Why period products should be free | Martina Petrucci | TEDxYouth@ISF
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH8Osq93O5g Video ID: xH8Osq93O5g ============================================================ did you know that one out of four women globally cannot afford menstrual products try putting yourself in the shoes of these women who not only feel repelled and ashamed of the natural cycle they're going through due to the inaccessibility of the Necessities they're in need of but also struggle through mental and physical pain caused by so today I'll be telling you why period products should be free and how that can change the lives of everyone in this room and the rest of the World pered products have now become luxuries instead of Necessities due to the extreme inflation which these products have been subjected to a term that wasn't much spoken of has now become a major issue period poverty pered poverty refers to the lack of access to menstrual products and it affects 500 million individuals worldwide try putting yourself in the pants of these women who not only feel not being able to afford one's basic necessities during ministration can lead to the inability to attend work in school while also raising the percentages of developing rental issues and sadly death personally I've been noticing myself an individual that is not remotely affected by pure poverty how the prices in Italy have been increasing in even just the last 2 years for example the other day I went to the the supermarket to see the prices of pads and I noticed that a pack of about 10 came to 7 and I thought to myself wow there's a lot of things I can do with sing Ros especially bu myself something to eat in fact 50% of low-income women in America have to choose between buying food necessities and menstrual products each month because it may not appear like a big sum but when you look at it as something you have to buy each month or a long period of time it becomes a big expense for anyone not being able to afford one's Necessities during ministration can lead from minor two major symptoms such as distress and sadly depression research was recently conducted on College attending women where it was proven that 68% of those who struggled with pure poverty also had moderate to severe depression due to so the fact is that I myself feel their struggle and every other women in this room does to obviously ours might be to a minor scale but we all know the feeling of depression provoked by the hormonal imbalance given by our period now try topping off that hormonal imbalance with a feeling of disgust because you can't afford to take care of yourself not only is this a major issue which impacts one's ordinary life but imagine risking death over something you have no control of low-income women often replace the sanitary requirements with household items such as Rags which can lead to unary track infections yeast infections and sadly toxic shock syndrome a fatal disease it should also be noted how period flow virus from person to person those who struggle of it on a largest scale are higher risk of fatal diseases obviously these individuals also can't afford the Medical Treatments required to cure them which leads to No Escape from death and to top up everything must products are not included in food stamps just like the need to eat and drink menstrual flow is a natural cycle which hum SC through therefore why isn't it treated accordingly Not only would making perod products be free be a revolutionary change for half the humans inhabiting this Earth but it would also contribute to gender equality by spreading the ideology of a period being natural and healthy to the current day many cultures see menstration of something dirty something to hide um the shame associated with periods suppresses the need to speak up and express one's Necessities regarding them this leads to lack of dialogue regarding this issue and its accessibility therefore companies keep profiting from these primary Necessities it should also be highlighted how normalized workplace discrimination is many women each day receive negative comments about their periods while at work such as you're just lazy and it's not a real illness to say the least a survey recently conducted on working women proved that 82% of women that worked at a male dominated workplace found themselves unable to speak to colleagues about their period due to feeling weak and inferior the stigma suppresses the need to speak up for one's rights allowing for sexs and discrimination to still be accept accepted in the 21st century in fact to the current day employment discrimination is still occurring on women I'll make an example that probably most of you have heard before women can't drive due to this taboo which may not seem that big of a deal due to it being so normalized 80% of taxi drivers are men and women who work in the transportation industry are faced with discrimination and sexual harassment each day with comments by their customers such as please take me to your home or do you offer additional Services beside the trip and sadly individuals who don't limit themselves to just words according to the un's women's most recent report if we keep going at the current rate of progress it will take another 286 years to achieve gender equality we can all agree that this rate of progress is clearly unacceptable if periods were to be normalized we the achievement of gender equality would happen at a much faster rate and the human race would be considered mentally evolved as the issue is felt by half of our population now I'm going to tell you one of the ways that the stigma around period is so normalized that it came to affect my life as well all the women in my family have the genes of starting menstration at a very early age therefore so did I I remember it like it was yesterday back in fifth grade I was so confused and worried and that was because only four years later in eth grade sex said we would be vaguely introduced to subjects of menstration it was my mom herself that told me what it was that same night describing it as something beautiful but it was clear not everyone thought the same way as her since the issue was still not discussed in school and I was only 10 back at the time all I was left with was embarrassment and shame for being different it was clear I would have been made fun of even though there was a high chance other people in my class were going through the same situation what I'm trying to say here is that with period products becoming three and therefore menstration more normalized we could tell our young generation what the natural cycle of a woman is from a very early age reducing the younger generation feeling shame and embarrassment because let all just the obvious period follows are not discussed before Middle School due to them being not appropriate for such age even though such age is experiencing what they're trying to hide from them in conclusion every issue no matter how big or small has a solution though the only difference is the effort one puts to reach the the solution like many other problems we can solve this issue with education by this I intend to invite everyone to educate themselves regarding the existence of this issue and many more and once we all we're all educated and we will be able to speak up we can learn to cooperate so we can all work together for a better future take today's discussion as an Initiative for Change and speak up before it's too late thank you [Applause]