‘Period. End Of Sentence’ Shines A Light On How Indian Society’s Views On Menstruation Are Being Transformed

In 2018 the Bollywood film Pad Man tackled the stigmas of menstruation and periods in rural India, telling the story of an Indian activist named Arunachalam Muruganantham, a man who was inspired to create low-cost sanitary pads after witnessing the dirty rags that his wife was using month after month. In 2019, Period. End of Sentence., an Oscar-nominated documentary short, seeks to address the same concerns — this time speaking directly with real women in Indian villages that are breaking their society’s boundaries.

Period. End of Sentence. follows a group of women that go against the grain, capitalizing on an opportunity to begin manufacturing pads with the eventual goal of selling them throughout their village; at the end of the documentary, the team had created more than 18,000 pads. In their many demonstrations to their peers the women show off their handiwork, highlighting the quality of their no-drip pad as compared to the drugstore competitor. One by one, sparks of excitement flash in the women’s eyes as this new, village-run brand of pads catches on.

When we meet the main subjects of the documentary, they are lamenting the way that Indian society’s views on both menstruation and femininity have affected their life — much like I did at the beginning of my review of Pad Man (see left). Women are considered too “dirty” during their period to enter a Hindu temple, they must discard their muddied cloths far from their homes, and many women have been forced to leave school with the eventual goal of marrying them off.

There’s even an early scene that asks a bench of village men what menstruation is; their response is wishy-washy but finally settles on defining it as an “illness that mostly affects women.” With misinformation like that buried deep in the bones of Indian society, it’s no surprise that women feel embarrassed to speak about their periods or buy the necessary products in the presence of men. It’s pervasive in ways that are still coming to light.

But all of that is slowly changing. Partly funded by California high school students, Period. End of Sentence. is a part of a larger project that wants to normalize menstruation in developing countries. In India, and in other developing areas around the world, many women are forced to drop out of school because the lack of support and resources to manage their monthly periods. The Pad Project’s mission is to promote women’s education globally, ending the fact that “when a girl gets her period in a developing country, she may never go to school again.”

But even more than a film about the lack of access to sanitary resources in rural areas of India, the documentary focuses on the power of women, and puts female agency front and center. Most of the women showcased in Period. End of Sentence. have never held a job or felt like they had the respect of their husbands or peers. But this new opportunity to contribute to the female-run operation has completely changed their views and self-worth — you can visibly see the excitement in some of their faces when they are asked about their accomplishments, some of the women as old as my grandmother.

With a runtime of only 25-minutes, Period. End of Sentence. does an incredible job of conveying the interest, need, and excitement around female-led and female-operated businesses. As part of a nonprofit that aids women’s education throughout the world, it’s worth your time.

Radhika Menon (@menonrad) is a TV-obsessed writer living in New York City. Her work has appeared on The TV Addict, Brown Girl Magazine, Breadcrumbs Mag and Syndicated Magazine. At any given moment, she can ruminate at length over Friday Night Lights, the University of Michigan, and the perfect slice of pizza. You may call her Rad.

Stream Period. End Of Sentence. on Netflix