Holiday celebrates menstruation

By Laura Pelner
Summer Reporter

Women across the nation, and across the world, have started celebrating some of their most private health issues in a very public way, through Menstrual Monday.

Menstrual Monday is a new holiday, created by Geneva Kachman and Molly Strange. The women say their goal is to generate a new interest and a new focus for menstruation. "Menstruation is talked about today in advertisements, etc. The problem is that when it is talked about it is from a shame-based perspective, so we want to combat that with a celebration," said Strange.

The holiday was first celebrated this year, but the women hope to make it an annual event. This year it was Monday, May 8, the Monday before Mother's Day. "We picked the Monday before Mother's Day because menstruation comes before motherhood and usually long after it too" said Kachman.

The purpose in celebrating Menstrual Monday is to get together with other women and share feelings and memories. Kachman had a Menstrual Monday party, and she said it was very moving. "To hear other women talk about their experiences was touching," she said.

Some women in California took a different approach. They had a rally and made posters with "Celebrate Menstrual Monday" on them, and they had signs that said, "Honk if you have your period."

Kachman and Strange started Menstrual Monday after meeting online. "Both Geneva and I have been doing different types of artistic exploration about menstruation," said Strange. "We hooked up over the Internet because we had been effected by the shame-based menstruation culture."

To help celebrate the day and bring awareness Kachman created the Menstrual Monday Starter Kit. The kit includes different items to help, Kachman said, create a holiday mood. There is a menstrual day corsage, which is a tampon died red with flowers and leaves. There are menstruglasses, which are paper glasses with a red covering and a menstrual blow-out, which is a new rendition of an old party favor. Users blow on a tampon applicator to make a roll of red paper stick out.

There are some unique items in the kit as well. There is a book called "Breeding, Visualization and Meditation" that Kachman explained is to be used with friends. "You sit in a circle and breathe and send vibes to your fallopian tubes," she said.

Also included is a menstrumobile, a copy of the female reproductive system with long red ribbons hanging down to represent blood. In addition, the kit has menstrumoney, menstrububbles, and a bumper sticker that says "Honk if you have your period."

Kachman and Strange have received publicity for their work with Menstrual Monday. Media organizations across the nation have published about the day and the topic. Yet, Strange says that there is more work to do because the topic is still considered taboo and people are hesitant to do stories about it.

Despite that the kits have been ordered internationally. Kachman said she has sent Menstrual Monday Starter Kits to France, Canada, Scotland and Kenya. This does not surprise her though because she said, "women are bleeding all over the planet."

In total between 900 and 1,000 kits were sent out, which Kachman said "was a smashing and overwhelming success. We thought maybe 100 people would request kits."

Strange added that when she first saw the kit she thought it was really cool because it brings out so many different sides of menstruation, like the humor and the seriousness. She further said that the kits "make you think about all of these ideas and things/experiences in a new way."

Kachman and Strange have big plans for their future. They said they want to eventually have a Menstrual Monday concert and they want women who get their period throughout the year to smile and laugh at a time of the month when women usually do not smile at all.

Holiday celebrates menstruation

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