[Music]
have you guys ever gone home looked at
yourself in the mirror and realized you
had a big chunk of food stuck in your
teeth you had been walking around the
entire day and no one said anything that
happened to me the other day you know I
was talking to one of my friends and
thank God she pointed out that I had a
black seed for my poppy seed bagel from
breakfast stuck in my teeth
it was ink it was incredibly
embarrassing but it brought me back to a
day strong and I were with a couple of
friends in San Francisco we’re just
coming back from the de Young Museum of
Fine Arts when we got kind of hungry and
went out to get some burgers and fries
were they so good since we’re in San
Francisco we decided why not let’s
explore the city here’s a beautiful day
let’s have some fun we’re at a crosswalk
waiting for the light to turn when a
homeless woman kind of just came out of
nowhere I’m just waiting for the light
to turn as well we didn’t really pay
much attention to her I did not even
realize she was there until one of our
friends pointed out she had blood on the
back of her pants
this woman was on her period she was her
blood was sleeping through her pants she
was spotting we kind of looked at each
other like what the heck I just stood
there gaping at this stranger I was so
uncomfortable I was incredibly awkward
and if I felt like that how was I
supposed to approach this lady and make
her feel comfortable let her know her
situation without making her feel
embarrassed or ashamed we ended up
walking away avoiding her entirely it
was really one of the most unpleasant
experiences I have to say yeah I speak
for the both of us when I say I deeply
regret that day because that woman
probably looked down and wondered why
didn’t anybody tell me she probably felt
embarrassed just like you and I would if
we found out we had food stuck in our
teeth maybe even more sarong and I chose
to ignore her and our actions only
enforce the global Buffalo fication of
menstruation the taboo of periods am i
Indian
ethnic background menstruation is a very
sensitive and extremely private subject
I grew up in a house with three women
the first time actually saw a menstral
product was at school when I was 13
years old there’s some cultures in India
where when a woman’s on her menstrual
cycle she is forbidden from entering the
kitchen performing any household duties
entering the temple or even performing
any ritualistic activities I’m
participating in ritual ritual events
because she’s deemed unclean actress
Megan Marco recently traveled to India
and she found that girls find it really
hard to actually go to school because
they feel embarrassed about their
periods because they don’t have
facilities like we do in America they
don’t have you know clean restrooms
sometimes they don’t have master
products at hand
because of this girls end up missing
over 140 days in school and 23 percent
of both girls end up knocking the
education that they deserve
because of menstruation in Hebrew Bible
refers to menstruation there is a word
that they call its translates to being
ritually impure Tama scripture claims
that when a woman is on a period she is
impure and anyone who to physically
interact with this woman would also be
impure and they would require to have
ritualistic purification and woman and
Paul when they’re on their periods the
community exiles them and they’re forced
to live in huts recently a girl a
teenage girl died in one of these huts
by being bitten by a snake her
punishment for menstruating was death
all of this injustice because of the
world’s misconception and ignorance
historically it was believed that babies
conceived during menstruation were ill
or possessed and then if a man’s penis
menstrual blood it would burn off that
makes me that you know it’s ridiculous
to you and me and it can be argued you
know we’re past that we’re past all
those myths we’re in advanced society
now but some of it still holds weight
because if we break down these myths to
their simplest ideology that
menstruation is disgusting and that
woman should be ashamed the standards
have not changed but in fact
menstruation is a completely natural and
beautiful complex bodily function and if
anything it’s clean menstruation is
basically a 28-day cycle to which on day
14 and egg is released from the ovaries
and it enters the uterus which where it
can be either fertilized or remain
unfertilized an unfertilized egg
attaches itself to the endometrium also
known as the uterine lining throughout
the cycle endometrium sheds and the
shedding is actually the blood that you
see that comes out of the vagina it’s
really that’s it
woman or rather anyone who experienced
menstruation including those of LGBTQ
community the genderqueer use products
such as pads tampons to absorb blood and
cups to capture blood but these
menstrual products also hold their own
stigma in Mexico my motherland
we love to hold women to a double
