Women are facing discrimination over their periods in the workplace.
According to a new poll (1), more than one in 10 women said they have been scolded, while at work, like: “It’s just an excuse to act like a bitch”, “It’s not a real illness”, and “You’re just lazy.”
In some parts of the world, women miss school to manage their periods and lack fresh lavatory facilities.
The Swedish brand Intimina aiming to this old taboo has been focusing on menstruation. It wants to overturn the taboo and draw attention to a regular life phase with a color that is “energizing” and “dynamic.”
Period red “emboldens people who menstruate to feel proud of who they are,” said Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute. She added that the goal was “to urge everyone, regardless of gender, to feel comfortable to talk spontaneously and openly about this pure and natural bodily function.”

Slavoj Žižek recalls an old joke from the defunct German Democratic Republic.

A German worker gets a job in Siberia. Aware of how all mail will be read by censors, he tells his friends: “Let’s establish a code: if a letter you will get from me is written in ordinary blue ink, it is true; if it is written in red ink, it is false.” After a month, his friends get the first letter, written in blue ink: “Everything is wonderful here: stores are full, food is abundant, apartments are large and properly heated, movie theaters show films from the West, there are many beautiful girls ready for an affair—the only thing unavailable is red ink.” (2)

What Slavoj Žižek points to: And is this not our situation till now? We have all the freedoms one wants — the only thing missing is the “red ink”: we “feel free” because we lack the very language to articulate our unfreedom. 

 “As in all the congregations of the Lord’s people. Women should remain silent in the churches, They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.”

(Corinthians 14:33-35)

(1) ** you do not have permission to see this link **

(2) Excerpted from “Žižek’s Jokes, Did you hear the one about Hegel and negation?” Edited by Audun Mortensen – MIT Press (February 2014)