Providentia

Rumours of Human Sacrifice Lead to Violent Clashes in Bangladesh

A wildly successful rumour alleging that human sacrifices are needed to finish a controversial bridge in Bangladesh has led to widespread violence, including at least two deaths.   Still under construction, the new bridge crossing the Padma river in Bangladesh is expected to open in 2020 and is hoped to boost the economy in the regions directly affected.   But fake rumours that the bridge will need "human heads" for its construction has  been spreading quickly on social media sites in recent months.   In one recent version of the rumour, over 100,000 human heads are claimed to be needed and that the perpetrators plan to snatch children to be used as sacrifices.    

Despite denials by government agencies and concerned social media users, the protests sparked by these rumours have already become fatal.   At least two people were killed by mobs in different parts of Bangladesh after being accused of kidnapping children for sacrifice.   Others have been assaulted or arrested by police for their own protection.   In a statement to the press, a police superintendent in Laxmipur district said that, "Those who were beaten up and we have held for the allegation of child-snatching, are either mental-patient or homeless persons. The “child-snatching” claim is just a rumor."

Rumours of human sacrifices have surfaced in the past, usually in association with any large construction project.   One Facebook user shared his memory of a similar rumour that sprang up in the 1970s with the construction of another large bridge.  "I was a school student then," he said.  "My friends used to discuss the under construction Kanchpur Bridge. Allegedly human bones were required to make the joints of the bridge strong. At least 500 human bones were required for a bridge this big. Human children were being targeted and claims were being sent to the schools. Our school also received such a letter. The teachers are sending 1 or 2 children to the Bridge construction workers. We were pretty worried and scared. If we were also sent. We could not sleep at night. So many worries in our little heads!"

Though Bangladesh is primarily a Muslim country, Hindu myths and legends continued to be passed on across generations.   This includes stories of human heads being mounted on bridges to appease demons before a bridge could be built.  Human sacrifice was also said to have been widely by the ancient Pundra kingdom in what is now Bangladesh.   Even in an era of social media, these ancient beliefs remain strong.  "People are used to these myths carried down from generations to generation," said one source.  "So they fall for such rumors without verifying, even if in this age of technology."

Government sources are already threatening reprisals against anyone knowingly sharing sacrifice rumours.   They also accuse "vested interests" of trying to undermine the bridge project.  Under Bangladesh's new Digital Security Act, anyone spreading rumours in electronic form is liable to up to three years in jail or BDT 300,000 (USD 3,550) in fines or both.   Eight people have been charged so far and more arrests are expected in future.  

The Hermit of Griffith Park

If you've ever visited Los Angeles, you've likely heard of Griffith Park.   

Located at the eastern end of the Santa Monica Mountains, the park covers over 4000 acres which makes it one of the largest urban parks in North America.   It's likely a lot more famous than you even realize considering how many movies and television shows feature scenes that were shot right in the park.   

But there was one scene that took place in the park in late June, 1959 that wasn't part of any film script (though perhaps it should have been).   That was when police were called to a house near the park due to reports about a prowler.   On investigating, they discovered a bearded and barefoot man who insisted that he had been living in the park for years before police came to arrest him.   Later identified as 32-year-old Dennis Farrell, the man who would gain fame as the "Hermit of Griffith Park" likely didn't appreciate all the media attention that resulted from his violent scuffle with police that led to him being placed in handcuffs and forcefully removed from his beloved park.   He certainly didn't appreciate being placed in the psychiatric ward of Los Angeles' General Hospital where he was held for observation.   

Described in newspaper accounts as being tattered and filthy when he was detained, Farrell would later say of his violent reaction to being arrested that he thought "some people are after me."    Even after being taken to a hotel where he spent his first night in years sleeping in a bed, he had trouble adjusting to eating regular food.   Instead, he scooped up the eggs from the breakfast tray with his hands and threw the rest of the food on the floor.   It took over ninety minutes of pleading to get him to leave the hotel and go to the hospital.    

