entrance of a Hindu temple in Bali (Indonesia): entry is forbidden to people without decent clothing and to women with menstruation.