We have something scandalous to proclaim: Women have periods. Wow. Can you believe it? Okay, so it’s actually not scandalous at all, but rather a totally normal part of being a woman. Slowly but surely, the long-established taboo around menstruation seems to be breaking down. Anyone remember when Chinese Olympic swimmer Fu Yuanhui boldly told a reporter about her period struggles after she lost a race? Now there’s a new menstruation maven (lol, sorry, it just felt natural) paving the way to period normalcy: supermodel Victoria Cain.
The British model recently opened up to UK publication The Independent about what it’s like dealing with her period during fashion week. And to be honest, it sounds less than ideal. She explains that when the week-long event rolls around, it requires standing in line for hours at castings.
She tells the Independent, “It’s horrible because you can feel it and you can’t go to the toilet because you lose your spot. You think, do I lose a possible job or wait for another half an hour? So you just put up with the leakiness.” The solution? Wearing a lot of black, apparently.
Additionally, when a gig has already been landed and the outfit has been tailored, it doesn’t always fit quite right for those days when you’re bloated. But it’s the dreaded period skin that causes Cain the most anxiety. “The thing that stresses me out most about getting my period during fashion week is my acne-prone skin. It’s like my period is smack bang on my face,” she says.
But what’s the industry to do? Surprisingly, Cain seems to have accepted it’s a just setback of a job that’s primarily based on appearance. “A lot of people can’t see behind the glitz and glam of modeling,” she tells the newspaper. “These things happen all the time. The vast majority of a models’ time is standing in line for hours for a job hundreds of girls are all competing for… Personally, I don’t see what the industry can do at all, it is what it is and it is tough at times.”
Fashion is a notoriously cut-throat industry and it’s definitely not an easy problem to solve. But perhaps an industry that’s primarily made up of women could take a sec to think about how it can be more accepting of a natural occurrence that happens to most people they have walking the runways? Just a thought.
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