Chella Quint is a comedy writer, performer and teacher. She is also the founder of the #periodpositive hashtag

“About 10 years ago I set up a zine called Adventures In Menstruating to deconstruct, challenge and basically make fun of the stigma surrounding periods. I got the inspiration while trawling through some archives, where I found a load of historical adverts for menstrual products and thought, ‘Well this is just hilarious.’ The material was so dated, it was shocking, but what was even more shocking was that we’re still bombarded with these messages today. Think about it: packaging is always designed so that nobody could possibly know what’s inside. The adverts use language like ‘whisper’ and ‘discreet’. I came across one pad during my research which came with a freshening wipe called Freshelle. So we ran a piece about ridiculous menstrual products and titled it: ‘What freshelle is this?’

Eventually, zine readings turned into more general comedy nights about menstruation. Now, almost a decade on, the shows cover everything from leakage horror stories to me, on stage, trying on a load of old pads with elasticated waists from the Thirties. I even instigate a ‘menstrual product mambo’ (where everyone has to get up and dance) and talk about the first time I used a menstrual cup: I didn’t realise that if you take it out with a flourish, you end up surrounded by something that resembles a crime scene.

My day job is teaching and when I became head of physical and health education at my school, I was keen to include arts and drama in my teaching about periods. A lot of research has established the link between embarrassment about menstruation as a child leading to other issues in later life: you might have trouble negotiating consent, pleasure and sex if you internalise such shame about your body, for example. So it’s important for me to be as positive about periods with the students as possible.

We can fight back in other ways too. Firstly, we can start calling them ‘menstrual products’, not ‘sanitary products’, because it suggests not using them somehow makes us unclean. We also need to be more inclusive to trans and non-binary menstruators (we can say ‘women and others who menstruate’) and to not simply assume that all women get their periods, as there are some who don’t for physiological or emotional reasons.

But it’s also really important to share some joy and silliness about periods. To laugh at them. I’m not saying periods are fun, but talking about them can be. Creating a feeling of camaraderie and making people realise they have people they can talk to is crucial.”

chellaquint.com

Meet the women working to end period shame