Short native essay

“Who’s going to help those front-line female nurses and doctorscollect sanitary pads?” My fingers slid down, and left this comment on the Internet. I was in my menstrual period, holding a cup of hot water, lying on the bed receivedthe care from my mother, but still I was frowning because of the pain in my abdomen. I could imagine those female fighters who was in the midst of the Covid-19, enduring physical discomfort while having period as mebut still insisted on doing high-risk Jobs. I then realized that I had to do something that can truly raise the public awareness of front-line women’smenstruation care issue.

At the beginning I didn’t want to become a social justice warrior who would just advocate or urge on the WeChat groups and moments. Instead, I wanted to use my love of art to create something that would be truly rememberable and distant through which people can resonate and understand the experience and troubles of menstruation among those front-line females. As I looked at the clay and planks at the corner of mydesk, an idea suddenly sparked!I decided to make a stop motion animation by using clay and wooden fingerboards to build the scene and characters.

To create a scene that can demonstrate the weakness even painful experience of the period was the most challenging part throughout my whole design. I struggled several days seeking for the wonderful epiphany to land on my head. As I was heartbrokenly watching the news on TV that front-line women required to shave hair or have men’s hairstyle, no ponytails were allowed. This intrigued my mind of gender equality, and I had an idea of purpose-built a man as the main character.

I started the story with a male logistic manager in front of the computer who neglected requestof thefrontline sanitary napkins. When he woke up the next day, he found that he had transformed into a female nurse in Wuhan Fangcang Hospital. He had lived a day as a female nurse. He was sweating profusely in the abdomen because of the pain caused by menstruation, but he was still kept working in her airtight protective clothing. He looked feebly at the crowd outside the clinic and wanted to give up countless times. At nine o’clock in the evening, when he finally finished his work and turned on his mobile phone, he found that there was scolding and dissatisfaction under the sanitary napkin petition from them. He felt endless helplessness and exhaustion, and his tears flowed instantly.

I posted and uploaded this artform of motion pictures to tell this ‘absurd’ story, and I felt it is my responsibility to point out my own belief, thoughts, and cares towards this “nation at stake”. In the future, I want continue to use different creative forms of arts to powerfully make a change in whatsoever communities around me.