The Day I Got My Period at the Museum

Abstract

The author unexpectedly gets her period when she is visiting the Museum of the City of New York and uses the incident to explore how women’s desire to be free is thwarted when period products are not available in public restrooms. The author touches upon several aspects of menstrual equity—period stigma, outdated and empty dispensers, tampon tax, menstruating while homeless or incarcerated, and trans bodies that menstruate. Building on Judy Grahn’s idea that all culture is a result of women’s menstrual rites, the author points out the absurdity of not accommodating menstruating bodies in high-culture spaces like museums and asks for modern vending machines for period products in public restrooms.