Do you give a lot of thought to menstrual justice? Most of us probably don’t, partially because there’s such a stigma around talking about periods that we also don’t talk about anything related to them, such as unequal access to products and healthcare.
Period. End of Sentence. by Anita Diamant is a crash course in menstrual justice. It provides a real broad overview of a number of topics related to periods, without diving very deep into any of them. It’s a short book broken up into easily digestible chapters and subsections, so it’s ideal if you want to develop a quick understanding of the issue before deciding if there are any aspects you’d like to learn more about.
A big topic in menstrual justice, one that people have probably actually heard about — and indeed, the topic of the eponymous documentary this book was inspired by — is access to menstrual products and related needs. A lack of access to safe and easy to use products can lead to menstruators either having to improvise (which can cause issues ranging from discomfort to rashes and infections depending on the materials used), or to stay home from work and school (which can cause decreased academic performance, lost pay, and career issues). Without access to toilets, handwashing, and places to dispose of single-use or clean reusable products, it’s difficult for menstruators to use products even if they have them. For instance, a reusable pad or period underwear doesn’t do you much good if you don’t have a good place to leave it out to dry thoroughly.
The book praises efforts to provide products (or the means for a community to make their own products) in developing nations, to unhoused people, and in school bathrooms and other public places. Because yes, this isn’t just an issue in developing nations — period products are expensive, and if you find yourself out of pads and tampons with $10 to last you until payday, what are you going to do?
However, the book also points out that there’s a lot more to be done than just handing people pads and tampons and going on our merry way.
What good does having products do you if you live in a society where you’re viewed as unclean during your period and have to seclude yourself, potentially sleeping in unsafe temporary dwellings during adverse weather?
What good does having products do you if neither you nor your medical provider treat your period as an important vital sign, and thus miss a serious health problem?
What good does having products do you if you believe myths about what you can and can’t do on your period, such as bathing and exercising?
Period. End of Sentence. spends a lot of time talking about period shame, and ways to combat it. In many ways, shame is the root of most of the problems around periods. If we treated periods as just a normal biological function and not some sort of curse on people with uteruses, we’d probably be in a much better place in terms of our ability to discuss our own period-related health problems, and to advocate for better access to products and health care for everyone who menstruates.
One thing I appreciated about this book was that it takes a pretty intersectional approach. The author talks to people from different cultures about beliefs and rituals around menstruation, and challenges within their communities. While there is a lot of female-centric language in the book, she does often use the term “menstruators” (as I am using in this review) and makes mention of the fact that trans men and non-binary people can menstruate, and of course, not all women menstruate, either. I would have preferred a little more LGBTQIA+ representation and discussions of how to decouple menstruation from ideas of femininity and reproduction*, but here we are.
This book gave me a fair amount of food for thought, especially around menstruation as a vital sign, and our options for managing it. There’s a section that discusses a region where menstruators with troublesome periods were referred overwhelmingly for hysterectomies, with the suspicion that their bosses in agriculture preferred them to no longer miss work for periods and/or pregnancies. Within my own life, I’m also surprised to still have my own uterus, due to the number of women in my family who had hysterectomies by the time they were my age. It seems that people with menstrual complaints are often encouraged towards surgery, without necessary being given a lot of preparation and support for the complicatons that may come from no longer having a uterus.
Over all, Period. End of Sentence. is probably worth the read, given how short and easy to read it is. Even if menstrual justice won’t become your new activism passion, you’ll be better off for having knowledge about it, so you can keep it in mind when it may come up in whatever cause(s) you are focused on.
*Obviously I recognize that menstruation is part of the human reproduction system, but as a childfree person with a very strong aversion to pregnancy, the constant reminder that my period means I’m capable of creating life or whatever really does not speak to me or my values.
CWs and TWs: In addition to discussing periods and thus blood, this book contains mentions of suicide, bullying, rampant misogyny, and ableism.
Source and Format: I read this as a paperback purchased from The Neverending Bookshop.
Book Bingo Prompts
Nook & Cranny (Card 2): Health & Body Positivity. Feels pretty self-explanatory! I knew pretty much from the start of this year’s challenge that this was the book I wanted to read for this prompt, it just took me this long to get to it.
Book Bingo Progress
Nook & Cranny (Card 2): 23 out of 25 prompts complete. 8 bingos.
Donation for Palestine: This book was purchased in 2023, so it counts for my Physical TBR Challenge and has prompted a $50 donation to a family in Palestine. For this book, I chose to donate to Mohammed and Leila’s family. Visit this post for a full write-up on my challenge and links to all of the families I have donated to so far. I am now at 11 books out of my 12 book goal.