Period. End of Sentence. Movie

Non-IA Event Reflection

18 March 2019, Smith-Steeb Hall, 8:30 pm

At this event, we watched the Oscar-winning documentary, “Period. End of Sentence” in honor of Women’s History Month. This movie was only a mere twenty six minutes, but in those twenty six minutes an inspiring and uplifting message was illustrated. In summary, this movie documented a small Indian village where a group of women started producing and making pads for the women in the village. The topic of menstruation and its stigma in the the community was discussed, and its affects were very apparent and astounding. The topic of menstruation for the women in the village is such an embarrassing topic for them which isalmost never discussed in the extremely patriarchal village and country. Many women and girls are never told about it and do not know how to properly handle it in a safe and sanitary way. The film documented the process of the women receiving and learning how to use a new “pad machine” and making durable, quality, long-lasting pads for the girls in their community. Eventually men learned as well, and helped make and sell their “fly pads” to women, and create a hopefully sustainable and more sanitary product for menstruation.

I was especially taken aback when I heard one of the women say she had to quit school due to her period. She had to constantly change throughout the day due to lack of quality feminine products and the constant glares from boys. Another astonishing fact was that the women used cloths and just left the dirty cloths outside in the grass and the dogs would play with them and carry them around. Lastly, it was so uplifting and motivational to see the girls and women learn, and become empowered and proud of themselves.

For me, this documentary really opened my eyes to the topic of menstruation. When I was younger, in school we were separated into boys and girls and taught about puberty and menstruation and how to deal with it when the time came. I have constant access to any and every feminine product and I had never even considered what it was like for girls in other countries with little to no access to these products. It was so crazy to me that something that is just a part of my life that I barely even think about, could be such a big hinderance in these women’s lives. I never thought that menstruation could be an obstruction to education, religion and even their occupations.

Finally, this documentary relates to international affairs because this movie delved into how something so normal and insignificant in my life can be such a big deterrent in others’ lives around the world. It is just one of the many examples of how things I never think about like menstruation, or eating dinner are the only thing other people think about and determines how they live. It also delved into the feminist movement and how feminism looks different around the world. For example, in the U.S. feminism may look like more representation in the government, while in this community feminism was viewed as going to church while menstruating. I’m so glad I decided to watch this documentary, it was so eye-opening and inspiring.

International Current Events Convo

Academic Event Reflection

4 March 2019, 8pm-9pm, Smith-Steeb Hall

I attended this Current Events Convo with Sam Stelnicki. At this event we got to learn about different events around the world that have been going on recently. We first played a Kahoot game to see what the group already knew about the current events we would be discussing; I learned that I did not know as much as I thought about current international events, so I was interested to learn about what I did not know.

After the Kahoot, we examined many different things going on throughout the world. We first talked about the dispute between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region. We watched a video about the long history of this dispute that dates back to 1947, this was one of the few things I had heard about before attending this event. We then discussed why it was relevant today since it has been such a long-lasting issue. On February 14th, 40 Indian soldiers were killed in this region thus igniting another series of violence and retaliation in last few week between the two countries. Next, we talked about the outcome of the Nigerian presidential election. The voter turnout was extremely low with only 1/3 of the population voting due to the election being delayeda week. There was also some dispute and claims that the election was rigged. We then also discussed the presidential dispute in Venezuela as Maduro and Guaido as they both try to claim power. The United States and many other countries throughout the world have showed their support for Juan Guaido due to the current humanitarian crisis that is present under Maduro’s rule in Venezuela. These were the events that really caught my attention. Other events that we also talked about included, Brexit, the US-North Korea Summit in Vietnam, and the tiniest baby that was born in Japan.

This event was not what I expected, in a good way. I was expecting to learn about things I already knew about, however while that was true to some degree, I left feeling like I actually knew what was going on around the world. Being so busy with “the college lifestyle” I had not realized how much I missed in the real world. I used to watch the news regularly, but now I can barely find the time to eat dinner. It was actually really enjoyable to get back into current events and the news and see whats going on. This event opened my eyes in a sense, and made me realize that I should pay attention more to the world outside of Ohio State’s campus. I have seemed to only focus on what’s going on around me and what affects me directly.

Lastly, this topic clearly relates to international affairs as we learned all about events currently taking place internationally, and how they are and will affect the United States and the world. While some of these events may not affect me personally, like the Kashmir dispute for example, I realized after this event that I should try to keep up with international events and be present with the issues that are currently affecting people around the world.