Woman runs whole London Marathon without tampon to fight the 'stigma of periods'
And raises $6,000 for a breast cancer charity at the same time
A woman who ran the entire London Marathon without wearing a tampon has described how she did so to show that the “stigma of a woman’s period is irrelevant”.
Kiran Gandhi, a Harvard Business School Graduate and professional drummer who has played alongside M.I.A and Thievery Corporation, wrote about the experience on her website under the headline “Sisterhood, blood and boobs at the London Marathon 2015”.
Gandhi ran the event for Breast Cancer Care and, along with “two of the most important women in my life”, collectively raised $6,000 (£3,800) for charity.
“The marathon for me was about family and feminism,” she said – the latter being because she “ran the whole marathon with period blood running down [her] legs”.
Gandhi explained that her period began the night before the big race, but that she decided she didn’t want to have to wear a tampon while running 26.2 miles.
Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you
Show all 35
Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you
1/35 Katharine Hepburn
“I have not lived as a woman. I have lived as a man. I've just done what I damn well wanted to, and I've made enough money to support myself, and ain't afraid of being alone”
Getty Images
2/35 Madonna
"Girls can wear jeans and cut their hair short, wear shirts and boots cause it's okay to be a boy. But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading cause you think being a girl is degrading"
Getty Images
3/35 Kurt Cobain
“Rape is one of the most terrible crimes on earth and it happens every few minutes. The problem with groups who deal with rape is that they try to educate women about how to defend themselves. What really needs to be done is teaching men not to rape. Go to the source and start there”
Getty Images
4/35 Betty Friedan
“No woman gets an orgasm from shining the kitchen floor”
Getty Images
5/35 Maya Angelou
“I want to be representative of my race - the human race. I have a chance to show how kind we can be, how intelligent and generous we can be…”
Getty Images
6/35 Emma Watson
"I am from Britain and think it is right that as a woman I am paid the same as my male counterparts. I think it is right that I should be able to make decisions about my own body. I think it is right that women be involved on my behalf in the policies and decision-making of my country. I think it is right that socially I am afforded the same respect as men."
Getty Images
7/35 Emmeline Pankhurst
“I want to say to you who think women cannot succeed, we have brought the government of England to this position, that it has to face this alternative: either women are to be killed or women are to have the vote”
Creative Commons
8/35 Patricia Arquette
"To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights, it’s our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America."
AFP PHOTO / Robyn BECKROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images
9/35 Nawal El Saadawi
“They said, “You are a savage and dangerous woman. I am speaking the truth. And the truth is savage and dangerous”
Getty Images
10/35 Margaret Fuller
"It is a vulgar error that love, a love, to woman is her whole existence; she is born for Truth and Love in their universal energy"
Creative Commons
11/35 Germaine Greer
“All societies on the verge of death are masculine. A society can survive with only one man; no society will survive a shortage of women”
Getty Images
12/35 Naomi Wolf
“A cultural fixation on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty but an obsession about female obedience”
Getty Images
13/35 Rebecca West
"I myself have never able to find out precisely what a feminist is. I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat"
Creative Commons
14/35 Aung San Suu Kyi
“In societies where men are truly confident of their own worth, women are not merely tolerated but valued"
Getty Images
15/35 Margaret Atwood
“Does feminist mean large unpleasant person who'll shout at you or someone who believes women are human beings. To me it's the latter, so I sign up”
Getty Images
16/35 Julie Burchill
"A good part - and definitely the most fun part - of being a feminist is about frightening men"
Getty Images
17/35 Scarlett Johansson
"Why do [male co-stars] get the really interesting, existential questions and I get the, like, rabbit food question?"
