Period. End of Sentence.

** GEO & CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY WORKSHEET **

For this assignment, you will watch the film “Period. End of Sentence.” on Netflix or
YouTube.

This film highlights issues regarding women’s education, economics, poverty, and
cultural norms, among many other themes we have discussed this semester.

After watching the film please complete this worksheet.

1. Identify one example for each of the 5 Themes of Geography and discuss
specifically how it applies to the film? More information on the 5 themes can
be found at:
http://geography.about.com/od/teachgeography/a/5themes.htm:
● Location- A very direct example of a relative location is seen at the beginning of
the film when it said “60 km outside of New Delhi.” Stating the location provides
a little bit of information about the cultural background of the film.
● Place- An example of the human characteristic of this place is how people view
menstruation. In the beginning of the film, people described periods as an illness
or being dirty, and a lady even said that only God knows why periods happen.
Such beliefs display human characteristics of the place India.
● Human-Environment Interaction- An example of this is when Rekha would throw
her bloody clothes away in the dump, even digging them in the dirt. These actions
affect the environment especially because of how menstruation is stigmatized,
more women are more likely to do this.
● Movement- An example of this would be when the girl dropped out of school
because of how difficult it was for her to change because of her period. Problems
like this could potentially create movements in society, where more men can be
seen in school and later on in higher education compared to women who will stay
at home because of their period, and possibly throughout their entire
adulthood/life because of their lack of education.
● Region- An example of a region is seen in the beginning of the film, “Hapur
district, India.” The Hapur district is a region, and was specified instead of talking
about the entire country of India.

2. Scholarly Reaction – In 3 paragraphs (which should be 5 – 10 each), summarize

what you think of this film and your thoughts and experiences relative to where
you live or have lived. Be sure to support your opinions with sources! You may
also want to visit: https://www.thepadproject.org/

Watching the beginning of the film made me sad and angry. According to the pad
project website, “Around the world 2.3 billion people lack access to basic sanitation
services.” This means that the places these people live in lack basic knowledge about
menstruation that they do not feel the need to provide basic sanitation. I am sad about all
the women who feel like there is something wrong with them because of their period, and
frustrated with how society deals with it. No woman should ever have to go through this.
 Period. End of Sentence.
From personal experience, I was also never taught about menstruation until I got
it. I actually never even learned and understood what is actually happening in my body
until I had to learn about it in school. Growing up in the Philippines, period was also seen
as dirty. I have this very particular memory of a girl from my school who had period
stains in her skirt, and every boy teasing her about it. She was embarrassed and looked
like she wanted to cry. At the time, I didn’t understand what periods were so I was
confused with what was going on but definitely felt bad for that girl.

Seeing women take initiative was very empowering for me. I loved how they
taught and gave women a job opportunity for something that only they could truly
understand. It was refreshing to see women break cycles and go out of their comfort zone
to see their pads, even if it was difficult and uncomfortable for them. These women were
also able to educate themselves and other people not only about their product, but they
were also breaking the stigma with menstruation. Overall, this film was very empowering
to watch as a woman.