So, who was Dennis Farrell and how did he come to be living in Griffith Park?  It didn't take long for journalists to put together some semblance of a life story to share with readers.    Based on what they learned, Farrell was born in 1926 in North Platte, Nebraska though his life certainly seemed normal enough prior to World War II.   A high school classmate would later describe him as a "bashful type"  who "wouldn't hurt anyone."     This changed after he joined the infantry and was shot through the lung while serving in Okinawa.   His injury earned him a Purple Heart and got him sent home and, despite his local fame as a war hero, apparently had major difficulties readjusting to civilian life.   

By 1954, he had reached rock bottom and simply decided that he wanted to die.   When asked about this afterward, he would  state, "that's the way it's supposed to be, you wouldn't understand."  After borrowing money from his sister, he disappeared  from North Platte and his family would not see him again for years.   For whatever reason, he ended up in Griffith Park where he tried to starve himself to death.   The first time, he managed to last three days before his hunger forced him to find food from scraps left behind by picnickers.    His second fast, which lasted for eleven days ended the same way.  "Each time, I gave up fasting.  I couldn't stand it any more."    Whenever he couldn't find enough food by foraging in the park, he would break into garbage cans, either at the park or the surrounding suburbs.  

Though spotted occasionally, he managed to elude capture for years.  When not scrounging for food, he often spent his time in caves or in makeshift shelters he built from lumber scraps in remote areas of the vast park.   Even when police managed to catch up with him, he was often released since he wasn't breaking any laws.   Police offered him money for food and clothing but he always declined saying that he could manage on his own.  

After his 1959 arrest however, the "Hermit of Griffith Park" was committed to Sepulveda Veterans Administration Hospital following a brief Superior Court hearing during which he was ruled to be mentally ill.   During the hearing, he was generally calm though often sat with his face in his hands while doctors described him as being a potential danger to himself and others.  Presumably, he didn't take this too well since he began fighting the attendants who tried to lead him from the courtroom to the waiting ambulance.  Screaming, "Get their guns, they're trying to kill me,"  he had to be forcibly restrained before going to hospital.   What followed was a long odyssey of psychiatric stays and an eventual return to North Platte where he rejoined his family and supported himself with odd jobs.   Even following his death in 1988, all that his obituary stated about him was that he had gained fleeting fame in the 1950s as a "hermit."   

Another hermit who was perhaps a bit more successful than Farrell was Willard Kitchener Macdonald, aka, the "Hermit of Gully Lake."   Rather than living in an urban park, Macdonald chose to live in a remote area of Nova Scotia's Cobequid Mountains in a tumbledown shack he had built himself.    Much like Farrell, Macdonald's story was linked to World War II though, in Macdonald's case, he ended up in the Nova Scotia wilderness after jumping from a troop train carrying him to join the regiment in which he was meant to serve.   Fearing that he would be charged as a deserter, Macdonald hid for decades even though the Canadian government granted amnesty for deserters in 1950.   

After spending years by himself, Macdonald simply chose not to rejoin society even after being granted a government pension.   Though the local community tried to look out for him (despite veterans in the town regarding him as a traitor), Macdonald was only forced back into society when his home burned down in a fire.   Even then, he insisted on returning to his place of isolation in the woods as soon as possible.   He died of hypothermia in 2003, defiant to the end.  

While people may choose a solitary life for a wide variety of reasons, actual cases of hermit living in the wild the way that Dennis Farrell  and Willard Kitchener Macdonald did remain rare (though homelessness certainly isn't).   As it is, there are relatively few places left that would allow hermits to live alone without running afoul of vagrancy laws, at least in Western countries, though there are no shortage of people willing to try.   

For good or ill, not all of us are suited for running with the crowd.

The First Lone Gunman

Howard Unruh was born in 1921 in Camden, New Jersey and, by all accounts, lived a quiet life before enlisting to serve his country in World War Two. 

His tour of duty as a tank soldier was said to have had a profound effect on him.  He even kept notes on every German soldier that he killed, right down to the condition of their corpses.  It was after his honourable discharge in 1945 and his triumphant return to his hometown of Camden that things began to spiral out of control for him.  Family members and friends all noted a considerable change in him.  Despite being a war hero, he remained unemployed and seemed to have little to do with his time except look at the medals and other war memorabilia decorating his bedroom walls and care for his considerable collection of firearms.   When he wasn't practicing at the basement target range ofthe apartment building in which he and his mother lived.  he was attending of church services daily.  Not that this kept him from getting into frequent trouble with his neighbours.  The spectacle of a grown man being financially supported by his mother who worked at a local factory made him the target of considerable teasing as a  "mama's boy". 

