ideas are sold to us in the media from a young age such that sometimes we don’t even recognize that we are thinking this way.” “When I am transitioning from here and going into the workforce thinking about these collective norms that are really male-centric, I realize that the bias and sexism is not explic- it,” said Michele Gleit, President of Body Peace, a student organization on campus dedicated to promoting positive body image, mental health, awareness of eating disorders, and self-acceptance. “It’s always there implicitly. That women are different.” Now, nobody is denying that we have come a long way. There was a time when menstruation was consid- ered a reason women shouldn’t be astronauts. Now, a woman can go as far as taking an estrogen contraceptive pill to not menstruate at all in space, if they so choose. There was a time when Midol advertisements read, “Be the you he likes. Good to be around, any day of the month.” Now, Always com- mercials embrace female empower- ment through their #LikeAGirl cam- paign. But when we are bombarded with supposedly “feminine” images of daisies or bright pink colors with each commercial, we are subtly insinuating the fragility, delicacy, and secrecy that comes with menstruation. With the emergence of THINX, the first period- proof underwear, we are finding more and more ways to hide our blood, emphasizing the idea that that aspect of our bodies should be repressed. “Making a woman feel ashamed about her body is also a form of insti- tutional violence,” said Tan. “Refusing to acknowledge that women have periods is a form of educational vio- lence. Women being afraid to talk about their bodies or bodily functions, or being dismissed by doctors due to lack of medical research about these natural things, is violence.” A Closer Look Into the Stigma & Movement Against It
needs a fresh supply of nutrients to nurture a fetus. Without our periods, we would never be able to produce healthy children. Even on social media, anxiety over the period has found its footing. Instagram took down a photograph of Indian American artist and poet Rupi Kaur in which her menstrual blood was visible, because, according to Instagram, the image went against community guidelines and had been flagged as inappropriate content by several viewers. “I come across [the misconception that] the majority of women are debil- itated by or hate their periods,” said Professor Ingrid Johnston-Robledo of Castleton State University, and mem- ber of the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research, in an email interview. “All the emphasis on continuous hormonal contraceptive use (like birth control pills, which allow women to delay their period) perpetuates the myth that women are debilitated and hate their periods. …I am not against hor- monal birth control! Just against the way it is marketed, by treating men- struation is a diseased state. Soon, that new product which allows women to have blood-free period sex is coming out. Why not just have period sex?” According to Professor Johnston- Robledo’s co-authored research paper, “The Menstrual Mark: Menstruation as Social Stigma,” stigmas can be cate- gorized into three distinct types: abominations of the body (deformi- ties), blemishes of individual charac- ter, and “tribal” identities (social markers associated with marginalized groups). The period, according to the paper, fits into all three of these classi- fications. Menstrual blood is “consid- ered an abomination.” “In a heteronormative, patriarchal society, men’s bodies are seen as the standard. Therefore, when they are compared to bodies that menstruate, periods are seen as the ‘other,’’” says Nidhi Patel, a facilitator of the FemSex Decal on campus. “We are taught that periods are gross and dirty because it is a way to keep damaging ideas around sex and bodies in place. These
forbid someone touched a healthy, bleeding woman. But, then again, my cousin didn’t protest either — isolation was normal during a woman’s period. She went as far as to say it was ‘necessary.’ Menstruation Around The World, and Close to Home This cultural, societal and self- infliction of shame of a natural bodily function has somehow persisted across cultures and countries. According to Femme International, in Kenya, women in the semi-nomadic Maasai region are not allowed to enter goat pens or milk cows while they are on their period for fear they will cont- aminate the animal. In certain areas of Nepal, a women is not allowed to interact with anyone during her peri- od; in fact, she is banished to a special clay hut in the wilderness until her period is over. In Islamic tradition, menstruating women are not allowed to pray, touch the Qur’an, or observe fasting tradition. Menstruation is the number one reason why girls miss school worldwide. “All the emphasis on continuous hormonal contraceptive use (like birth control pills, which allow women to delay their period) perpetuates the myth that women are debilitated and hate their periods. …I am not against hormonal birth control! Just against the way it is marketed, by treating menstruation is a diseased state. Soon, that new product which allows women to have blood-free period sex is coming out. Why not just have peri- od sex?” -Ingrid Johnston-Robledo And why only look abroad? Even in the US, menstruation is seen as a disturbing abnormality. We are living in a time where successful political fig- ures like Donald Trump can say, “There was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever,” when a female news host had the gall to challenge his political and social statements. Menstruation, by definition, is the periodic shedding of a woman’s uter- ine lining. In essence, the uterine
15 www.indiaparentmagazine.org
October 2018
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