For the S-Mask project, I worked with Ritika and made her a mask that relates to an important social problem in India: the taboos and misconceptions surrounding menstruation.
I couldn’t find a white cotton mask in any store so I ended up making the mask using an old t-shirt I had. I really liked working with a sewing machine, it was my first time actually making something so I learned a lot from the experience, and since I made it out of re-used materials it’s more sustainable than if I’d bought it in a store. For the color, I used cabbage to dye the full mask and then washed it right away to give it that nice pastel blue tone. To make pink I wanted to try something else so I used avocado skins and pits to make the speech balloon color and then sewed everything together with white and red thread to attach the design onto the mask.
For the design, I chose to put a text balloon like the ones used in graphic novels, with a drop of blood to represent how there’s an imminent need in India to talk and destigmatize periods. Only 36% of menstruating females in India use sanitary napkins, while others use old rugs, husk, ash, leaves, mud, and other life-threatening materials. Many women don’t have access to a private bathroom and can’t afford to buy sanitary products and this is a big health problem currently happening not only in India but in many different parts of the world. On top of that, in India, nearly 23 million girls drop out of school annually after they start menstruating because of the lack of sanitary products and clean bathrooms.
Menstruation is a biological process that has been associated with mythical concepts and values for thousands of years and this needs to stop. In order to have better sanitary conditions and give access to more women, society needs to eliminate the taboos and misconceptions associated with periods and provide better education on the subject for everyone.
Since we live so far away and it’s very expensive to ship anything we couldn’t mail our masks to each other but we will definitely exchange them once we’re back in New York.
