Li Meizhen was running a marathon in China when her period arrived without warning, right there on the pavement, in front of hundreds of people.
She did not stop. She did not apologize. She did not look for a bathroom to disappear for a while. She gritted her teeth and kept pushing her legs until she crossed the finish line, with the same dignity with which she had started the race.
What came afterward was worse than the bleeding: social media tore her apart. “She should have left the race, how undignified”, they wrote, as if a body that bleeds every month were a reason for shame rather than strength. No one demands that a runner drop out because of a blister or a cramp, but she was judged for something she did not even choose. Why do we continue to shame women for basic functions of their bodies?
