from the family and has to keep her clothes that she wears while menstruating away from any clothes that she could wear to the temple. one of the most important regulations is that a woman is not allowed to attend temple while menstruating. in sumba, women keep their cycles secret, which makes men see them as deceitful. women from sumba believe that because of their secrecy, they will always have control of the men. "men will never know how much we really can do to control these things. we have all kinds of secrets, and they should always believe that we can control even more than we really can". women are supposed to avoid intercourse while menstruating. it is believed that sexually transmitted diseases are the results of women deceiving men and having intercourse while they are menstruating. gonorrhea translates as 'disease you get from women' in sumba; it has become a social problem. when a man gets this disease, the only way it is believed he can rid himself of the painful sores is to pass it to a woman. the reasoning is that a woman's body can absorb infection and purge it during a cycle. nepal hindus in nepal traditionally keep women isolated during menstruation; women who are menstruating are not allowed in the household for a period of three nights. this practise was banned by the nepalese supreme court in 2005 but still continues. community and organizational actions exist to combat the practice. in january 2019, local authorities demanded the destruction of chhaupadi huts in bajura, the municipality in which a woman and her two young sons died in a hut. this resulted in the removal of 60 sheds, and the deployment of law enforcement to patrol for further removal. sri lanka according to a 2018 study, two-thirds of girls in sri lanka received no information about menstruation before reaching puberty. the lack of education leads to many girls getting sick due to being ill-informed about their bodies and menstrual cycles. in addition, at least one-third of girls missed school during their periods due to a lack of accessible toilets or pads. there is also a ritual surrounding young girls, which starts with their first menstruation and ends with them receiving soft sex education. throughout this ritual the girl can not be left alone and must always have another girl with her. if that girl must be away, she leaves an iron axe to prevent spirits from trying to influence the girl in the ritual. this part of the process continues for three months after the completion of the majority of the ritual, meaning the girl is potentially a woman before she receives any education on sex. united states traditionally, the yurok in north america practiced menstrual seclusion. yurok women used a small hut near the main house. a survey conducted in 1981 showed that a substantial majority of u.s. adults and adolescents believed that it is socially unacceptable to discuss menstruation, especially in mixed company. many believed that it is unacceptable to discuss menstruation even within the family. studies in the early 1980s showed that nearly all girls in the united states believed that girls should not talk about menstruation with boys, while more than one-third of girls did not believe it appropriate to discuss menstruation with their father. a 2018 survey of 1,500 women in the us showed that 60% of women feel embarrassed when they menstruate. united kingdom in 2017, scottish msp monica lennon began work to present an 'ending period poverty' bill to government. in 2019 it was officially lodged and debated in holyrood. it was approved in november 2020 and made scotland the first country in the world to make it a legal requirement for period products to be available for free to anyone who needs them. in 2019, the government equalities office launched a period poverty taskforce to research and end the problem of people who cannot afford menstrual products. society and culture education menstruation education is frequently taught in combination with sex education in the us, although one study suggests that girls would prefer their mothers to be the primary source of information about menstruation and puberty. a nigerian study showed the following breakdown in menstruation education: "parents of 56%, friends of 53%, books of 46%, teachers of 44%, internet of 45%, and health centers of 54" held the most influence in terms of menstruation education. information about menstruation is often shared among friends and peers, which may promote a more positive outlook on puberty. the quality of menstrual education in a society determines the accuracy of people's understanding of the process. this is in part due to the segregation of male and female peers during educational sessions. failure to teach an accurate understanding of menstruation to students of all genders has social implications for gendered relationships and the objectification of women's bodies. discomfort arises when students do not have access to the same information, reinforcing the belief "that menstruation is gross and should be kept hidden". girls are encouraged to conceal the fact that they may be menstruating in order to be considered desirable. sexual harassment and teasing about menstruation cause girls anxiety as they must struggle to ensure that they give no sign of menstruation. effective educational programs are essential to providing children and adolescents with clear and accurate information about menstruation. several education and sexual health experts have studied the key features necessary for such programs. some experts maintain that schools are an appropriate place for menstrual education to take place because they are an institution that young people attend consistently. schools are intended to expand students' knowledge and thus serve as an appropriate site for conveying menstrual education. other experts argue that programs led by peers or third-party agencies are more effective than those taught in the school classroom. this may be due to the use of small group interactions, the ability of these programs to target specific populations, or the possibility that many teenagers choose to participate voluntarily in these programs, rather than being mandated to attend school programs. advertising menstrual product advertising began in the early twentieth century. early ads included