Alex Hartley, a 32-year-old commentator and former England spinner, continues to challenge gender norms. Now, she’s inspiring women to openly discuss their periods and break the stigma surrounding the topic. During a recent radio discussion surrounding the Ashes series, Hartley emphasized that women “shouldn’t be scared to talk about their periods,” a sentiment she believes is crucial for normalizing the conversation around menstruation.
Hartley’s comments are in response to some of the sharp criticism, as well as appreciation, she received after publicly discussing her experience on-air. She explained how some audience members were hostile. She was excited to get more than 4,000 direct messages thanking her for starting an open dialogue. Many listeners shared that it was refreshing to hear someone talk about periods openly, a subject often shrouded in stigma.
Looking back on her own experiences, Hartley remembered getting her first period while playing in a club cricket match. She needed to ask for sanitary products in the dressing room. This reality highlighted the barriers that women experience in sports around menstruation. Furthermore, she shared how she would leave the field every hour to manage her period during matches, underscoring the logistical hurdles many athletes encounter.
Hartley pointed out a concerning statistic: 64% of school-age girls in the UK discontinue sports by their mid-teens due to period pain and the associated shame. By sharing her story, including all the challenges and difficulties she faced along her journey, she hopes to help young girls feel comfortable and accepted.
“If a young girl is listening to the radio and hears I am on my period she will go ‘oh that is totally normal for people to talk about it,’” Hartley stated.
She is unapologetic about her conviction that in talking about periods we can help stop period shame from being the default. Hartley addressed her dismay at the absence of normalization around this perfectly natural biological process.
“It shouldn’t be taboo. Females shouldn’t be scared to talk about their periods. It is normal and natural,” she asserted.
And while she may have garnered some backlash for her comments, Hartley doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon. According to Grace, the more people discuss periods with each other, the more normalized they are in society.
“The more it is spoken about the more normalized it is,” she observed.
Hartley has been a tireless advocate for this cause. Her beliefs are shared by her fellow cricketer Kate Cross, who recently said that sports must have an open conversation about harassment.
“Everyone would rather do that than risk something bad happening when you’re on TV in your whites,” Cross noted.
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