NEWS
ICU student wins an award at the "SDGs 'Leave No-one Behind' Essay Competition"
Update: June 14, 2023
Ms. Yuka Iriguchi, a third-year student in the College of Liberal Arts at ICU, majoring in anthropology and minoring in sociology, was awarded a prize at the Third "SDGs 'Leave No-one Behind' Essay Competition" of AY2022 (Organizer: Nogezaka Glocal). From the standpoint that all SDGs activities and social activities should reflect the SDGs fundamental principle of leaving no-one behind, the competition's aim is to gather essays and compositions which feature the free ideas, suggestions and plans of young people and to subsequently transmit their voices to a wider public.
Essay Outline: "We Are Being Left Behind: In a Society Where Menstruation Remains Invisible"
On the day when I bought menstrual products for the first time, it was placed inside a brown bag although I needed to use it immediately. Does menstruation need to be an embarrassing fact?
Although ICU has an all-gender restroom, I have heard that many students do not use it when they have their menstruation. They feel embarrassed by the possibility of noise leaking or leaving behind traces of menstrual blood. They make the extra effort to find a women's restroom. Or they feel too embarrassed to buy menstrual products and will use toilet paper instead. Should this be a common response?
When one hears the term "gender equality", we often think about gender wage gap or gender enrollment ratio in sciences, but menstruation can be perceived, not as a glass ceiling, but as a transparent chain. This is also applicable to non-binary people and transgender men who have menstruations. In order to overcome such prejudice, we should not make menstruation a taboo topic, but hold discussions about it within society as a whole.
Comment on receiving the award:
I learned that I had won the award while I was in class writing my graduation thesis and my eyes filled with tears. I felt that this issue had been acknowledged as something that needed to be pursued.
In September 2022, I established a group called Oku+Pass which distributed free menstrual products in the all-gender restroom, but the response to it was not always positive. Although in most cases our project received wide support, including support from the Visiting Associate Professor Na Ildeung, as well as the Center for Gender Studies, and above all, from ICU students, but at times I felt hurt by the display of indifference. I would often hear the words, "Students at ICU do not face problems with menstrual products". I felt like laughing at the sight of myself working many part-time jobs, and also felt that my friends who were going through an emotional rollercoaster with scholarships were just regarded as being invisible.
A lack of menstrual products leads to inequality in education. Having received this award which promotes SDGs, I sincerely hope that ICU becomes an even more inclusive university.