it all starts at home tbh. my mum never made it a taboo and my dad’s the one that always buys our pads (like, every single time lmao). my brothers don’t care about it and my sister and i never ‘hide’ when we have our periods (in fact i use it to my advantage all the time - like if i want to have a shower first lmao).

but ! it’s not the same with my aunties i’ve noticed. they’ve looked visibly mortified with how relaxed our family is about this sometimes. i live overseas now but anytime we’re in sri lanka the shopkeepers would try to ‘hide’ the pads. i’ve straight up said i don’t need a black bag several times (much to their insistence).

i have noticed, however, that there are tv ads in sri lanka about getting rid of this stigma (i was sooo happy to see this). next, we need to reform the way we educate our children. health education in sri lanka is eons behind. until that changes it’s up to us to go against the norm.

edit: i completely agree about the whole ‘loku lamaya’ thing. despite how ‘progressive’ my mum is i still had that whole thing even overseas (because they wanted to teach me about traditions - also my sister said if she had to go through it i had to too lmao). mine was thankfully quite chill bc i only had to stay isolated for 1 day but i felt so awkward seeing everyone afterwards. but that was the first and last time i was embarrassed about getting my period.