His growing alienation from the world and the feeling of being persecuted did not sit well with Howard.  In his diaries, he kept careful note of every personal grievance (real or imagined).  When the diaries were later examined, it was found that he had written the word "retal" (short for retaliate) next to the name of every neighbour whom he had thought deserving of special consideration...

On September 6, 1949, Howard came home from a local movie theatre to find that the new gate that he had built onto the front of the apartment building had been stolen.  That was the last straw... 

After sleeping in to 8:00 am on the following morning, Howard got up, dressed himself in his best suit, and had breakfast with his mother.  She later reported that he seemed like he was "in a trance" and that he had threatened her with a wrench when she attempted to ask him what was wrong.  She left the house and went to a friend's house to tell them about her son's strange behaviour. 

Howard then left the house himself armed with a German Luger pistol and thirty-three rounds of ammunition and went hunting for those whom he felt had wronged him.  In the twelve-minute rampage that followed, he shot at over twenty-six people, killing thirteen and wounding many others. 

Most of the victims were from his list but the rest were apparently just in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Hearing the approaching sirens, Howard returned to his mother's apartment and prepared to make a final stand.  After being wounded by police, Howard was convinced into giving himself up without any further incident.  He was eventually charged with thirteen counts of murder and three counts of "atrocious assault and battery".  According to the two psychiatrists who examined him before his trial, Howard stated that  "I'm no psycho. I'd have killed a thousand if I had bullets enough". 

Despite efforts to blame Howard's violence on his military experiences, Howard was diagnosed with  paranoid schizophrenia and was found Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity.  He was sentenced to the New Jersey Hospital for the Insane (now Trenton Psychiatric Hospital) where he still resides.  By all accounts, he was a model patient who carried out his mopping duties diligently but preferred to keep to himself.   

While other returning veterans had committed acts of violence following the end of the war, as the first single-episode mass murderer in U.S. history, Howard's case certainly stood out.  It was the beginning of a disturbing new trend:  the spree killer.

Update: Howard Unruh died in a Trenton, N.J. nursing home on October 19, 2009 following a long illness. His death provided a final closure for the few surviving family members of his victims long before. 

Maternal Loneliness and Child Health

Loneliness has potentially adverse effects on health and is often connected with depression, while maternal depression has been shown to have a harmful effect on many indicators of children’s socioemotional outcomes. The prevalence of loneliness among first-time mothers and its associations with depressive symptoms, background factors, and child outcomes in middle childhood and adolescence were investigated in a new longitudinal study published in the journal Psychology, Health, & Medicine. A sample of 122 mother–child dyads was collected from maternal health clinics in Tampere, Finland. The mothers reported their feelings of loneliness at three time points: during pregnancy and when their firstborn child was 8–9 and 16–17 years old. Maternal depressive symptoms were screened using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) at the same time points. The children’s internalizing and externalizing problems were assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and Youth Self Report (YSR) questionnaires. Some 34–38% of the mothers reported loneliness at the different study points. Maternal loneliness showed associations with dissatisfaction with life and the pair relationship, and with the presence of depressive symptoms. The mother’s prenatal loneliness predicted the child’s internalizing problems in adolescence. Interventions aimed at relieving loneliness should be provided for mothers at all stages of motherhood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

The Mind of an Extremist

“What is objectionable, what is dangerous about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents.”   Robert F. Kennedy

In recent years, we've seen a frightening rise in acts of violence committed either by organized groups or by "lone wolf" operators acting on their own.   Though numerous theories have been put forward to try explaining what makes some people especially vulnerable to being recruited by extremist organizations or to embrace specific causes,  actual research looking at militant extremism has yet to provide any clear answers to date.

