Talking Above a WISP-her

Well you don't tug on Superman's cape

You don't spit in the wind

You don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger

and you don't ever, ever, ever mention sanitary napkins in public

It's been a little more than a year since I realized that women in rural Kenya and other developing areas in the world have no access to sanitary products. That's one reason why so many girls don't finish their education and why so many women are destitute--how can you miss a week a month of school or work and keep up?

It doesn't help that feminine issues are taboo to discuss, even in our culture; that some women in developing worlds have to hide evidence of their periods; that if washable materials are available, there may not be clean water available in which to wash them.

If you can't talk about something, you can't do anything about it. If we can't talk about the WISP-her project above a whisper--if at this time in human history when all kinds of technological miracles are taking place we can't discuss facts concerning the natural process of reproduction experienced by all women, the lives of some women will never change.

It's not enough to throw money at it. While the WISP-her project certainly needs money it also needs men and women to resist changing the subject because it's uncomfortable. Unless we begin to talk about this, we'll no different or better informed than the cultures who ignore women's most basic needs.

I know why "you don't spit in the wind," but I'm not sure why you're not supposed to tug on Superman's cape--maybe I missed that Superman episode. I do know that the Son of God invited the woman who took hold of his clothing to share publicly her very personal agony and that he publicly commended her for her faith.

For goodness sakes, we live in an R-rated society; each and every day we encounter visual images on roadsigns and in supermarkets that would have embarrassed our grandmothers and fathers; the media makes it possible for our voyeuristic culture to talk about any and every subject no matter how personal. So let's put an end to the nonsense that it's taboo to talk about the natural process that half the world's population experiences. WISP-her is a simple, effective, cheap way to heal a community of women. But you have to talk about it.

By the way, that's a WISP-her product pictured above. And it's working.