Half of female athletes believe that their periods put them at a physical disadvantage, and the anxiety of having your period before or during a competition is very real. This campaign by Always UK illustrates just how loud that anxiety can be. It also brilliantly showcases just how strong women can be. It’s time to stop pretending periods don't exist for female athletes and normalize menstruation! After all, #menstruation is part of life for more than half the world’s population, and 800 million people menstruate daily. This is the power of advertising to shift perceptions and change societal norms. 👏
I'm reading Roar by Stacy Sims right now, which is all about working with your cycle and hormones to your advantage. It's brilliant. I didn't realize till I ran my fastest marathon that I get a huge surge of energy and increased performance leading up to and at the first day of my period. I appreciate the normalization that female athletes have their unique needs.
Linda Gregory
2mo
I can remember, when I was a teenager, thinking “someone” should write a book collating experiences of first periods and managing periods. I kept thinking it for many years, wondering if I’d ever get around to writing it and, if I did, whether anyone would read it. I never got around to writing that book, but I see now that it would have been useful and I’m delighted to see how society is moving toward making information available - even without me contributing to the knowledge bank!
This is a real challenge for dancers and gymnasts who on stage or in competition requiring to wear leotards or high cut costumes that don’t allow much coverage. As a mother of a dancer just approaching her teens, she will have to face into this challenge when it arrives but she already witnesses the challenges this creates her friends and team mates on and off the stage. This can really affect their usual confidence before performing.
Zaiyaan Meyer
3mo
Agreed and so glad we’ve progressed from the period ads with women doing a dance performance.
Kristin Sullivan
3mo
Extremely powerful and much needed message to all. A women's menstruation affects every part of her being. Physical, Mental and Emotional. And we still PUSH THROUGH and perform every task we are expected to perform on any given day. Same scenario when carrying a child. These facts need to be acknowledged💗 I personally have a greater respect for female athletes just after watching this ad.
Bunmi E.
3mo
As someone who deals with extreme fatigue prior to, heavy bleeding and debilitating pain during, I feel this wholeheartedly. I know we talk about normalizing periods, so if I'm being honest, I've never felt any positive feeling towards mine. It's always felt like a painful burden to bear. Going through it as a teenager, when many women around me, including doctors, didn't understand or believe me when I tried to explain it, was probably the hardest part of adolescence. It took decades before I realized that not everyone goes through such pain during their periods. While I think normalizing periods is important, what might help is if we work towards pushing women's health out of the stone age which includes more funding and policies to support healthcare and innovation in support of women's bodies.
I worked in an inner city school in the US for several years and I was surprised that girl’s parents couldn’t afford pads for them. It opened my eyes to the struggles these girls will have. Some of the teachers even bought some for the girls. Now I’m living in Canada - BC now offers free products in school bathrooms and removed the Luxury tax on them🎉 Big win
Sandra I. Pedro
3mo
I was talking about it just this week when I was watching a Euro football match with the men's teams, when they fall to the ground injured. And the players who run for 90 minutes with menstrual cramps and no energy. The match schedule doesn't take into account the menstrual cycle of the players, just as the business world doesn't take into account the variations that the menstrual cycle has on a woman, in hormonal and energetic terms. Yes, it can be a huge disadvantage in a competition. The effort is much greater if you compete the week after your period (when you have more energy) or the week before and during your period (when you have much less energy and your body needs rest to do its job).
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3moThis is brilliant! I'm not even an athlete and I relate to this so hard. I have a condition that makes my period an absolutely crippling experience, unable to walk, talk, or breathe. Even landing me in the ER several times. Its impacted my education, job performance, career, and every possible aspect of my life. It has stunted my economic mobility by robbing me of my full potential. I have felt like a failure since I was 13 because I don't have the privilege of pretending it doesn't exist. I finally had surgery to address the problem, and I'm only just starting to live the life I should have been living all along.