Getty Images
18/35 Susan B. Anthony
"I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself, and there I take my stand"
Creative Commons
19/35 Margaret Sanger
"No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother"
Getty Images
20/35 Sylvia Plath
"Apparently, the most difficult feat for a Cambridge male is to accept a woman not merely as feeling, not merely as thinking, but as managing a complex, vital interweaving of both"
Creative Commons
21/35 Hillary Clinton
"I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession, which I entered before my husband was in public life"
Getty Images
22/35 Lena Dunham
"The idea of being a feminist—so many women have come to this idea of it being anti-male and not able to connect with the opposite sex—but what feminism is about is equality and human rights. For me that is just an essential part of my identity. I hope [Girls] contributes to a continuance of feminist dialogue"
Getty Images
23/35 Bette Davis
“When a man gives his opinion, he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch”
Creative Commons
24/35 John Legend
“All men should be feminists. If men cared about women’s rights, the world would be a better place”
Getty Images
25/35 Mae West
“Every man I meet wants to protect me. I can't figure out what from”
Creative Commons
26/35 Jane Austen
“I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives”
Creative Commons
27/35 Gloria Steinem
“A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle”
Getty Images
28/35 Sheng Wang
“Why do people say "grow some balls"? Balls are weak and sensitive. If you wanna be tough, grow a vagina. Those things can take a pounding”
Getty Images
29/35 Anais Nin
“I hate men who are afraid of women's strength”
Creative Commons
30/35 Barack Obama
“We stand with women by fighting for economic security, protecting access to health care and supporting women’s leadership across the country”
Getty Images
31/35 Elizabeth Warren
“I have a daughter and I have granddaughters and I will never vote to let a group of backward-looking ideologues cut women’s access to birth control. We have lived in that world, and we are not going back, not ever”
Getty Images
32/35 Malala Yousafzai
“In Pakistan, when we were stopped from going to school, at that time I realized that education … Is the power for women, and that’s why the terrorists are afraid of education”
Getty Images
33/35 Janis Joplin
"Don't compromise yourself. You are all you've got"
Getty Images
34/35 Lupita Nyong’o
"I hope that my presence on your screens and in magazines may lead you, young girl, on a similar journey. That you will feel the validation of your external beauty but also get to the deeper business of being beautiful inside. There is no shade in that beauty."
Getty Images
35/35 Virginia Woolf
"As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world"
Getty Images
1/35 Katharine Hepburn
“I have not lived as a woman. I have lived as a man. I've just done what I damn well wanted to, and I've made enough money to support myself, and ain't afraid of being alone”
Getty Images
2/35 Madonna
"Girls can wear jeans and cut their hair short, wear shirts and boots cause it's okay to be a boy. But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading cause you think being a girl is degrading"
Getty Images
3/35 Kurt Cobain
“Rape is one of the most terrible crimes on earth and it happens every few minutes. The problem with groups who deal with rape is that they try to educate women about how to defend themselves. What really needs to be done is teaching men not to rape. Go to the source and start there”
Getty Images
4/35 Betty Friedan
“No woman gets an orgasm from shining the kitchen floor”
Getty Images
5/35 Maya Angelou
“I want to be representative of my race - the human race. I have a chance to show how kind we can be, how intelligent and generous we can be…”
Getty Images
6/35 Emma Watson
"I am from Britain and think it is right that as a woman I am paid the same as my male counterparts. I think it is right that I should be able to make decisions about my own body. I think it is right that women be involved on my behalf in the policies and decision-making of my country. I think it is right that socially I am afforded the same respect as men."
Getty Images
7/35 Emmeline Pankhurst
“I want to say to you who think women cannot succeed, we have brought the government of England to this position, that it has to face this alternative: either women are to be killed or women are to have the vote”
Creative Commons
8/35 Patricia Arquette
"To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights, it’s our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America."
AFP PHOTO / Robyn BECKROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images
9/35 Nawal El Saadawi
“They said, “You are a savage and dangerous woman. I am speaking the truth. And the truth is savage and dangerous”
Getty Images
10/35 Margaret Fuller
"It is a vulgar error that love, a love, to woman is her whole existence; she is born for Truth and Love in their universal energy"
Creative Commons
11/35 Germaine Greer
“All societies on the verge of death are masculine. A society can survive with only one man; no society will survive a shortage of women”
Getty Images
12/35 Naomi Wolf
“A cultural fixation on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty but an obsession about female obedience”
Getty Images
13/35 Rebecca West
"I myself have never able to find out precisely what a feminist is. I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat"
Creative Commons
14/35 Aung San Suu Kyi
“In societies where men are truly confident of their own worth, women are not merely tolerated but valued"
Getty Images
15/35 Margaret Atwood
“Does feminist mean large unpleasant person who'll shout at you or someone who believes women are human beings. To me it's the latter, so I sign up”
Getty Images
16/35 Julie Burchill
"A good part - and definitely the most fun part - of being a feminist is about frightening men"
Getty Images
17/35 Scarlett Johansson
"Why do [male co-stars] get the really interesting, existential questions and I get the, like, rabbit food question?"
