Running a marathon is a heck of an accomplishment. Running a marathon on your period is an even bigger feat. Kiran Gandhi, 26, did this, and she let everyone know…by not wearing a tampon.
The Harvard Business School graduate decided not to wear a tampon and let her period flow while running the London Marathon. She said this act was to encourage women across the world to be proud of their periods and raise awareness about those who don’t have access to feminine products. In the process, she grossed just about everyone out with her blood-soaked pants.
On her blog, Gandhi wrote,
I got my flow the night before and it was a total disaster but I didn’t want to clean it up. It would have been way too uncomfortable to worry about a tampon for 26.2 miles. I thought, if there’s one person society won’t fuck with, it’s a marathon runner. If there’s one way to transcend oppression, it’s to run a marathon in whatever way you want. On the marathon course, sexism can be beaten. Where the stigma of a woman’s period is irrelevant, and we can re-write the rules as we choose. Where a woman’s comfort supersedes that of the observer. I ran with blood dripping down my legs for sisters who don’t have access to tampons and sisters who, despite cramping and pain, hide it away and pretend like it doesn’t exist. I ran to say, it does exist, and we overcome it every day. The marathon was radical and absurd and bloody in ways I couldn’t have imagined until the day of the race.
Let’s call this what it is – disgusting, unhygienic, and unnecessary.
While Kiran Gandhi is trying to raise the red flag for sexism, she’s just making feminists look ridiculous. We wouldn’t applaud a man (or woman) who decided to take a dump in his/her pants to raise awareness for people who don’t have running water and toilet paper at their disposal. No one wants to see that. No one. If I was from a country where feminine hygiene products weren’t readily available, I would be almost offended that someone who does have access isn’t using it.
I’m not ashamed of my period, but I’m definitely not going to flaunt it.
[Story and images via]
