More Than A Magazine, A Movement
A lawsuit was filed on behalf of an eleven-year-old with Down syndrome that challenges her expulsion from a federally-funded afterschool program in Austin, Texas. Why? Because she began to menstruate.
The young girl’s lawsuit—and her demand that menstruation be considered under Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972—has the potential to break new ground.
This year’s law school bar examination, in particular, is high stress and high stakes. Nearly 3,000 lawyers, law professors and recent graduates are demanding a clear, consistent statement that authorizes people to carry and use their own menstrual products while taking the bar exam in every state.
What happens when PPE is treated as a “one-size-fits-all” proposition? And when the default is the body and experience of a cisgender male? Two recent news stories highlight the dangers.
The national policy response has featured a handful of provisions that aim to advance gender and economic equity, both federally and in some states. Good news? Sort of.
At the border right now, there’s no solace for young teens who might know little about what’s happening to their bodies—yet have to summon the courage to tell a male guard and ask for pads, only to be denied or given too few to matter. Or have to manage their periods in over-crowded rooms where privacy is scant. And aren’t even able to shower or wash hands or scrub clean stained underwear.
What do recent victories for menstrual equity worldwide suggest for the future of the movement?
In today’s treacherous landscape for reproductive health, one policy priority has skirted partisan rancor: periods.
Ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment goes beyond a matter of principle. It would also offer a host of legal remedies to gender-based disparities, including discrimination in the workplace and the injustices that face survivors in our rape culture—and it would be a major boon to the emerging movement for menstrual equity.
With every passing day—with each sordid detail that comes to light about Brett Kavanaugh’s school years, with every aggressive and hypocritical word that passes across the lips of Senator Mitch “plow through these hearings” McConnell, with every victim-blaming tweet from the pussy-grabbing POTUS himself—my fury swells.
“The time has come to move periods out from the shadows, and squarely in the center of our society.”
