BY DELILA GRUBAUGH
Periods are a part of every girls’ life. In fact, some even consider it a symbol of officially becoming a woman. With this in mind, girls should be proud of their newfound maturity; only they aren’t. Why? Because the subject of menstruation is still rather taboo.
Some girls still don’t feel comfortable discussing the topic and some even feel shameful. It’s no shock to refer to periods as “hellish” or “annoying” because having a period really is a struggle. They can cause a lot of inconveniences like not being able to wear a certain outfit , getting cramps in the worst moments, and for those who are student athletes, not being able to swim during a meet or practice.
Bleeding through is a huge inconvenience as well. It’s a big problem that’s also very common. No matter what you wear for “protection”, you can still leak. Ask any girl and believe me she will go into a long and detailed story about the horrors of bleeding through. No girl is a stranger to this.
The worst thing is when you leak so bad that you go through your jeans. You might even bleed into the chair you’re sitting in. At that point you have to try and find a way to cover it up and go to the restroom to clean yourself without causing suspicion. This is just a really embarrassing and stressful situation to have to go through. You don’t want anyone to gawk at you or even worse, call you out. That would be nothing less of mortifying.
And then, there’s the problem of having nothing to handle “ol’ Aunt Flow”. Whether you start unexpectedly or you’re aware that you are, you can still run out or not have any protection. Which is why schools should have free feminine products in the girl’s restrooms.
If you’re lucky the school might have pads, but they’re in the office which means that you have to walk all the way up to the office in blood soaked underwear. Then you have to ask for one, which is embarrassing in itself, and by doing this basically notifying the administrators that you’re on your period. This is just overall humiliating, and any girl reading this is probably cringing because she can imagine or relate.
This also can cause a bit of anxiety, especially for people that actually do have anxiety. For this reason, we should give girls the convenience of having these products within their reach. By doing this, girls wouldn’t miss out on educational opportunities to be picked up by their parents because they’ve had complications and wouldn’t have to desperately ask around for a form of protection.
Some states in the U.S. like Illinois have already taken the measures to do this by putting dispensers of tampons or pads in their school restroom. This makes having a period in school more convenient and less stressful.
If you agree and believe girls should have the right to free menstrual products, you can help put this into act by simply texting the word “FLOW” to 22422.
