Most readers, I’m sure, saw the headline of this post and decided not to read it because, eww, who could believe that women bleed every month and now one of them is writing about it… shock!
This is something that I’m sure every girl goes through, but it’s become so normalised that we start to believe it ourselves.
This occurred to me more recently when I said I didn’t feel well because I was menstruating to a friend and a male nearby pulled the most disgusted face. Disgusted that women all over the world naturally and reproductively shed their lining every month, who would have known. I felt extremely annoyed at the way this man had me feeling embarrassed for openly speaking about my period, which caused me to think why on earth do people still react like it’s a disease that they might catch. One way society perpetuates this stigma is by the use of code names; by using terms like ‘time of the month’ or ‘code red,’ we minimise the natural bodily function we all go through; we make it appear as if mentioning period or menstruation is disrespectful, which it isn’t!
Similarly, why should women’s sanitary items be kept hidden or secret? When a tampon slips out of our purse, why do we act awkward and embarrassed?
Because we reinforce it, we buy into the use of products that enable us to keep the use of tampons and pads hidden. Like cute little pouches or secretly passing one to our friend. There is nothing wrong with them, we need them, and they are called sanitary products for a reason. They keep us clean and comfortable when our lining sheds, if you feel embarrassed by that then you are actively reinforcing the misogyny pushed onto females.
Menstruating women in many cultures are excluded and marked as dirty; forced not to attend school, social events and holy practice, this is institutional patriarchism and it actively puts females at a disadvantaged position for no logical reasoning. This might be quite shocking to some readers but its true and it still happens today, it is important for us to challenge this behaviour and stop treating periods as a taboo subject.
It happens in schools, health care, and social events, and it happens to both men and women because the institutions we attend throughout our lives promote the unspoken identity of periods, making them feel unclean and debilitating although they are a natural biological function like any other.
It’s important for us to openly talk about periods and how they make us feel, for some women periods come with extreme health issues and the reinforced belief that we shouldn’t talk about them can mask problems that might need medical attention or support such as Endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome and fibroids.
Don’t ever let anyone tell you it is dirty or disgusting to speak about it is a natural bodily function, if they hold those beliefs it’s their problem not yours!