But is there such a thing as an extremist mind-set?  And could it be possible to identify people who might be prone to violent extremism based on the beliefs that they express?   A new model proposed by researchers at the University of Belgrade suggests that it can.  In a recent study published in the Journal of Individual Differences, Janko Mededovic and Goran Knezevic of Belgrade's Institute of Criminological and Sociological Research described what they termed the Militant Extremist Mind-Set (MEM) based on analysis of statements released by terrorist groups from seven different world regions.    Though the content varied widely according to the stated goals of each organization, three primary underlying factors stand out:

• Proviolence - advocating violence as a way of achieving the intended goals as laid out in manifestos and public statements (including statements such as, War is the beginning of
   salvation."
• Vile World thinking - essentially regarding the world as a violent and unjust place for which there are no peaceful solutions  (including blaming the Illuminati, international bankers, Jews, Communists, or other shadowy organizations lurking behind the scenes).
• Higher Power belief - belief  in  a higher  being  or  principle that can be used to justify extremist acts.  While this be a religious belief,  faith in a utopian cause can often be applied in the same way by nominally atheist groups or individuals.    Extremists who embrace martyrdom often rely on Divine Power arguments to rationalize their actions.

Though Vile World and Divine Power thinking can be also occur in extremists, it is only by embracing Proviolence attitudes that they are most likely to engage in violent acts.  

To read more, check out my new Psychology Today blog post.

School in the Philippines Closed Due to "Evil Spirits"

Classes at an integrated school in the Philippines have been suspended after twenty students collapsed in class and began showing symptoms suggesting that they were possessed.    

According to one teacher at the Father Gratian Murray Integrated School in Bacolod City. the first incident occurred earlier this month when a female Grade Eight student collapsed in class and reportedly began speaking in a male voice.    After the student began rambling about a 2016 accident that occurred nearby, she was taken to a medical clinic and then to a chapel until her parents could take her home.   Three other girls began experiencing similar symptoms though classes continued as usual.

On the following day, a group of students who were praying the rosary at a school field also collapsed.  “Their bodies weakened, and they were hysterically shouting,” said head teacher Ariel Sablaon.   Following reports that the symptoms were due to demonic possession, the school principal called in a priest to see the affected children and determine whether an exorcism was needed.   After the priest dismissed possession claims, ten of the children were sent to the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Barcolad for observation.

According to hospital psychologist, Dr. Joeanne Marie Jomalesa, the cause of the outbreak has still not been determined though she is not prepared to rule out mass hysteria.  "We have to verify it first because we don’t know if it’s related to a spiritual aspect or a psychiatric case. We need to get into the details first before we evaluate and proceed with the intervention phase wherein we can be able to talk to the students,” she said.  She also pointed out that cases of mass hysteria could often affect a group of persons  coping with unusual excitement or anxiety and trigger  irrational behavior, beliefs, or inexplicable symptoms of illness.

Belief in demonic possession is widespread across much of the Philippines.   Similar outbreaks occurred in 2018 involving schools in the province of Cebu.  Apparently triggered by the sighting "black figure" on school grounds, students began collapsing with reports of violence and abdominal pain.  In 2017, Father Ambrosio Nonato Legaspi, chief exorcist of the Philippines, gave a public warning about "cursed rosaries" being distributes by  “Illuminati satanists” to entrap unsuspecting Catholics.   Similar alarms have also been raised about wearing Halloween costumes and other "potentially satanic" activities that could attract possession. 

 

 

The Life and Times of the Chevalier D'Eon

One of the most memorable figures of the eighteenth century must surely be the Chevalier Charles D'Eon(or Chevaliere Charlotte D'Eon as he became more famously known).

Born in Tonnerre, France in 1728 to a distinguished family, Charles Geneviève Louis Auguste André Timothée Éon de Beaumont completed his education in 1749 and began a diplomatic career. He also became a spy for King Louis XV and took part in an espionage mission to the Russian court.  As he would later claim in his memoirs,  he became a close associate of the then-Empress sice he happened to be posing as a woman at the time.   Years later, this time posing as the uncle of the woman he had previously pretended to be, he allegedly convinced the Empress to sign an important treaty with France. After returning from Russia in 1761, he became a military officer and fought in the Seven Years War.

