Bollywood megastar Akshay Kumar is doing it again. He plays the lead in a movie canvassing to bring attention to the everyday plights of Women that are taken for granted in most Asian countries, including India. While most countries can casually converse about menstruation and invest significant resources in creating awareness and propagating female hygiene, we are still stuck in the pre-feminist era where periods are referred to as a ‘problem ‘or  ‘that time of the month’.

The male and male influenced youth demographic is afraid of talking about the basic female reproductive biology. From personal experience, I can assert that individuals in the medical circle too, avoid talking about menstruation even if sex might be a topic of casual conversation.

Nepal passed laws banning menstrual huts and yet reports of young women dying in such huts continue to come up. Conservative Hindu families in India and Nepal still consider it a bad omen for menstruating women to visit places of worship or even touch the idols at homes. Menstruation-related superstitions are still commonplace in families and are reiterated enough times that well-educated girls continue to have reservations about their menstrual cycles and related needs.

Recent GST laws drafted in India further the belief how little importance is given to menstruation by levying a 12% tax on the purchase of a product that is already overpriced and inaccessible to the majority of lower class women. To get some perspective, consider that condoms are tax-free and incredibly cheap. Sex is a choice. Menstruation is inevitable. Why this blatant bias, then? Condoms facilitate sex that is as much an issue for men as it is for women. As for menstruation, that’s just the women who have to face it, and like much else, we are expected to deal with it silently.

There comes Pad Man. Akshay Kumar again is trying to put the issue on the table and it is working. Menstruation, the pad challenges, and period related hash-tags are trending on all social media platforms. Akshay Kumar is utilizing his star power to bring much-needed attention to a crucial women’s issue just like he did in his previous movie, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha. Just like Amitabh Bachchan did in Pink. We all remember that, don’t we? Just like Ratna Pathak and Konkona Sen Sharma in Lipstick Under My Burkha? No, we don’t. The one reason is that Lipstick…did not have the male star power and budget behind it to get it through.

Justin Trudeau believes that men should use the power that they have been provided with to bring about a change in the condition of women who aren’t. A vital part of that is also letting women stand front and center when it comes to issues concerning us. Women, meanwhile, need to take control of the narratives. It is, after all our story to tell. This has to begin with female celebrities increasing their stronghold on the entertainment industry and investing more time and resource trying to crusade against misogynistic double standards.

It is high time feminist issues joined mainstream conversation even if it comes at the price of discomfiting, perhaps offending certain groups.

Do you have reservations about periods? Does it make you uncomfortable to talk about it? Tell us in comments below.