Getty Images
18/35 Susan B. Anthony
"I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself, and there I take my stand"
Creative Commons
19/35 Margaret Sanger
"No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother"
Getty Images
20/35 Sylvia Plath
"Apparently, the most difficult feat for a Cambridge male is to accept a woman not merely as feeling, not merely as thinking, but as managing a complex, vital interweaving of both"
Creative Commons
21/35 Hillary Clinton
"I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession, which I entered before my husband was in public life"
Getty Images
22/35 Lena Dunham
"The idea of being a feminist—so many women have come to this idea of it being anti-male and not able to connect with the opposite sex—but what feminism is about is equality and human rights. For me that is just an essential part of my identity. I hope [Girls] contributes to a continuance of feminist dialogue"
Getty Images
23/35 Bette Davis
“When a man gives his opinion, he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch”
Creative Commons
24/35 John Legend
“All men should be feminists. If men cared about women’s rights, the world would be a better place”
Getty Images
25/35 Mae West
“Every man I meet wants to protect me. I can't figure out what from”
Creative Commons
26/35 Jane Austen
“I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives”
Creative Commons
27/35 Gloria Steinem
“A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle”
Getty Images
28/35 Sheng Wang
“Why do people say "grow some balls"? Balls are weak and sensitive. If you wanna be tough, grow a vagina. Those things can take a pounding”
Getty Images
29/35 Anais Nin
“I hate men who are afraid of women's strength”
Creative Commons
30/35 Barack Obama
“We stand with women by fighting for economic security, protecting access to health care and supporting women’s leadership across the country”
Getty Images
31/35 Elizabeth Warren
“I have a daughter and I have granddaughters and I will never vote to let a group of backward-looking ideologues cut women’s access to birth control. We have lived in that world, and we are not going back, not ever”
Getty Images
32/35 Malala Yousafzai
“In Pakistan, when we were stopped from going to school, at that time I realized that education … Is the power for women, and that’s why the terrorists are afraid of education”
Getty Images
33/35 Janis Joplin
"Don't compromise yourself. You are all you've got"
Getty Images
34/35 Lupita Nyong’o
"I hope that my presence on your screens and in magazines may lead you, young girl, on a similar journey. That you will feel the validation of your external beauty but also get to the deeper business of being beautiful inside. There is no shade in that beauty."
Getty Images
35/35 Virginia Woolf
"As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world"
Getty Images
She wrote: “I thought, if there’s one person society won’t f*** with, it’s a marathon runner. If there’s one way to transcend oppression, it’s to run a marathon in whatever way you want.
“On the marathon course, sexism can be beaten. Where the stigma of a woman’s period is irrelevant, and we can re-write the rules as we choose. Where a woman’s comfort supersedes that of the observer.
“I ran with blood dripping down my legs for sisters who don’t have access to tampons and sisters who, despite cramping and pain, hide it away and pretend like it doesn’t exist. I ran to say, it does exist, and we overcome it every day. The marathon was radical and absurd and bloody in ways I couldn’t have imagined until the day of the race.”
The 26-year-old finished the race in four hours, 49 minutes and 11 seconds, and told Cosmopolitan what it felt like to finish the race through the anxiety and pain of cramps.
She said: “I felt kind of like, Yeah! F*** you! I felt very empowered by that. I did.”
Comments
Share your thoughts and debate the big issues
Please be respectful when making a comment and adhere to our Community Guidelines.
You can find our Community Guidelines in full here.
-
Newest first
-
Oldest first
-
Most liked
{{/moreThanOne}}Please be respectful when making a comment and adhere to our Community Guidelines.
You can find our Community Guidelines in full here.
-
Newest first
-
Oldest first
-
Most liked
{{/moreThanOne_p}}Follow comments
Vote
Report Comment
Subscribe to Independent Premium to debate the big issues
Want to discuss real-world problems, be involved in the most engaging discussions and hear from the journalists? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Already registered? Log inReport Comment
Delete Comment
About The Independent commenting
Independent Premium Comments can be posted by members of our membership scheme, Independent Premium. It allows our most engaged readers to debate the big issues, share their own experiences, discuss real-world solutions, and more. Our journalists will try to respond by joining the threads when they can to create a true meeting of independent Premium. The most insightful comments on all subjects will be published daily in dedicated articles. You can also choose to be emailed when someone replies to your comment.
The existing Open Comments threads will continue to exist for those who do not subscribe to Independent Premium. Due to the sheer scale of this comment community, we are not able to give each post the same level of attention, but we have preserved this area in the interests of open debate. Please continue to respect all commenters and create constructive debates.