Period Partying!
- By Chloe Tingle
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- 01 Jun, 2016
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Saturday 28th May saw our first ever “Period Party” held at Arts House Café, Stokes Croft, Bristol.
Over 30 attendees came along in celebration of Global Menstrual Hygiene Day. There was laughter, honesty and audible gasps throughout the afternoon.
The day involved delicious cake, the release of our first research publication into Homeless Menstruation, amazing Improv comedy and plenty of queries into the use of reusable sanitary products.
An amazing introduction to our local project was given by Shai Vora who has spent the last 6 months conducting first-hand research into the effects menstruation can have on homeless women’s lives. She presented her findings with some moving accounts of the struggles these women face on a monthly basis. Her research offers an insight into the ways in which homeless women manage their periods, materially and emotionally, with limited financial resources. Not feeling comfortable with speaking freely about menstruation has detrimental effects on homeless women's experiences of menstruation. Her research outlines the importance that the role of shelters and day centres have to support women during their period, providing a warm space to rest and, sometimes, access to sanitary products. You can read the full report here including what action we plan to take next:
After this great intro, attendees were able to enjoy the party. They could: check out the products, access our Q&A booth under the stairs to ask those difficult questions that many of us still don’t feel comfortable asking in front of others like: “What happens if it gets stuck?”, “Won’t they smell?” and check out our gallery of taboos. Plus eat lots of brilliant cake provided by Arts House and have a few giggles sharing first period stories.
Next up, we had an amazing and informative pub style quiz hosted by our Marketing Intern Alex Kmiecik. We learnt some amazing facts such as “During the Middle Ages, a child with red hair was believed was believed to be conceived in ‘unclean sex’ during menstruation.” and that “Walt Disney made a movie about menstruation titled “The Story of Menstruation” in 1946. It most likely is the first film to use the word ‘vagina’.”
This was followed up with some amazing period related improv comedy provided by Bristol Uni Improv Society. From a speeded up scene of changing your menstrual cup in a public loo, to interesting period facts to removing a period blood stain from a chair, “We’ve all done it!”. The laughter was contagious and it brought down some of the customers from upstairs in the cafe to see what could be making us laugh so much.
We closed up the day with a talk from Founder, Chloe Tingle on why menstruation matters to everyone everywhere, the theme for this Year’s Global Menstrual Hygiene Day. This included some of the amazing taboos she has witnessed first-hand around the world. One story talked of how in Nepal she met a group of villagers whose daughters are required to hide from daylight when they first get their period, they are unable to see day light for up to 22 days, meaning they can only use the toilet at night. Many of the attendees were truly shocked about these practices still happening today.
We also asked people to get creative and make signs portraying what #nomoretaboo means to them. Check out some of the pictures from the day and if you believe in #nomoretaboo send us your own pic with a sign and pledge on our crowdfunder today www.crowdfunder.co.uk/nomoretaboo. One of the rewards is a chance to have a “Period Party” in your own home, don’t miss out only two early-birds left!
WOW Women of the World festivals have been popping up across the world, if you get the chance to go along to one we would strongly recommend it.
WOW – Women of the World festival celebrates women and girls, and looks at the obstacles that stop them from achieving their potential.
Around the world, individuals and communities are insisting on the simple proposition that women and girls must have equal rights and asking the question: why is gender equality taking so long?
Southbank Centre's WOW – Women of the World festival is a global network of festivals which provides a platform for celebrating what has been achieved, and exploring all the ways we can change the world for the better.
What’s not to love?
Our Founder, Chloe, and her Mum Angela went along to represent No More Taboo with a stall across the two days. Here’s her highlights:
“Although we didn’t get much time to take in all the discussions as we were kept busy wo-manning the stall (thanks Mum for helping out)! We had some great discussions around gender, equality, inclusivity and of course periods with new customers, supporters, other panellists and some old friends who came to see us.
In fact, we were really pleased to catch up with Plan International UK who were opening the festival with a discussion about Period Activism exactly one year on since the launch of our #BreaktheBarriers research and Period Poverty Conference that we ran in collaboration with Plan.
On the first weekend of September, No More Taboo set up shop at Lush Cribbs Causeway for their Charity Pot weekend.
The Lush Charity Pot is a wonderfully creamy shea-butter hand lotion where all the sales money (excluding VAT) goes towards a chosen charity or non-for-profit. This scheme is designed to help boost grass-roots, small and local organisations, like ourselves, financially so that we can continue to do the work we do such as our Tackling Period Poverty programme.
As we were Lush’s chosen organisation for the weekend of the 1-2 September, one of our volunteers, Iloni, and one of our advisors, Carolyn, went along to wo-man the (suitably Lush-styled aesthetic) stall that Lush had kindly provided for us. We took along a range of our products, stacks of leaflets and information as well as our enthusiasm for talking about all things to do with periods.
Over the weekend, we sold over £200’s worth of stock with Ruby Cups and Honour Your Flow re-usable pads proving most popular with Lush customers. On top of this, Lush sold so many of their Charity Pots that £340.60 was raised for No More Taboo – which was amazing!
However exciting the money side of things were with this event, what I personally took away as being the real highlight of the weekend was the number and nature of conversations we shared with customers.
Mothers and daughters came and chatted to us about how they agreed it was so important to use re-usable products for personal and financial reasons as well as for the planet’s sake. Boyfriends accompanied their other halves as they prodded and probed the range of menstrual cups on display. Older women commented on how it’s such a relief to be able to talk about menstruation in public and with people you’ve only just met. They regaled of a time when periods were even more hush-hush and celebrated with us out mission of there being No More Taboo.
We would like to thank Lush Cribbs Causeway for being such wonderful hosts, encouraging every customer that came through their doors to consider buying the Charity Pot or simply to chat with us. Each member of their staff team was incredibly warm and so keen to find out more about what we do. On behalf of all of us at No More Taboo, thank you.
For more information, take a look at their website: https://www1.uwe.ac.uk/whatson/biggreenweek.aspx
Read more here: https://www.wen.org.uk/environmenstrual-week-of-action/
