You might have noticed that periods have been in the news a lot recently - as women fight to break the taboo that seems to surround our menstrual cycle.
Donald Trump was (surprisingly) one of the first reasons why - when he oh-so-charmingly described Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly as having "blood coming out of her wherever” when she dared to challenge him about comments he'd previously made about women (such as "dogs" and "disgusting animals") during the American GOP debate.
His remarks caused an outcry on social media, but in a statement he claimed that he was referring to Megyn's "nose".
Megyn's response was one of dignified silence for a few days after the debate, until she decided to speak out this week on her show* The Kelly File*:
“I’ve decided not to respond [to those comments]...Mr. Trump is an interesting man who has captured the attention of the electorate. That’s why he’s leading in the polls. Trump, who is the front-runner, will not apologize, and I certainly will not apologize for doing good journalism. So I’ll continue doing my job without fear or favor.”
Despite this, Trumps' own comments have still sparked a movement on social media, with women tweeting Donald Trump about their period using the hashtag #PeriodsAreNotAnInsult, and updating him with their menstrual cycles. The tweets are pretty great.
Also going viral is the story of 26 year-old woman who ran the London Marathon on her period without a tampon to fight period shaming.
Kiran Gandhi wanted to stand up for women who "hide (their period) away like it doesn’t exist" and raise awareness of those who don't have access to tampons and sanitary pads.
She wrote about her experience on blogging site Medium:
"As I ran, I thought to myself about how women and men have both been effectively socialized to pretend periods don’t exist. By establishing a norm of period-shaming, [male-preferring] societies effectively prevent the ability to bond over an experience that 50% of us in the human population share monthly."
She added: "By making it difficult to speak about, we don’t have language to express pain in the workplace, and we don’t acknowledge differences between women and men that must be recognized and established as acceptable norms. Because it is all kept quiet, women are socialized not to complain or talk about their own bodily functions, since no one can see it happening. And if you can’t see it, it’s probably “not a big deal.” Why is this an important issue? Because THIS is happening, right now."
Kiran's brother and dad watched her run the marathon, tampon-free - and while she was worreid about their reactions, they hugged her happily at the end.
Leave it to resident bad-ass Kiran Gandhi to turn a marathon mis-hap into a silver/red lining. Not only was it my honor... > >
Posted by [Meredith Baker](#) on [Wednesday, July 22, 2015](https://www.facebook.com/meredith.baker.165/posts/10153489877419042:0)
She wrote on her own website:
"If there's one way to transcend oppression, it's to run a marathon in whatever way you want,...Where the stigma of a woman's period is irrelevant, and we can re-write the rules as we choose."
High profile tweeters such as Caitlyn Moran and Karen Danczuk have praised her, and Kiran's actions have sparked huge debate around the taboo of periods. We're interested to see what happens next. [