Ep-20: Menstrual Hygiene ft. Deane De Menezes on UNSETTLING by Amrita Sukumar
Episode description
“We knew we shouldn’t be ashamed. We weren’t ashamed. We were grown-ass women—which is obviously why we paraded to the restrooms with tampons secretly stuffed into our cardigan sleeves as though we were spies delivering encrypted information.
....We pretended that all of this was a myth. That we had neither fallopian tubes, nor menstrual cycles, nor breasts, nor moods, nor children. And then we took it as a compliment when one of the men in the office told us we had balls. So, tell us again how this wasn’t a man’s world.”
― Chandler Baker, Whisper Network
Episode 20 is a conversation with Deane De Menezes about her campaign, "Red is the new green". She has come a long way since starting this campaign. Not only did she educate men, women, and children alike about menstruation and menstrual hygiene, she set an example for everyone to break the taboo around menstruation and menstrual hygiene and talk about it freely. She has been awarded the "Queen's Youth Leaders Award" and has also been featured in the "Forbes 30 under 30". I hope through this episode, we are able to answer a few questions.
For you to be able to connect the dots, here are a few points that we covered during the episode:
1. Her journey: THe genesis story of the campaign "Red is the new Green." and the journey so far.
2. Educating people: Talking about menstruation and menstrual hygiene to people young and old.
3. Effect of the taboo around menstruation on the mental and physical health of the women
4. Disposal of menstrual waste: The amount of plastic generated per use and how to properly dispose of it.
5. Are menstrual cups and tampons safe?
6. The initiative "Pass on the pad" to bridge the gap between the privileged and the under privileged. You can do your bit by contributing on this link: http://bit.ly/PassOnThePad
7. Busting a few myths that you wonderful people generously shared with me. Deane had some interesting answers to those!
For those who want to know more about menstruation and menstrual hygiene or just connect with Deane you can do so on:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/redisthenewgreen_/?hl=en