When the war ended in 1763, along with a decoration for bravery, he also earned the rank of Chevalier and a position with the French embassy in London. As a favourite of English society, D'Eon was in a good position to remain in England after a quarrel with the new ambassador prevented him from returning to France. He took revenge by writing a best-selling book that scandalized the English and French courts and D'Eon lived in England as an exile for fourteen years.

Until the rumours started...

D'Eon's boyish appearance, absence of facial hair, and lack of interest in female companionship led to speculation that he was really a woman. Allegations concerning his gender arose in England and in France and with numerous wagers on the subject being placed on both sides of the English Channel. It was a trial in 1777 before Lord Mansfield that forced these rumours out into the open. The grounds for the trial were straightforward enough: a surgeon named Hayes had made a substantial bet with a broker over whether D'Eon was really a woman. While D'Eon was not directly involved, the humiliation caused by the trial led him to quit England and return to France. King Louis XV had died by this time and his successor, Louis XVI was less kindly disposed towards him. D'Eon was told on arriving in France that the King had issued a decree that he "should resume the dress of his sex"

The Chevalier took the King at his word and, for the rest of his life, dressed and behaved like a proper French lady (in addition to a pension, the King also provided D'Eon with funds for a new wardrobe). He later claimed that he had been born a girl but that his father had raised him as a boy to ensure an inheritance from his in-laws. In 1779, Chevaliere D'Eon (as he was then called), published his (probably ghostwritten) memoirs La Vie Militaire, politique, et privée de Mademoiselle d'Eon.

When the American Revolution broke out, D'Eon asked for permission to abandon his female dress and join the military but his offer was rebuffed. D'Eon returned to England in 1785 and stayed in London until his death in 1810. The French Revolution brought an end to the royal pension on which he had been living and he spent the last years of his life supporting himself by participating in fencing demonstrations (until an injury forced an end to his fencing career). His efforts to complete another autobiography never got past the planning stage and he died in poverty.

It was only when his body was laid out for burial that (as one contemporary writer described it): "death proved the folly of those who had forced him into petticoats; for his manhood was placed beyond all doubt by an anatomical examination of his body". Even though he had lived with a woman, Mrs. Mary Cole, for the last fifteen years of his life, she had never suspected that he was really a man. He is buried in St. Pancras Cemetery in London where his grave still attracts visitors.

Despite various attempts at attaching a proper diagnostic label to describe the Chevalier's gender-bending life, he continues to defy classification. His case gave rise to an early term for cross-dressing, eonism, although it is has since fallen into disuse. Was D'Eon a transvestite or something more? His absence of facial hair and effeminate features suggest that he may have been a intersexual although there is insufficient information to tell either way. So, much like James Barry with whom he has been often compared, the Chevalier D'Eon remains a mystery long after his death.

Perhaps that's the way that he would have wanted it.

The Kitty Genovese Murder

Kitty Genovese's murder on March 13, 1964 shocked the world.

While the 29-year old bar manager was returning to her home in the Kew Gardens section of Queen's, New York, she was brutally attacked and killed.  Her assailant, Winston Moseley, was a serial offender who would later confess to two other murders.  In describing the murder, the New York Times reported that thirty-eight of Genovese's neighbours had watched the killing but did nothing.  The Times article was quick to emphasize that "Twice the sound of their voices and the sudden glow of their bedroom lights interrupted him and frightened him off. Each time he returned, sought her out and stabbed her again. Not one person telephoned the police during the assault; one witness called after the woman was dead."   Later investigations would show that very few of the thirty-eight neighbours who had heard some part of the attack were really aware of what was going on (many thought it was just a lovers' quarrel). Only one eyewitness would admit to even seeing a knife.

Still, the idea that Kitty Genovese's murder was fully observed by numerous neighbours who "didn't want to get involved" quickly took on a life of its own.  Public outrage against the "Bad Samaritans" who allegedly watched and did nothing was fierce.  One Times letter writer insisted that the names and addresses of the delinquent thirty-eight be published in the paper to expose them to the world.  The years following the Genovese murder and Moseley's conviction saw more than a thousand books, articles, plays, and several television movies based on the tragedy.  Headlines about the callous, unfeeling New Yorkers who ignored Kitty Genovese's dying screams led to wide-scale soul-searching over declining social values and the dangers of urban life.  

