Period. End of Sentence just won big at the Oscars. About the deep-rooted stigma attached to menstruation in a rural village in India, the film walked away with the Best Documentary Short award.
On stage, the film's producers joked that their emotions were 'not because I'm on my period.'
'I can't believe a film about menstruation just won an Oscar!' Rayka Zehtabchi joked upon accepting the award with fellow producer Melissa Berton.
And thank God, too. Last week, The Hollywood Reporter leaked that an unnamed male member of the Academy has admitted that while the film is 'well done', he and some of his fellow male counterparts finds periods 'icky'.
'[I'm not going to vote for] Period. End of Sentence — it's well done, but it's about women getting their period, and I don't think any man is voting for this film because it's just icky for men,' he wrote in his anonymous Oscar ballot featuring his selections for the year's awards ceremony (via The Hollywood Reporter).
The director added that he has voted instead for Lifeboat, which he described as 'a wonderful story of heroism that seems like a complex and dangerous movie to have made'.
He hinted that other male voters also bypassed Period. End of Sentence. because, depressingly, they viewed the subject matter as repellent and it makes them feel uncomfortable.
The documentary is about women in a rural village outside of Delhi leading a revolution against the taboo surrounding menstruation. Women operated at night to make their own towels from overused cotton as they were too embarrassed to do it during the day, because menstruating is considered a dirty, shameful secret amongst their community.
This stigma has prevented girls and young women from staying in education, worshipping in temples, and having access to basic sanitary products.
What sweet revenge, eh? The film is available to watch now on Netflix.
