For women, menstruation is an inevitable part of life. It is something that is experienced on a monthly basis, and is a sign that reproductive system is functioning normally. Despite being a sigh of health, menstruation has been given very negative connotations. Menstruation is surrounded by shame that causes a reluctance to discuss the issue, leading to an innumerable amount of consequences. In this research paper, five main points will be discussed to prove and demonstrate the shame that women face because of their menstrual cycles.
First, women are treated very differently while menstruating, both in a historical and modern context. Second, women, particularly in third world countries, miss out on an education because their periods restrict what they can do for so much time. Third, menstruation can be a very painful process but women are often not taken seriously when they attempt to discuss it. Fourth, the shame of periods impact the way women view themselves. Lastly, the recent controversy surrounding what has been dubbed the “tampon tax” will be looked at. Menstruation is considered a shameful action, despite the fact that women are unable to control it.
Women are treated and talked about differently when they are menstruating. The stigma surrounding menorah causes a reluctance when talking about the subject. But when it is talked about, it is typically not in a positive manner. Leslie-Jean Thornton did a study about the way periods were talked about on social media, focusing primarily on Twitter. She shares her findings in the journal Sex Roles. Thornton started by limiting the search phrases she would look up on twitter-“time of the month” and “time of month” proved to the most fruitful of all euphemisms for menstruation.
From this, two thousand, two hundred and eleven tweets were located and selected for the study (Thornton, 2011). The tweets were then separated into two categories, which were the gender of the original poster, and the day of the week the tweets were posted. The tweets were then analyzed and sorted into four different categories based on emotion. These included anger and frustration, physical and emotional change, deceit, decorum and disdain, and lastly validation and bonding (Thornton, 2011).
When Thornton analyzed the tweets categorized under anger and frustration composed by men, she said most were “complaints about being deprived of sex, being unfairly attacked by an overly emotional female, being embarrassed or potentially embarrassed by public association with a menstruating woman, and being made unwillingly aware that a woman was menstruating” (Thornton, 2011). She goes on to put this in simpler terms- men were victimizing themselves. They were shaming the women around them for being on their period, because they believed it had more of a negative impact on them. These tweets are one example of the shame around periods.
Deceit, decorum, and disdain was much the same as anger and frustration; they were very negative and shameful. The next category looked at was physical and emotional change. These tweets were predominantly composed by women who were upset about the changes menstruation brought to their bodies and minds. The last category that was looked at was validation and bonding. This was women supporting each other and conveying understanding (Thornton, 2011). Looking at the results Thornton got, particularly from the angry and frustrated tweets, it becomes clear that there is still a major stigma surrounding menstruation.
Though the case study above is a more modern examination of ideas about menstruation, one must look at the historical context. The negative perceptions of menses sources from a long history of stigmatization around it. Oftentimes in the past, women were virtually punished for menstruating. One of the popular methods of punishment was banishing women who were on their periods from society (Thornton, 2011). A specific example from Jewish law is that “menstruating women may not walk between two men lest that act cause either strife between the males or death to one of them” (Thornton, 2011).
This is just one of many cultures that has laws and rules surrounding the female menstrual cycle. Even looking into popular religious texts such as the Bible and the Quran, there are instructions not to be around women who are menstruating. Both texts agree that menstruating women are unclean and should be set apart from society while they are bleeding (Wells, 2007). These texts, of course, were written long before the invention of feminine hygiene products. Tampons and pads are very effective in keeping menstrual blood contained and ensuring women are not unclean.
The beliefs about how women are to be treated are outdated, but this does not change the fact that menstruation is now thought of very negatively because of how the Bible and Quran perceive it. While most cases of women being banished from their homes or the public while menstruating is in the past, there are some instances is modern society. These cases typically occur in third world countries, where feminine hygiene products are much harder to access. In 2008 in Nepal, two women died in a five month span because of the cultural practice of being cast of society during their menstrual period.
In Nepal, there is even a specific phrase for this practice- “chhaupadi” (Dahal, 2008). Women are made to live in a shed through their menstruation, so as not to make their household unclean. This has been commonplace for a very long time in Nepal, and is still widely practiced regardless of the government making it illegal (Dahal, 2008). Chhaupadi is so heavily ingrained into their culture that it continues. The banishment of women from their homes and the public while they are menstruating is one deeply rooted in shame.
For a long time, periods were viewed as unclean and impure. Having contact with a menstruating women would have been taboo, and still is in places like Nepal. This way of thinking is not only harmful to women who are being subjected to banishment, but also anyone who menstruates. The idea that menstruation impacts how a woman should be treated has become a major factor in society’s way of thinking. Women are told to feel shame and disgust while they are bleeding, and men feel a lot of anger and disdain about it. This can all be traced back to historical opinions.
There is no reason to stigmatize periods anymore, yet it still occurs because people refuse to alter ways of thinking. The historical casting out of women in society during menstruation has led to an unchanging view that periods are shameful. This shame surrounding the topic has led to deaths and other grievous offences towards women in need, as well as more minor offences like the devaluing of women while they are menstruating. While some women are forcibly displaced from their everyday lives, many young girls in developing countries have to remove themselves.
Young girls experiencing menstruation in developing countries often have to miss school because there is not enough access to feminine hygiene products (Mason et al. , 2013). The products were, of course, available, but were often too expensive for anyone to buy. So the girls would have find solutions. In an article about menstruation in Kenya, it is stated that “The most commonly mentioned alternatives were old clothes, blanket or pieces of (bedding) mattress. Some girls used several pairs of panties, socks, towel, cotton wool or tissue.
