Nigerian socialite backlash for candid menstrual revelation during record-breaking cook-a-thon
Last year, Hilda Baci, a Nigerian socialite and chef set out to break the world Guinness record for the longest cook-a-thon. Fortunately or unfortunately for her, she was on her period and was suffering from bad cramps. After people noticed her lying on the floor trying to relieve the pain, that is when she opened up and announced it.
She received a lot of backlash from both men and women. Some women said it was ‘unlady’ like for her to announce that she was menstruating, others called her disgusting for cooking when she was in that, “condition,” whilst some men said that they would not eat food prepared by someone on her monthly cycle because she will be dirty.
A lot of shocking negative stuff was said by both genders that could have affected her. For a natural process which every woman goes through it was disheartening to hear women speak ill of another woman.
It is interesting to see that women are not yet free to talk about menstruation without being called disgusting. Hilda revealed that she suffers from horrible cramps which sometimes prevents her from performing some duties to the best of her abilities. Periods can be so painful that you might end up admitted in hospital because of the pain. We are often told that as women, no one should know when it’s that time of the month and we should not complain no matter how painful it gets. Even it is painful, we should get used to the pain, since we go through it every month, not sure if one can ever get used to pain.
In January, a man went viral on X, after announcing the death of girlfriend. His twenty four year old girlfriend who always suffered from horrible period pains, eventually died because of them. Some ignorant individuals insinuated that maybe she had died of abortion, it could not be menstrual pain.
March is Endometriosis Awareness month and this years’ theme is, “Could it be endometriosis?” No one knows what causes endometriosis and it has no cure. Up to ten percent of women between the ages of fifteen to forty four suffer from this horrible condition.
A lot of women think they have horrible periods not knowing they might be suffering from endometriosis. Some people joke around saying some women are always sick, which is the case for people living with the condition. It also comes with fatigue, anxiety, depression and infertility.
Former Miss Tanzania and supermodel, Millen Happiness Magese, Tinopona Katsande, Halsey, Susan Sarandon, and Gabrielle Union are some women living with endometriosis. Some were fortunate enough to have kids after being told they will not be able to conceive and some were not so fortunate.
