Gender Watch | Menstrual stigma only in India? Oscar Anonymous review: "I just think menstruation is disgusting!" 」

Menstruation Take Oscar! The director was emotional: I didn't cry because of my menstruation

This year's Oscar-winning short film, the documentary "The Moon Revolution," produced by Netflix, Period. End of sentence) bravely won the Little Golden Man. The plot tells the story of a group of women on the outskirts of New Delhi, India, who use machines to make cheap tampons and get rid of menstrual stigma (menstruation stigma), making them economically independent. (Scene in the same field: reforming India with menstrual encyclopedia!) The softest TED speech: "Menstruation is not a disease, nor is it a curse")

Director Ricka. Chaita Buzzi (Rayka Zehtabchi) to take the stage to receive the prize streaming tears, but also self-deprecating emotional excitement is not because of menstruation: "I did not cry because of menstrual, I just can't believe that a menstrual theme of the film, unexpectedly can get Oscar." ("I'm not crying because I'm in my period. I just can ' t believe a film about menstruation just won an Oscar. " ）」

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You think menstrual stigma is only in India? So is Oscar!

If you know more, you will understand that this statement is not out of courtesy, and her self-deprecation is very serious. After all, before the awards ceremony, a male Oscar-anonymous jury member explained his choice to Hollywood reports . He said he would not vote for the Moon Revolution:

"The film is very nice, but the female menstrual story, I do not think there will be any man want to vote for it, because menstruation is very disgusting for men." ("It's well done, but it's about the getting their period, and I T, the man are voting for this film because it "s just icky for men." ）

He did not explain further why menstruation was "disgusting" (icky), so it was not worth the prize. After all, the Oscars have been "bloody" and "horrifying" in the awards over the years than menstruation. But his conversation, no doubt, points to one thing: there's a lot more we have to do about menstrual stigma.

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"The Moon Revolution" is only a few 25 minutes long, talking about the women in the Hapur district outside New Delhi to get rid of the fate of menstruation and resignation, from preparation to paving goods, to create a small factory of tampons. And the film is interesting to compare, compared to women's efforts to pursue menstrual equality (menstrual equality), men almost know nothing about this campaign.

The director asked the village teenagers in the opening of the film, Do you know what "period" is? The boys thought about it and said, "Is this a time, like a class bell? "," seems to be a disease, only girls will get it? "From the Oscar's anonymous review, we can find that what he knows about menstruation is probably no more than the boys in the film.

How far is it to get rid of menstrual stigma?

The speech caused a lot of controversy, perhaps some people try to warming, said that we are not Indian and Nepalese girls after all (the same scene:"Gender Watch" Nepalese women, one months of exile ), we are far away from the documentary protagonist encounter, not easy because of menstruation to get sick, break off, resign.

But is menstrual stigma so that it does not exist in Taiwan? Try to think about it, as a girl, we must have such growth experience, parents confessed menstruation can not go to the temple bye, holding tampons will be "goodwill" reminder to hide well, sometimes bad mood will be laughed at "You are not menstruation?" (The same scene: Why is Korean tampons twice times more expensive? Tampons to hide well, menstruation is "that" stigma culture ).

Gaufmann Erving Goffman, a social scholar, once defined stigma as [1]:

People are imposed on some kind of attribute (attributes), which distinguishes him from other members, and the attribute is the less bad one. So he was relegated from a complete ordinary person to a polluted, devalued person who did not get the social treatment he deserved, and the society systematically reduced his social opportunities.

In this way, the various female life experiences mentioned above show that all kinds of discrimination caused by menstruation are, of course, stigmatized. And in order to avoid social ridicule and punishment, we often can only hide their own period, social pretend that "they do not have menstruation."

It's actually a very sad thing to do.

Think back and see, what was our first menstruation like? May be very afraid, found that there are unknown blood stains on the trousers, the first time to want to hide the stained trousers, hide up. Or panicked to wonder if he was ill. But gradually grow up, we know that menstruation is a very natural phenomenon. Everyone has different symptoms and countermeasures. Someone has abdominal pain, someone has lumbar acid, someone has long acne. We also began to learn to communicate with the body, know that they should take painkillers the first few days, know when they want to drink warm water, how to find a physiological supplies to meet their needs.

Menstruation is not terrible, menstruation is only our first bridge with the adolescent body: because of menstruation, we begin to understand that the body has its own personality.

Chaita Buzzi said in an Oscar speech :

"I want to tell you that you are empowering women all over the world to fight for menstrual equality (menstrual equality). 」

Whether in Taiwan, in the United States, East Africa or India, our first step is to never talk about it. Menstruation taking the Oscars is an important milestone, but it's definitely not going to be the end.

Hopefully one day, we will all be open to our bloody bodies, and no longer suffer from social discrimination and punishment because of bloodshed.