Moon cycles are something sacred and not to be stigmatized!
-breaking the stigma around menstruation is crucial. Because the silence period stigma is the uncomfortable silence that happens around this cycle. It is a social phenomenon that people try to make people think that menstruation is gross or dirty, but actually this is completely natural and healthy. We need to talk more about the moon cycle to be able to break the stigma.
-the moon cycle is actually the 5th vital sign besides pulse and breath in a menstruators body. The cycle is a sign of health.
-The fact that so many menstruators are scared to leave the house during the cycle, or because some menstruators don’t have access to pads, or because so many women have painful periods. All of this needs to change. menstruators can no longer hide themselves or their pain every month. This cycle should not be embarrassing or not spoken of.
-The blood of the uterus is where all humans begin, don’t ever let someone shame you for something that is healthy and natural.
-It is important that we know that most menstruators all over the world between the ages 12-55 are all sharing this experience monthly. We are bonded through this experience. But for years, there has been a stigma to talking about this shared experience. In order to be empowered and authentic, we need to shed these layers of fear.
-The very first layer to shed is our own personal experience with our moon cycle. We may have begun our cycle without any education. We may have never talked about it even within our family, and just been left to figure out how to take care of this blood and discomfort. We need to give support to the next generation to not go through this process alone, to be communicative parents, siblings, cousins, partners and friends.
-Instead of being ashamed, we - together can decide to celebrate our periods. In many cultures, the period is celebrated as a coming of age transition for women. In fact this tradition of celebrating a menstruators first period is excellent as it is nature's way of telling a youth that they are in fact becoming an adult. It is during this time that a girl has the capability to conceive a child, she has passed into adulthood with her body.
- We also need to shed the community relation with moon cycles. Due to the lack of period products, thousands of girls miss school each month.
-Period poverty, or the lack of period supplies holds thousands of women and girls back from living their lives each month. When in fact, just like housing and water, pads should be considered a human right, because we actually need them, like clothing to be able to be healthy!
-We at moonpads try to address this issue by offering a program called buy one: give one. That means for every pad box that we sell, we give away a box to a woman who otherwise does not have access to pads. We not only offer the product for free, but also give education about the moon cycle and menstrual hygiene. No longer should women miss out on their lives each month. We can do better, as a community of menstruators. Moonpads has already given away 80,000 boxes of pads to women in remote Tibetan areas of China.
- We can shed this stigma within our own network- perhaps you can simply have this conversation with someone in your family or friends network. When you shed your personal inhibition, you can support other women for generations by starting this conversation, giving confidence to yourself and slashing the myths about moon cycles and normalizing this natural and healthy cycle.
-We can only break this stigma if we work together, each of us examining what holds us back, what makes us embarrassed and how we can let go of that and be honest and helpful around this topic.