Picture source – Rupi Kaur’s Instagram handle

The Free Bleeding Movement is a menstruation movement focusing on women’s right to menstruate openly and without shame. The movement started in the 1970s as a reaction to toxic shock syndrome, a rare and sometimes fatal condition that can be caused when bacteria grow in tampons worn to absorb menstrual bleeding.

Free Bleeding has been done for centuries throughout history. The majority of women used nothing at all when they were menstruating. The wealthier women would cut up rags to stop their flow, but it wasn’t common. In fact, it’s a practice that goes back so far it’s difficult to properly trace. The point is, women have been handling this bodily function for countless generations on their own, without the help of tampons and pads. Women also free bleed because they find it much more comfortable and it is also helpful to the environment.

But when we’re fighting for untaxed and readily available sanitary products for all women, is discarding them altogether fair? Those who chose to free bleed, purposely abstaining from wearing feminine hygiene products during their period, usually do so for two reasons: comfort, and the environment. Most pads and tampons contain plastic and toxins that are harmful to both the body and our planet, so you’d be forgiven for believing that there are no downsides to giving up period products. However, it’s a choice many women don’t have.

Thousands of homeless women, girls living below the poverty line, and asylum seekers in India suffer each month because pads and tampons are far too expensive for them, forced to resort to using old rags or nothing at all during their time of the month. Many women have to miss work or school and others do their best to stay hidden from the public because of the cultural stigma surrounding periods.

Menstrual blood has the unique power to gross out even the least squeamish, and it speaks volumes that the sight of it makes people uncomfortable when we’re constantly exposed explicitly and gratuitously violent, gory or sexual images. It is the only blood which is not born from violence, yet it disgusts us the most.

For anyone with a period sanitary products are a basic necessity, but they don’t come cheap. Unfortunately buying and using them is a luxury many women can’t afford. When, in 2018, we’re still protesting, marching and petitioning for them to be easily accessible to all women, choosing to give them up altogether is in itself a privilege. Homeless women bleed freely not by choice, but because it’s their only option.