Women are tweeting the Irish Prime Minister about their periods and it’s amazing

"I call my womb Ireland's littlest embassy."

9th November 2015 Emma Boyle News, 🍹 Life

In an effort to draw attention to the campaign to repeal the 8th amendment in the Irish constitution which gives equal rights of life to a mother and her unborn child and criminalises abortion, Irish comedian Grainne Maguire has been live tweeting Taoiseach Enda Kenny her period.

Maguire wrote in the Guardian that she found herself asking “How do you make something funny that fills you with such anger all arguments are reduced to frustrated, inarticulate noises?” Well, she gave the government what they wanted in the most literal sense: “If they want to control my body, if they feel so comfortable interfering in what happens inside it, they should at least have all the details.”

And with 3 tweets she set off a menstrual storm on Twitter. It’s been glorious.

 

 

Other women joined Grainne, tweeting the Taoiseach directly with the hashtag #repealthe8th to ask for his opinion. Well, he clearly considers himself the man who’s in a position to decide what’s best for women’s bodies, he should be involved in every decision, not just one. He should also be kept abreast of the latest news in a field his government is clearly very deeply involved in.

 

 

This is an incredible way to make your voice heard. Grainne points out in her Guardian article “no one finds an angry woman funny, or even likable, for that matter, so no one listens” which is an incredibly sad truth. With female anger having nothing but negative connotations of shrillness and irrationality, even when the anger is perfectly justified, Grainne has found an alternative outlet that will hopefully draw more attention to a serious issue, to make people think.

 

 

You might laugh at first when you read the tweets, but it’s not all light-hearted, and nor should it be.

There’s a weird squeamishness around the female body and its functions, and until women’s experiences and opinions of their own bodies are listened to rather than mythologised and projected upon them, until women are given more of a say over the body they live in, nothing will change. This is a great way to start the conversation, to invite people into finding out more about a serious issue for women’s health.


“We are not ashamed, we are not silent, and we are not going away.” Go Grainne!

You can follow Grainne on Twitter to keep up with the latest news in her campaign.

Main Image via grainnemaguire.com