(Bruce Baker) A woman on her period — without a tampon — and dripping blood down her leg as she ran the London Marathon is raising eyebrows. However, she claims to have a powerful message for menstruating women for “that time of the month,” according to an August 9 Mirror report.
Kiran Gandhi, 26, is a graduate of the Harvard Business School. She joined throngs of others over the weekend in the 26-mile race to raise money for breast cancer. However, she held a secret until cameras caught a crimson stain growing larger in her crotch area along her thigh.
Ordinarily, the sight of a woman on her period having an “accident,” is embarrassing — and uncomfortable to watch. However, this runner deliberately ran the race without a tampon to bring awareness to women in less developed countries that don’t have access to feminine products. And for those that do, the marathoner wants childbearing women to embrace their periods.
Gandhi took to her website and updated her followers of her accomplishment in finishing the marathon while helping to empower women on their periods.
“FEMINISM: I RAN THE WHOLE MARATHON WITH MY PERIOD BLOOD RUNNING DOWN MY LEGS. I got my flow the night before and it was a total disaster but I didn’t want to clean it up. It would have been way too uncomfortable to worry about a tampon for 26.2 miles.
I thought, if there’s one person society won’t (expletive) with; it’s a marathon runner. If there’s one way to transcend oppression, it’s to run a marathon in whatever way you want. On the marathon course, sexism can be beaten. Where the stigma of a woman’s period is irrelevant, and we can re-write the rules as we choose.
Where a woman’s comfort supersedes that of the observer. I ran with blood dripping down my legs for sisters who don’t have access to tampons and sisters who, despite cramping and pain, hide it away and pretend like it doesn’t exist. I ran to say, it does exist, and we overcome it every day. The marathon was radical and absurd and bloody in ways I couldn’t have imagined until the day of the race.”
It’s unclear if her message resonates with all women, but her efforts were heroic, and she felt completely comfortable in her skin. The marathoner completed the race in 49 minutes and 11 seconds.