standard we’re very traditional and
we’re very Catholic but we tend to
over-sexualize our women in media big
touristy cities like Cancun Mexico sell
tampons but for the rest of Mexico they
don’t even have an adopted work for
tampon when I tried to explain to the
woman that ran one of three markets in
my hometown she was utterly disgusted by
the idea of a con to being inserted into
the vagina I was really confused and I
asked one of my family friends and she
explained to me embarrassed you know a
lot of Mexican families do not let their
daughters wear tampons because it
simulates premarital sex and it takes
away their purity
these women even if they’re independent
and they use they can use tampons
because I’m more convenient or
comfortable don’t because the tampon is
simply over sexualized in our own
country menstruation is used to degrade
and to humiliate women the last
presidential debate Donald Trump in
response to megyn kelly is critical
inquiries remarked blood coming out of
her whatever these this attitude was
established by man thousands upon
thousands of years ago through their
ignorant their misogynistic agendas
their fear of women in regard to the
fact that women can carry life and men
can’t they just had this idea and we
have been culturally conditioned to
carry these ideas but why why here’s
that attitude still here but this can be
fixed we can start by implementing
menstral education and sex at curriculum
that’s already being taught to classes
as young as fifth grade we can also
start by obliterating policies that
target women like the tampon tax the
tampon tax puts an value-added tax on
menstrual products butt pads are a
necessity not a luxury and then we until
we can see that difference we’re not
gonna move past this problem if we do
move past this problem there can be
social change we can desexualize tampons
we can have more government-funded
facilities where a woman can get free
gynecological care where she can get a
pap smear just easily of getting a flu
shot from Walgreens so you see the age
of ignorance must end we need to start
treating menstruation as a normal
healthy bodily function hopefully today
we educated you a little bit more and
inspired you not to turn a blind eye on
this problem any longer today we add to
the conversation of menstruation but is
really today that we are ending it now
there’s only time for action
menstruation is not what the world says
it is it is human thank you
[Applause] [Music]
have you guys ever gone home looked at
yourself in the mirror and realized you
had a big chunk of food stuck in your
teeth you had been walking around the
entire day and no one said anything that
happened to me the other day you know I
was talking to one of my friends and
thank God she pointed out that I had a
black seed for my poppy seed bagel from
breakfast stuck in my teeth
it was ink it was incredibly
embarrassing but it brought me back to a
day strong and I were with a couple of
friends in San Francisco we’re just
coming back from the de Young Museum of
Fine Arts when we got kind of hungry and
went out to get some burgers and fries
were they so good since we’re in San
Francisco we decided why not let’s
explore the city here’s a beautiful day
let’s have some fun we’re at a crosswalk
waiting for the light to turn when a
homeless woman kind of just came out of
nowhere I’m just waiting for the light
to turn as well we didn’t really pay
much attention to her I did not even
realize she was there until one of our
friends pointed out she had blood on the
back of her pants
this woman was on her period she was her
blood was sleeping through her pants she
was spotting we kind of looked at each
other like what the heck I just stood
there gaping at this stranger I was so
uncomfortable I was incredibly awkward
and if I felt like that how was I
supposed to approach this lady and make
her feel comfortable let her know her
situation without making her feel
embarrassed or ashamed we ended up
walking away avoiding her entirely it
was really one of the most unpleasant
experiences I have to say yeah I speak
for the both of us when I say I deeply
regret that day because that woman
probably looked down and wondered why
didn’t anybody tell me she probably felt
embarrassed just like you and I would if
we found out we had food stuck in our
teeth maybe even more sarong and I chose
to ignore her and our actions only
enforce the global Buffalo fication of
menstruation the taboo of periods am i
Indian
ethnic background menstruation is a very
sensitive and extremely private subject
I grew up in a house with three women
the first time actually saw a menstral
product was at school when I was 13
years old there’s some cultures in India
where when a woman’s on her menstrual
cycle she is forbidden from entering the
kitchen performing any household duties
entering the temple or even performing
any ritualistic activities I’m
participating in ritual ritual events
because she’s deemed unclean actress
