Period poverty exists even in Hong Kong
Transcriber: Federica Bruno
Reviewer: lisa thompson
Hi, everyone. This is Bidhya.
And I want to start off by asking
everyone a question:
How many of you have had
bad experience with menstruation?
And I’m sure a lot of us -
thank you for raising your hand.
I’m sure a lot of us have had negative
experiences with menstruation
as an inconvenient experience.
A lot of us have had unexpected periods,
and we have to randomly ask a stranger,
“Hi, do you have a spare pad
by any chance?”
And that’s a reality for a lot of us,
that periods are inconvenient.
But how many of us
are thinking about the other aspects
that come along with menstruation?
When I ask about menstruation,
what comes to mind?
Most importantly, who comes to mind?
Because we often
talk about cisgender women
when we talk about periods.
Cisgender women are women
who are assigned as female at birth
and identify as women as well.
And that’s what we often talk about.
We talk about women as if period
is just a women’s issue, but it’s not.
We have to consider the other menstruators
that are also involved
when we talk about period
and period poverty.
For example, we have
trans menstruators, men with periods,
and then we have gender fluid menstruators
who don’t fit in the male
and female binary.
And it’s important
that we include these voices,
because if we do not
even recognize that they exist,
how can we address or even identify
that period poverty
is a possibility in Hong Kong?
When we think about period poverty,
we think, “Oh, that probably happens
in poor countries.
Why would it happen in Hong Kong?”
But it does.
Period poverty is real,
and it does exist in Hong Kong.
And the reason why
we don’t think about it enough
is because we’re constantly
narrowing our focus
into cisgender, upper-class women’s
experiences with menstruation.
My first experience with period poverty
was when I was unable to afford
to pay for a gynecologist appointment.
It cost me around 1000
Hong Kong dollar
just for a simple medication
and a simple checkup
for a menstrual health issue that I had.
And that was the first and the last time
I ever went to see a doctor
because of how expensive it was.
We think that menstrual health care
is a right that everyone
should be able to afford.
But that’s not true.
It is a huge privilege in Hong Kong
to be able to even go to a doctor
for a menstrual health checkup.
And that’s the reality of a menstruator
from an economically
marginalized class like myself.
And I do have menstrual privilege
in the sense that I am a cisgender woman.
I remember having a conversation
with a gender-fluid menstruator,
and they told me how they went
to a male washroom to change their pad,
and they had to secretly
and discreetly open a packet of pad -
which can be quite noisy
if it’s not a noisy environment -
and then squishing that used,
bloody pad in their palm,
running out of the male washroom,
and throwing it in the dustbin
outside of the washroom
because men would be horrified
to find a bloody pad
in their toilet dustbin.
Another experience
that they talked to me about
was going to ParknShop.
Now, if you go to ParknShop or Wellcome,
there’s going to be a section
that says feminine hygiene.
And when you walk into that aisle,
you will see period products
that are filled with pink-colored
and floral-patterned packets.
And when you head to that aisle,
it’s humiliating if you’re gender-fluid
or trans menstruator
because you have to pick up
a pink-colored pad
and then line up for it.
And that’s a reality, that menstruation
is a humiliating experience
for a lot of menstruators,
that we don’t often talk about.
Another aspect of period poverty
is the experience
of incarcerated menstruators.
There was a case back in 2017
reported by Varsity Hong Kong.
They talked about
how a couple of menstruators
had to share period products
in prison facilities
because they were not given enough.
And when they got caught
sharing these products,
their sentence got longer.
Let that sink in.
They were punished
for sharing period products.
That’s a reality.
It’s not just about having access
to products when you need them
and when you have your period
unexpectedly in toilets,
but it’s really about being able
to get period products when you want to
and not ask a prison staff,
“I need a period product,”
or not having to share with your inmates
because you have your period.
These are the realities of period poverty
that we don’t talk about,
because we think that menstruation
is just an upper-class, cisgender
woman’s experience
but it’s not.
It’s not a feminine experience.
And it can’t be generalized.
It can’t be seen
as an homogenous experience
that affects everyone in the same way
because menstruation
is a diverse experience in itself,
and it has to be seen
through an intersectional lens.
This is what I do with
my organization, Aama Ko Koseli.
We look at gender issues
through an intersectional lens
that addresses the different
social identities
that create a different impact on some.
Intersectionality is a big word,
and it’s coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw.
It basically means that
there are different social identities,
such as race, class, gender identity,
that work simultaneously
to create multiple vectors of oppression.
Someone from an economically
marginalized class
will have a different
experience with menstruation
than someone who’s from an upper class
or from different gender identities.
So these are the issues
that we have to look at
and how menstruation can cause
disproportionate effect
on some more than others because
of the gender identity that comes with it.
It’s crucial that we include
these voices and center them,
especially those who are at the margins.
It’s important that we discuss the voices
of marginalized menstruators
because their voices
need to be heard the loudest.
Thank you.
(Applause)