In a later critique of the Times coverage, Jim Rasenberger stressed that only six or seven people were actual eyewitnesses, not the thirty-eight that the Times originally claimed.  When the New York Times later came under fire for misrepresenting the actual facts of the murder, they stood by their version of events.  In a 2004 interview, Times editor, A. M. Rosenthal went on record as stating that "there may have been 38, there may have been 39, but the whole picture, as I saw it, was very affecting.”   Rosenthal also wrote his own book on the case titled Thirty-Eight Witnesses.  

Whatever the actual facts, a brutal murder did take place which had a profound impact on New York City life.  Publicity over the Genovese murder and other high-profile crimes helped spur the implementation of 911 as a universal help number by 1968.  Community activists responding to the murder also organized the first Neighbourhood Watch program, eventually leading to the formation of chapters across the country.  Political pressure later led to the passage of "bad samaritan" laws in some jurisdictions (with limited success). 

Academic psychologists took a keen interest in the murder and what it seemed to indicate about human nature. In 1968, social psychologists Bibb Latane and John Darley launched a series of classic experiments investigating bystander intervention in emergencies.  Using New York University students, they varied experimental conditions under controlled circumstances to investigate factors that seemed to increase the likelihood of bystanders helping.  Simulated emergencies ranged from a theft to smoke filling the interview room to cries of distress from an adjoining room.  In a finding that they would later term the bystander effect, Darley and Latane found that individuals were slower to respond as the number of others that the participants thought were present increased.  Participants who were alone in a room during the simulated emergency were far more likely to respond and response time was significantly slower in groups ranging from two to six participants in size.  The only other factor that seemed to affect responding dealt with the size of the participant's home community, i.e., participants who grew up in large cities were less likely to respond than participants who grew up in smaller towns (make of that what you will).

Essentially, responsibility for acting in emergencies diminishes as more people are involved in the decision-making process (hence the term diffusion of responsibility). Latane and Darley suggested that people often looked to the people around them to see how they react to the emergency.  If other bystanders seem unconcerned, then people are less likely to react (their term for this was pluralistic ignorance).  Participants often found themselves in a classic approach-avoidance conflict (another of those pesky social psychology terms) in which they were torn between a desire to act  and not wanting to appear foolish by jumping to conclusions.  The researchers also proposed specific decision-making models to increase the likelihood of emergency responding:  notice the incident, interpret it as an emergency, decide on level of personal responsibility to intervene, carry out the required behaviour.  Variations on this model have since been incorporated into standard first-aid training classes

Despite the controversy surrounding the Latane-Darley findings, questions as to the actual prevalence of "bystander apathy", and the failure by later researchers to replicate these results consistently, the bystander effect has become one of the most well-recognized concepts in modern psychology.  As such, it has been taught to introductory psychology students ever since (myself included).  The spectre of Kitty Genovese is often invoked in newspaper accounts of similar crimes in which bystanders failed to intervene.  Latane and Darley documented several of these accounts in a 1970 book that they later wrote on their research.  

So, next time you're witnessing someone in danger, don't look to others for guidance.  Take the lead and, possibly, save a life.

The Effect of Disaster Trauma on Smoking

Natural disasters increase nicotine dependence and cigarette consumption, but the exact mechanisms and conditions responsible for this increase are relatively unclear. A study recently published in the journal Addictive Behaviors explored whether posttraumatic stress and depressive symptoms were pathways to increased nicotine dependence and cigarette consumption after disaster exposure using a representative sample of current smokers who were living in New Orleans at the time Hurricane Katrina struck (n = 175), and a comparison sample of smokers from Memphis (n = 222) who were not directly impacted by Hurricane Katrina. Researchers assessed whether nicotine dependence and daily cigarette consumption differed by city and evaluated potential mediators and moderators of this association using conditional process analysis. Results showed that though nicotine dependence (B = 0.46, SE = 0.20, p = .02) and average daily cigarette consumption (B = 2.19, SE = 0.80, p = .01) were higher among New Orleans than Memphis smokers 27 months after Hurricane Katrina, hurricane exposure did not indirectly affect nicotine dependence and average daily cigarette consumption through increases in posttraumatic stress and depressive symptoms. Smokers who are exposed to disasters may not be increasing their cigarette use and their dependency on nicotine because of post-disaster psychological distress. Future studies should investigate other mechanisms and conditions to explain post-disaster changes in smoking behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