Megan Marco recently traveled to India
and she found that girls find it really
hard to actually go to school because
they feel embarrassed about their
periods because they don’t have
facilities like we do in America they
don’t have you know clean restrooms
sometimes they don’t have master
products at hand
because of this girls end up missing
over 140 days in school and 23 percent
of both girls end up knocking the
education that they deserve
because of menstruation in Hebrew Bible
refers to menstruation there is a word
that they call its translates to being
ritually impure Tama scripture claims
that when a woman is on a period she is
impure and anyone who to physically
interact with this woman would also be
impure and they would require to have
ritualistic purification and woman and
Paul when they’re on their periods the
community exiles them and they’re forced
to live in huts recently a girl a
teenage girl died in one of these huts
by being bitten by a snake her
punishment for menstruating was death
all of this injustice because of the
world’s misconception and ignorance
historically it was believed that babies
conceived during menstruation were ill
or possessed and then if a man’s penis
menstrual blood it would burn off that
makes me that you know it’s ridiculous
to you and me and it can be argued you
know we’re past that we’re past all
those myths we’re in advanced society
now but some of it still holds weight
because if we break down these myths to
their simplest ideology that
menstruation is disgusting and that
woman should be ashamed the standards
have not changed but in fact
menstruation is a completely natural and
beautiful complex bodily function and if
anything it’s clean menstruation is
basically a 28-day cycle to which on day
14 and egg is released from the ovaries
and it enters the uterus which where it
can be either fertilized or remain
unfertilized an unfertilized egg
attaches itself to the endometrium also
known as the uterine lining throughout
the cycle endometrium sheds and the
shedding is actually the blood that you
see that comes out of the vagina it’s
really that’s it
woman or rather anyone who experienced
menstruation including those of LGBTQ
community the genderqueer use products
such as pads tampons to absorb blood and
cups to capture blood but these
menstrual products also hold their own
stigma in Mexico my motherland
we love to hold women to a double
standard we’re very traditional and
we’re very Catholic but we tend to
over-sexualize our women in media big
touristy cities like Cancun Mexico sell
tampons but for the rest of Mexico they
don’t even have an adopted work for
tampon when I tried to explain to the
woman that ran one of three markets in
my hometown she was utterly disgusted by
the idea of a con to being inserted into
the vagina I was really confused and I
asked one of my family friends and she
explained to me embarrassed you know a
lot of Mexican families do not let their
daughters wear tampons because it
simulates premarital sex and it takes
away their purity
these women even if they’re independent
and they use they can use tampons
because I’m more convenient or
comfortable don’t because the tampon is
simply over sexualized in our own
country menstruation is used to degrade
and to humiliate women the last
presidential debate Donald Trump in
response to megyn kelly is critical
inquiries remarked blood coming out of
her whatever these this attitude was
established by man thousands upon
thousands of years ago through their
ignorant their misogynistic agendas
their fear of women in regard to the
fact that women can carry life and men
can’t they just had this idea and we
have been culturally conditioned to
carry these ideas but why why here’s
that attitude still here but this can be
fixed we can start by implementing
menstral education and sex at curriculum
that’s already being taught to classes
as young as fifth grade we can also
start by obliterating policies that
target women like the tampon tax the
tampon tax puts an value-added tax on
menstrual products butt pads are a
necessity not a luxury and then we until
we can see that difference we’re not
gonna move past this problem if we do
move past this problem there can be
social change we can desexualize tampons
we can have more government-funded
facilities where a woman can get free
gynecological care where she can get a
pap smear just easily of getting a flu
shot from Walgreens so you see the age
of ignorance must end we need to start
treating menstruation as a normal
healthy bodily function hopefully today
we educated you a little bit more and
inspired you not to turn a blind eye on
this problem any longer today we add to
the conversation of menstruation but is
really today that we are ending it now
there’s only time for action
menstruation is not what the world says
it is it is human thank you
[Applause] [Music]
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