Recently I had a male peer of mine go off on a “funny” rant about how he doesn’t know anything about tampons. A product that some women need during their menstrual cycle, a product that as a woman I don’t like using because of many different reasons. Having a male classmate sitting there laughing at my expense and saying insensitive things such as: maybe as a man I could stick it up my butt, but like I don’t know what else I need it for, (mind you, I’m paraphrasing), got me thinking. He is not the only male in the room or person in the room who must find the woman’s biology disturbing. So, I have thought of other biological qualities of a women that people may find disturbing.
1. Hair
I know, hair! Women have hair EVERYWHERE on their body. They have hair on their face, they have hair on their toes and fingers, and above their lips. Here’s another kicker though, some women chose not to shave/wax/ bleach it. I’m not sure either why a woman would exercise her right not to make sure her body is smooth and shiny for the public’s eye. Just gross.
2. Extra body
Every woman needs to look like a VS model or someone from reality TV, I KNOW. Some women use that stupid excuse that they can’t grow another foot or that their bodies need a certain number of calories, that they can’t afford to do certain fad diets because it could cause more harm than good to them. These women of course claim to be “happy” being at a “comfortable” weight for them and that they have a healthy body and yet still support those amazing 6ft women who just have a natural gift for being tall.
3. Blood
Okay my gals and guys, this is for real the nastiest thing a women’s body does. For a least 28 days (yup almost a whole month) the body starts a cycle that clears the bottom part of the women’s body. I won’t get into specifics because GROSS right? Like, why should I educate you on the body that can form a human being, or on a body that keeps maintenance within itself. The same body that belongs to a woman in your life such as, your sister, mother, friend, significant other, coworker, student, daughter, the list goes on. Why do you need to know that this person in your life with this biological cycle is going through certain things? Why bother understanding their biology to know what you can do to be there for them emotionally. You don’t need to be bothered why they need an Advil, or why they’re crying, because there are multiples reasons for a woman to be crying during her cycle. BUT again, I won’t bother you with all the nitty gritty stuff.
It appears as if not only the women’s body disturbed my classmate, but just being a woman was disturbing to him. I guess in a sense, we are disturbing. We fought for the right to be able to be seen as an equal in the 20th century, and we are still trying to fight that because noble and educated men are telling us what we can and cannot do to our bodies because…. I’m still a bit blurry on that one…. but I am a woman so sorry. A woman also found an effective cures for cancer, but she died from radioactivity, why would she allow that of herself? Psh women. Another was able to go to the moon, but she was so unfit for the job she died while on the way.
I am in my early 20’s and I am hearing my own classmates talk about all the wrong things about women. Talk about how gross we are, how stupid we are, how confusing we are. It’s as if this war of equality has no end, as if I am always going to have to correct someone about who I am, about why I am. But I am ready for that. Because those women who died and lost everything for me to have an education and to have a career and to have control over my money knew that I, we, us women could.