Breaking the Silence on "Period Poverty"

" Pain is a big part of women’s lives. We are not comfortable articulating to a doctor — we can’t even say the word “vagina” — and a lot of us end up suffering in silence. There are many myths and straight-up wrong information about periods. People are very superstitious. It’s really important, I think, for us to first of all, break the silence. This “hush-hush” attitude to female reproductive health is dangerous. If we are able to talk openly, there are a lot of benefits. Your quality of life is improved. The silence stops you from getting help."   Shelly-Ann Weeks

Among Jamaican women, the very subject of menstruation and just about everything else associated with reproductive health remains taboo to talk about openly.   This is something that Shelley-Ann Weeks (also known as "Dr. Sexy-Ann" on social media) is trying to change.  As the executive director of the Her Flow Foundation, a non-profit organization opposing stigma and shame associated with menstruation, she has become outspoken in her fight against the "period poverty"  that is undermining the health of countless Jamaican woman.

"One girl told me she was able to make one menstrual pad last five days, "  she said in a recent media interview. "I am not often speechless, but that shocked me! I thought, “Okay, I am going to get this girl some pads!” Talking to women while I was writing my first book, I realized so many have problems affording the products they need every month. And for the woman who has daughters, she literally has to choose between buying them pads and feeding them...I realised that internationally there is a conversation going on around period poverty…the need is much greater than I had thought. I wanted to create a space where women could get access to pads free of cost, no questions asked. Because it’s a dignity issue as well."

According to Weeks, the problem is hard for women to deal with because of the sheer amount of misinformation and taboos surrounding female reproduction.  As for the chief cause for this rigid taboo, Weeks has no trouble naming the prime culprit:  " A lot of Jamaicans’ feelings about female reproductive health — or even the rules about what women are allowed or not allowed to do — come from religion. And in Jamaica, that’s Christianity. If you think about the way the Bible talks about periods, the word ‘unclean’ comes up a lot. Even some Rastafarians in Jamaica actually do believe that a woman should be shut away and not allowed to come out until her period blood has been passed. Girls are taught to wash their underwear as soon as they remove it and not to let anyone know that she’s on her period. She needs to keep it to herself. Men and women are taught this way. But women push it more than men do."   

While many school counselors and teachers support Weeks' crusade and encourage teens to read her book, she also admits that much of the resistance comes from parents, especially the mothers.  But Weeks and her fellow activists are  continuing to put out the message through social media, interviews on radio and television, and live presentations.    She also has a full calendar for the months to come:

"In September, in partnership with Jamaica AIDS Support for Life, we are planning a Live Safe college tour of 20 community and teachers’ colleges where we will offer free STD and HIV tests, period education sessions, condom distribution and more.

October is our Period Awareness Month. On Period Awareness Day, October 24, we will seek to spark a national conversation to seriously address the stigma and shame associated with menstruation through public awareness events. Our second Healthy Pelvis Conference on October 27 will address a range of female reproductive health issues.

In November, we are planning a Period Conference to help parents, guardians, and children. Men, especially fathers, will be encouraged to attend and participate."  

But period poverty is hardly limited to Jamaica.  The cultural shame attached to menstruation is a common feature in many world religions and cultures around the world continue to  impose rigid restrictions on women as a result.    In developing countries, women often have difficulty gaining access to sanitary products or even adequate handwashing facilities.  For that matter, bizarre examples of barriers faced by women dealing with menstruation can be found even in many industrialized nations.   In the United States, for example, federal prisons only made sanitary products free to female prisoners in 2018.   Even public use of the word "vagina" by elected officials has led to formal censure in at least one prominent episode.  

While the fight against period poverty continues to be an uphill battle, crusaders such as Shelley-Ann Weeks remain encouraged by the support they receive.    It's a good start.