KITCHEN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elona is a young activist who had an original and very powerful idea: to write feminist messages on sanitary pads, that she has stuck in the streets of her city, Karlsruhe, in Germany.

 

Generally feminists are known for their highly controversial actions. As it is the case with the Femen for example, which claims more rights for women by walking naked in the street. But not this time!

 

Elona, young German lady of 19 years old, proves that it is still possible to organise powerful and effective feminist happening without having to be naked.

 

The young activist has found a new way to attract the attention of pedestrians and encourage them "to fight sexism and violence against women."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was on the occasion of the International Women's Day (8th March), that the blogger started her mini revolution. For this purpose, she grabbed some sanitary pads, object symbolising to perfection the taboo subject of periods, on which she wrote short but strong sentences such as: "rapists rape people not outfits," or "you would look pretty if you… No!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But it all started when she saw a tweet that inspired her. Charlie Maycraft’s tweet. The tweet in question? "Imagine if men were as disgusted with rape as they are with periods."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moreover, this message/tweet appears also on the sanitary pads.

 

About that, Charlie says "That was a tweet I'd made about 6 months ago inspired by my male friend of a friend who showed a real disgust towards menstruation, but had no problem laughing at a rape joke. I'm really glad that my message has spread so far since it's such an important and taboo issue, no-one seems brave enough to discuss it."

 

She will not stop here, as she declares "My agenda is definitely about respect for women and the equal distribution of rights between all genders. I think we won't get there without recognising the systematic oppression women have dealt with since as long as we remember. That means everyone recognising it, not just a small group of women on social media. Which is why spreading feminist messages is such an important thing."

 

Following this, Elona told on her Tumblr the reactions she has received from some passersby and web users. Besides, she has received a lot of negative reactions.

 

Fortunately, others welcomed the relevance and power of her action and some even said that they would do the same thing in their own countries. Elona invited them to support their message with the sentence "feminism is equality, not hatred of men." Because obviously, this must still be specified...

 

However, she does not take all the credit. As she confesses, "I saw this in Berlin so I got inspired by thinking about it a lot so I thought its still a taboo theme in our society."

 

She also said she was delighted by the success this action has encountered, but for her we are still far from the perfect equality between men and women.

 

"Women aren’t taking fully serious like they should be in Europe, I mean if they would be the pad thing wouldn’t have been so hyped."