print magazine campaigns from tambrands inc (tampax), kimberly-clark (kotex) and brands that have since been discontinued. advertising for menstrual products outside the us began somewhat later. in norway, saba began openly advertising after the second world war, driving a brightly colored bus around the country to provide information to consumers. historically, menstrual product advertising has had to balance frankness and information with taboos and censorship laws against discussing or showing menstrual themes. educational pamphlets and school outreach has been an important way of marketing to young consumers during the twentieth century. one common way that sanitary-product advertising avoids depicting menstruation is by pouring a blue, rather than red, liquid on the sanitary product to demonstrate its absorption. historically, this has been due to strict censorship rules regarding menstrual product advertising. in 2010, the always feminine hygiene brand created the first feminine hygiene ad to ever feature a tiny red spot, representing blood. the ad was created by intern and artist william chyr who was working at always' advertising agency, leo burnett. originally the ad was created for the intern's personal portfolio, but then it caught the attention of the chief creative officer at leo burnett, and was subsequently published as an actual ad. there was some controversy when the ad was first released. in june 2016 the presence of red blood in a uk bodyform commercial was greeted with approval in social media for its attempt to challenge the stereotypical menstruation ad, by showing women who struggle despite bleeding from cuts, blows and bruises they receive while playing various sports. later, bodyform's owner, essity, launched campaigns featuring blood-like liquid in the campaign "blood normal". visual arts menstrual art engages with menstrual themes, including blood, pain, menopause and menstrual stigma. although not new in the twentieth century, a noted increase in artistic engagement began in the late 1960s, at the time of second-wave feminism, with artists including shigeko kubota, carolee schneemann, judy clark, judy chicago, catherine elwes, marina abramović, gina pane, ana mendieta, and later orlan. since the 1960s, artists have continued to take an interest in menstrual art. menstrual art highlights different issues regarding menstrual joy, taboos and pain. in 2015, artist rupi kaur was censored by instagram for posting menstrual art series period. kaur critiqued instagram's position, writing: "thank you instagram for providing me with the exact response my work was created to critique.... i will not apologize for not feeding the ego and pride of misogynist society that will have my body in an underwear but not be okay with a small leak, when your pages are filled with countless photos/accounts where women ... are objectified, pornified, and treated less than human". instagram later reversed their decision, and menstrual art has since flourished on the platform. art history has recently begun to explore this theme in art, drawing on a longer historiography of gender and the body in modern and contemporary art explored by feminist art historians, for example ruth green-cole, camilla mørk røstvik, kathy battista, and bee hughes. the 2015 conference of the society for menstrual cycle research sponsored a group exhibition, curated by artist jen lewis, which resulted in a catalogue. in 2020, norwegian museum telemark kunstsenter held an exhibition about menstruation named syklus. films, tv, books movies and television also reflect the taboo nature of menstruation. typically menstruation as a topic is avoided, except for scenes involving menarche, a girl's first period. for example, as elizabeth arveda kissling explains in her article, "on the rag on screen: menarche in film and television", the 1991 film my girl contains a scene where the main character, vada, experiences her first period. the explanation given to her by a female role model of what is happening to her is done off-camera and the subject is never mentioned again, save when vada pushes thomas across the porch telling him, "don't come back for five to seven days." in the 1976 movie carrie, the title character has her first period in high school, and becomes hysterical in the gym shower believing she is dying. the other girls tease her by throwing tampons and sanitary pads at her. the gym teacher tries to calm carrie down, and eventually must explain the concept of menstruation to carrie (because carrie's mother had never done so). when carrie returns home announcing she's a woman and inquiring why she was never told about periods, her fanatically religious mother yells at her and locks her into a closet fearing that menstruation will bring men and the sin of sex. later in the movie, her classmates mock her ignorance of menarche again by pouring pig's blood on her at the prom. the 1979 novel endless love by scott spencer has a 20-page love scene in which menstrual blood is no barrier to the obsessive union of the couple. in the 1991 japanese animated film only yesterday, one of the girls is found to be going through menstruation and is later teased about it, especially when a group of boys tell the others not to touch a ball she had touched by saying, "you'll catch her period". clueless, the 1995 cult-classic best known for its iconic fashion and memorable one-liners, contains one of the most cited period lines of all time. protagonist cher, when receiving a second tardy for being late to class, uses the excuse of 'riding the crimson wave' as her reason for receiving her second tardy. in the 2007 movie superbad, seth discovers menstrual blood on his jeans after dancing with a woman. he reacts with disgust, as do other men in the scene. the scene has been described by critics as " the attitudes of disgust and shame associated with periods." netflix's big mouth features jessi glaser, played by jessi klein, getting her period for the first time on a school trip to the statue of liberty in season one episode two. as jessi frets in the bathroom her male friend, andrew glouberman, played by comedian john mulaney, finds her a menstrual product. the 2018 bollywood comedy-drama pad man was inspired by the life of social activist arunachalam muruganantham. as a newly wed man, he