Gloria Orwoba

“I have warned my teenage son to never shame a girl for having her period.”

“My attitude toward menstruation since then has been open.”

“I have never understood why menstruation is spoken of like a secret. She recalled being excited as a teenager to finally have her first period after being the last among her peers to get the mark of womanhood.”

“We need to normalize periods.”

“That’s a whole pack that you’ve wasted because of the fear of staining your clothes.”

“I long for the day when accidental period stains will be seen as normal, not shameful. Women and girls are using up valuable sanitary pads by wearing them as a precaution out of anxiety.”

“The first thing that we have been taught is that periods are dirty and shouldn’t be seen.”

“I instigated the conversation around period shame and period stigma with men and boys asserting further that, period shaming starts with the man and the boy, because they have been brought up to believe that if a woman happens to have a stain, it’s an appropriate response to laugh at, or castigate her – and then the woman has been taught that they need to go into hiding. That’s the unlearning that we need to do.”

“Since I am always advocating against period shame, I thought I should go ahead and walk the talk.”