Scandals, protest actions, political discussions, social media hypes: 2015 has been the year of menstrual awareness. Want to know the highlights? Check the Period! annual review.
January
Top tennis player Heather Watson loses in the first round of the Australian Open and attributes this loss to ‘girl things’ on BBC Sport. Other female top athletes also open up about their menstruation. Martina Navratilova tells the BBC she doesn’t even want to drive a car before her period. Let alone play tennis.
March
Pictures of the Canadian poet Rupi Kaur, wearing tracksuit bottoms with a blood stain, are ‘accidentally’ deleted from Instagram. Twice. Kaur thanks Instagram for the censorship, claiming it proves exactly her point: menstruation is taboo.
April
Musician Kiran Gandhi’s menstrual awareness action goes viral: she completes the London Marathon while being on her period, without using a tampon.
May
Nicolle Wallace, former communications director for George W. Bush, says in The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore: ‘Yes, I worked in the White House, and yes, every 28 days I bled. But the country went on.’
Menstrual Hygiene Day on May 28. This initiative asks attention for the fact that, because of a lack of sanitary facilities, millions of girls stop going to school when they start to menstruate.
June
Model Lauren Wasser goes public and asks for media attention about the Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS). TSS is a bacterial infection which can be caused by using tampons and led to the loss of Wasser’s right lower leg.
Apple launches the adapted version of the HealthKit app, this time with female friendly features: the ability to track reproductive health data such as menstruation and ovulation.
#justatampon. Celebrities all over the world post tampon selfies, like the British Channel 4 presenter Jon Snow. Sky News weather presenter Nazaneen Ghaffar even uses a tampon in her weather forecast.
July
#livetweetyourperiod. Tweets about menstrual suffering as protest against the happy and joyous affairs periods are in sanitary pad commercials. #livetweetyourperiod became a hype after The New York Times mentioned it.
Augustus
#stoptaxingtampons. In countries such as Canada, France, Great Britain and Australia there are petitions against the added luxury tax on tampons and sanitary pads. Because of these actions, Canada gets rid of the tampon tax.
#periodsarenotaninsult. Donald Trump aims to insult Fox News Channel presenter Megyn Kelly by suggesting she’s on her period. This results in the presidential candidate being bombarded with tweets.
September
New York Magazine publishes the slideshow ‘Great Moments in Menstrual History’ with benchmarks starting in 1831, the year when menstruation was first linked to ovulation. Also the launch of the Dutch online magazine Period! in 2014 is part of the slideshow.
New social media campaigns, like #redlipstickchallenge, #letsfaceitperiod (raising funds for projects in Nepal, Kenia, Tanzania and New York) and #HappyToBleed (against the menstruation taboo in India).
October
Billboards by the American company Thinx (menstrual underwear) are reportedly rejected from the New York subway because they’re deemed too racy. After protests, this decision is cancelled.
November
CNN announces that the websites of Procter & Gamble (Always, Tampax) and Kimberly-Clark (o.b.) now contain additional information about the composition of their products. Consumer groups in the United States have already been requesting transparency for years. Also in Europe, manufacturers aren’t obliged to disclose what exactly goes into the tampons and sanitary pads.
After continuous protests against the tampon tax, the British government decides to donate the millions of pounds that have been raised from the VAT on female hygiene products to women’s charities.
December
The French government gives in to the ongoing protests and will cut the tampon tax. A measure which will lower the government tax receipts by about 55 million euros a year.
Read also: Menstruation + taboo 1 film festivals, 2 protestsongs , 3 sport, 4 social media actions
Period! is an independent, online magazine about all aspects of menstruation. Period! is not intended as a substitute for medical advice. If you’re suffering from medical complaints, always visit your doctor or GP. Editorial articles can contain affiliate links. Sponsored collaborations can be found in the category Spotlight. Do you have any questions? Check our Contact page.