"If my body's made of stardust and my skin matches land,
If my body's geology can make continents tremble and mountains move
You aren't allowed to tell me that I should be shy
Because I paint the town red for a week, every month of my life."
These are the lines spoken by Aranya Johar, in her most recent spoken word performance. Having made headlines with A Brown Girl's Guide to Gender, Aranya's latest monologue takes on menstrual taboos and stigma.
In a video posted by a Facebook page called Menstrual Hygiene Day - India, Aranya notes how menstrual blood is the one which bleeds without violence.
She then speaks of her dreams for a world where women are not told that their period needs to be talked about in hushed tones. A world where education sensitises boys to a completely natural process that women's bodies go through. And where sanitary pads don't need to be wrapped in black paper to be carried.
Watch the video here:
Aranya also talks about her privilege and points how it allows her to not be limited, for her family to not restrict her when she menstruates.
She turns the word 'period' itself on its head, saying that we must encourage women to ensure that her period doesn't become a 'stop'.
Watch Aranya's A Brown Girl's Guide to Gender here: