It’s spooky season! It’s the perfect time to curl up on your dorm room futon, grab some apple cider and watch your favorite fall movies and shows. There’s nothing like a good thriller or comfort Halloween episode to get you into the season. While there are many monsters lurking during this season, one wouldn’t expect a woman on her period to be one of them.
Phil Dunphy is the goofy, loveable Dad played by Ty Burrell in the show “Modern Family.” Some of my favorite things about Phil are his book “Phil’s-osophy,” his love of magic and his propensity for blundering in increasingly funny ways. One of his most memorable blunders is in episode 17 of season three, “Leap Day.” The horrifying monsters in this episode: three women on their period.
The first instance of period portrayal in the episode is when Claire, Phil’s wife, watches a sad video with a three-legged dog and gets very emotional as the lyrics, “In the arms of the angels” are sung in the background. As each of the women in his family enters the scene Phil becomes more apprehensive. Phil even checks the calendar after noticing Claire’s reaction, implying that he is tracking her cycle! Haley, the oldest daughter, enters the room yelling at her phone and threatening to “Kill someone” because her cell service isn’t coming through. Alex, the smart daughter, is confused and forgetful throughout the episode, pouring orange juice into her cereal and later “losing” a sock when, in fact, she had just put it on top of her other one.
Eventually, each of the Dunphy daughters is derailed by the sad dog video and they form a crying lump on the couch. Now, I get teary-eyed when I hear a sad story about a dog, but I find it hard to believe that all three women would be crying because of this commercial, especially considering how their personalities are portrayed in other episodes of the show. While women sometimes do sync up, it rarely has quite the emotional extent that is portrayed in this first scene.
One of the most irritating things about this episode is the depiction of how irrationally emotional women are on their period. The Dunphy women are shown as forgetful, excessively angry, easily confused and unable to function. I know how bad, and even debilitating, a particular cramp can get, but to present this as what goes on for all three women all day long is inaccurate at the least. What makes me especially mad about it is that it reinforces the belief that women are incapable of doing anything when they are menstruating, giving people who want to keep women out of places of power all the ammo necessary to keep things like this.
While the media plays up women’s periods for laughs, that is what they become in real life, just something to joke about and yet another obstacle for women towards success.
Phil’s reaction to this, and the lack of consequences for his actions, reinforces this idea. Phil has many blunders throughout the day, plotting many schemes to avoid the women that all ultimately fail. Claire comments on how irritating this is: “Why does he do that, every month? Yeah, I get a little moody, but unrelenting physical discomfort will do that to a person. Doesn’t he know that tiptoeing around someone like they’re crazy, makes them crazy?” Claire reacts irrationally, dragging Luke away from Phil as he cries out “Daddy?” as if he is the prey of a monster in a horror film. Claire’s frustrations continue as Phil enacts a plan involving fake blood that goes horribly wrong. Luke gets blood everywhere, the girls are horrified and Claire makes the astute point that Phil is teaching the wrong message to his son about women, characterizing them as “some kind of unclean Lepers that should be hidden away under sheets for a week.”
But Claire’s point about what is being taught is ironic because the ultimate “lesson” that is taught through this episode completely misses the mark.
Phil teaches Luke that the “first rule of dealing with the cycle, you never mention the cycle [and you must] tiptoe around it.” With his clearly very extensive knowledge of women he teaches that they “hide the monster [they] become, but if you acknowledge it, that brings the monster forth.” Luke, with his new understanding of women, later explains that he is afraid of them because they are all “monsterating.”
This pun helps highlight the episode’s horror themes, whether through camera angles, the use of fake blood and the frightened looks shot at the camera. At the end of the day, Phil delivers his “I give up” speech. As Phil describes it the three women have “ganged up on [him] like when the wolfman, Dracula and Frankenstein show up in the same movie! Except this wasn’t awesome!”
Again, Phil’s otherwise loveable personality softens him, making the audience side more with his perspective. Feeling that he’s done enough—by unsuccessfully manipulating the women and teaching his son false ideas about menstruation—he explains the emotional turmoil that the day has brought. The last, and perhaps most infuriating, emotion the women display is sympathy, as Phil’s monologue captures what they have been through.
Without context, this is a sweet, group hug to close the episode, but frankly, it enrages me. Why should Phil get a pass for failing at every turn? He continually does the exact wrong thing and learns nothing. This point is punctuated by his explanation of the hug as the women’s “apology” to him saying, “At least I think it was, I could never ask them.” Phil has completely missed Claire’s frustration about him not addressing the issue, but Claire has also lost out on a perfectly good opportunity to teach Phil about how to react better when she is menstruating.
The first time I watched this episode was when I was in middle school, and it was the first time I’d seen a period presented on television. I was confused about what was going on, I’m not even sure the phrase “menstrual cycle” or “period” is ever used. The writers themselves tiptoe around the topic.
Some grace should be extended to the writers as the episode’s dramatic elements are so played up, but to less knowledgeable or younger viewers the point is missed. Thankfully more representative media has come around since, offering more inclusive imagery of periods. For example, there are many TikTok trends that involve educating men about what menstruation is like. Menstruators will teach things like how to use a tampon using a water bottle for reference, quiz significant others on what things like a DivaCup is and even use period cramp simulators. However, media with depictions like the one in “Modern Family” is still produced and consumed, and discussing menstruation is not seen as a normal conversation topic, at least not in the presence of non-menstruators.
It is important to be critical of the loveable Phil Dunphys, and for the media to do a better job of portraying periods. We’re not monsters, we’re just menstruators.