Natalia Sawka: Menstrual periods aren’t sexy. A blue liquid represents blood on a menstrual pad in TV commercials. In June 2016, the Polish feminist weekly Wysokie Obcasy published a photograph of a pair of women’s underwear stained with red glitter. Their Facebook page momentarily filled with posts from outraged readers.
Natalia Trybus: I am very surprised that even women were so appalled. As the menstrual period is a monthly occurrence for several decades of our lives as women, we can only benefit from accepting it and recognizing it as a natural part of ourselves. It should not be negated or demonized. Such negative approaches change nothing, and they won’t make it disappear. Accepting these few days in a month as something completely normal makes our lives easier.
Your YouTube channel attracts thousands of viewers who finally get the chance to deepen their knowledge of sex, puberty and contraception. Why did you start it?
Two years ago, Asia, the creator of the blog Styledigger, shared a post by Lacy Green on her Facebook page. Green is a young American sex education vlogger. Looking through her channel, I realized that Poland was missing this sort of thing and I needed to change that. On the same day, when my husband came back from work, I told him: “we’re doing a YouTube channel.” He did not protest. Everything went so fast. Just two weeks later, I shot my first video. Looking at it now, I can see what a long way I have come and how stiff I was on camera. If someone had told me a few years ago that I’d be running my own YouTube channel, I wouldn’t have believed them. Contrary to what people may think, I am quite a shy person. Read more via Political Critique