Do raise your hand if you have caught yourself on several occasions searching for a female cashier at the check out while purchasing sanitary products. Raise both, if during a blood bath a public restroom has failed to provide a safety net in the face of magic machine. Everybody knows healthy women bleed, yet the society seem to hush around the subject, still. If men happen to endure the alike inconvenience surely all the facilities would be filled with pain killers on demand and tampax.
Media goes back and forth, raising the subject and quickly moving onto the next big thing. As of recently, the infamous Russian model, philanthropist and a business mogul Natalia Vodianova has dared to post a selfie with a pad, firing a rage in the comment section consequently failing to make a movement. Models which Vodianova persuaded to to do the same, politely waited out. A permanent women rights activist Emily Ratajkowski was too occupied sharing sponsored posts with DKNY, while Doutzen Kroes was busy taking polaroids in the bathroom. Who can blame them? A tampon in the social feed is equivalent to a red smudge on a white dress during a red carpet, and an additional shady backlash. Although both do deserve some credit for openly talking about periods with Vodianova in her exclusive interviews for the Flo Period Tracker App.
Period shaming can be simply blamed on sexual education received at school (or lack thereof) and the misconceptions accumulated over time. As far as Ancient Romans were concerned - menstruating women were witches, Medieval Europeans were petrified to consummate with a bleeding woman, while 19th century Brits thought women would ruin food while on their period. You do not have to look into history that far - openly dealing with menstruation only a couple of decades ago was unheard of.
One has to understand the concept behind such discretion: periods are not sexy. As much as they have been projected by many yogi-slash-soul searching gurus as a ray of sun shine beaming through the Godess-like womb - it is no glitter. Bloody business at times involving clots, smells and surprising colours. Try to pain-crouch without staining the bathroom carpet simultaneously wiggling a circus trick with a sanitary product of your choice. A Goddess, indeed.
Here is the thing - even a mouthy feminist does not want to get up with a smear all over her white fancy pants. Yet, if you do, laughing it off can help. Talking about it can too. Not in a dreadful ‘Oh God I was on my period’, but ‘Hey, anything men can do I can do bleeding’ sort of way.
Raise your hand, if you do.