What surprised me the most throughout the readings and viewing this week was being able to step back and think that all and any of these people/ women from each could be me and that the reason I am free from some of these oppressions is because I just so happened to come into the planet in the United States and as a second-generation Dominican person. These reasons are not good enough to have such disparities within our species. I have struggled with obtaining medical insurance before in my life but my encounter with any medical need and/or hospitals have never been like the experiences of Leconté J Dill’s birthing story or that of Transgender people so through these readings, I was able to put myself in the shoes of these patients which is what we all should be to Doctors when we visit or are in need of their services. Learning about the extreme stigma surrounding menstruation in rural India was just shocking to see how far behind these communities still are and how women are kept so extremely in the dark about how powerful we actually are. I was proud to see a community of women spreading their new-found knowledge with others and putting the pieces of their womanhood together. One woman even said something along the lines of it being because of generational Patriarchy and how in order to demand change you have to start somewhere, somehow spreading the truth of what you know. This is where I began to make connections between all the readings along with the film because it just really screamed out PATRIARCHY to me as this system is what allows entitled binary people to exclude others even though the reasoning behind the idea itself just does not hold up to the reality of the world we live in along with the medical advances acquired throughout. The fact that barely any adult male in Period: End of Sentence knew about a woman’s period is astounding but so telling of a society that has just deemed the male sex as superior and has kept the power of womanhood a secret to women themselves.

The format in which the stories are shared helped me see the oppression of women with more clarity and then how it surpassed the intersectionality of forms that I feel that I’m familiar with and portrayed that ongoing oppression of Black women and trans people. It helped me understand the importance of the Black Feminist movement that we’ve been reading about lately and also for everyone to speak out against this new rule proposed by the Department of Health which excludes the lives of transgender people. Although I was shocked by the lack of feminine knowledge and education in Period: End of Sentence, I was left hopeful by the broadening of their minds through the discussion of menstruation and what that means for women everywhere.