Very occasionally mention was made of using grass, leaves, polythene, paper or material from sacks” (Mason et al. , 2013). It is much the same in countries like India, Nigeria, Tanzania and Pakistan (McMahon et al. , 2011). Even when the girls were able to use these products, they were not overly effective. Oftentimes, they would have to leave halfway through the day because their menstrual blood would leak through. Even if the makeshift hygiene products effectively stall the bleeding, they can often lead to infection because they are not at all sanitary.
Chaffing inside of the vagina due to the materials used were also commonly complained about. (Mason et al. , 2013). There are two aspects as to why shame has a major impact on girls’ education. A lot of what is going on in Kenya has occurred because of lack of discussion, not only in the country, but internationally. Where there is no discussion, there is no change. Girls have been shamed for menstruating for a very long time, and this has a link to girls losing their education. The second aspect of shame is that girls are leaving early because they do not want it to be revealed that they are on their menstruation via leaking.
They are afraid of the boys and other girls treating them differently if they know they are bleeding. There is so much shame around menstruation that girls, particularly in developing countries, are missing school in order to avoid being treated poorly. Menstruation can be a very painful experience for women, which is understandable when the actual process the body undergoes is examined. Menstrual periods are the shedding of the lining of the uterine walls. To help the lining exit the body through the vagina, the muscles within the uterus contract.
This causes cramps in the lower abdomen and back, which can range from mild to severe. There are conditions that can worsen cramping in women, making the pain almost unbearable (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2016). On top of these period cramps, there are also less severe side effects of periods that can change how a woman functions in her everyday life. Some of these effects include a loss of sleep, an increased risk of depressive behaviour, yeast infections, bloating, and headaches (Oerman, 2014). The symptoms caused by periods can be very painful- but often women are told it is not a big deal.
Many women have spoken up about severe pain during their periods, but doctors, both female and male, do not do much to help (Goldhill, 2016). In an interview with Quartz, John Guillebaud said “I think it happens with both genders of doctor. On the one hand, men don’t suffer the pain and underestimate how much it is or can be in some women. But I think some women doctors can be a bit unsympathetic because either they don’t get it themselves or if they do get it they think, ‘well I can live with it, so can my patient. ” (Guillebaud, 2016).
Women are not taken seriously when they discuss their period pain, and a lot of it has to do with the stigma surrounding menstruation. People are unwilling to discuss anything involving the female body because there is so much shame and fear surrounding it. In her journal article “Leaks, Lumps, and Lines”, Joan Chrisler points out small things that indicate shame surrounding periods. One example she gives are feminine hygiene product advertisements. When trying to show the effectiveness of a tampon or a pad, it is often blue liquid used.
Menstruation liquid is red or brown, but the commercials never use that colour for their tests. This is so as not to disgust people with the reality of menstruation (Chrisler, 2011). Moreover, these ads use language that make women out to be dirty if they are not using these feminine hygiene products. It is as thought women are unclean if anyone is able to discover if they are on their periods (Chrisler, 2011). Because of this shame surrounding menses, it is not a topic that is often discussed by anyone. This lack of discussion leads to a huge misunderstanding surrounding periods, particularly with the pain involved.
Women are often underestimated when they speak out about their cramps, and this is because of the stigma around periods. As made clear in this paper, women are viewed differently by society when they are menstruating because of the negative connotations put around periods. The stigma, however, does not only impact how society views women. It also impacts how women view themselves. In a study conducted by Margaret Stubbs, girls in the United States stated that they felt more pressure to look good during their periods so as to distract from the fact that they were menstruating (Stubbs, 2008).
Stubbs also found that girls felt better about themselves and about menstruation before they got their periods; they felt much more self-conscious once they began to be affected by menses. In recent years, girls have become more willing to speak up about menstruation. Many have stopped caring about who they make uncomfortable and have begun fighting for justice. The current debate is pertaining to the taxation of feminine hygiene products, or the “tampon tax”. Girls believe that they should not have to pay taxes for products that are necessary if a woman wants to function properly during her monthly bleeding.
In October 2015, Parliament in the United Kingdom voted against getting rid of the tampon tax. They dubbed sanitary products as luxury items (Buchanan, 2015). There was a large outcry when this happened, women protesting outside of England’s parliament buildings. Recently, the European Union eliminated the tampon tax, which led to the UK deciding to change their laws about it (Peyser, 2016). The United States has not been as progressive as Europe- most states still have tax on feminine hygiene products (Peyser, 2016).
Canada, however, got rid of the tampon tax as of July 1st, 2015 (Watters, 2015). Tampon tax is a major part of the shame surrounding menstruation. The products are taxed as luxuries, as though women choose to have their periods. People, particularly men, do not have a working understanding of menstruation and the products that go along with it. There is no understanding by men as to why these items are not a luxury because women have been shamed into silence. This is yet another negative result of the lack of discussion surround periods.
Periods are one of the most misunderstood parts of women. There is minimal research about many different aspects of the problem that women face monthly. Menstruation is viewed as unclean and dirty, which leads to the shaming of women. The shame that surrounds it causes a fear of talking about it, which in turn leads to terrible consequences. Tampon tax is one example of an issue that has arisen from the confusion and lack of knowledge about periods. The shame that surrounds periods causes women to have more negative feelings about themselves and their menstrual cycle.
Menstruation is incredibly painful, but because women are shamed for the menses, the pain is not taken seriously or discussed. Women in third world countries often miss out on an education because there are no resources to help them. The issue is simply ignored and girls are forced to find a way to deal with their periods on their own. Lastly, women are viewed and treated extremely differently when they are menstruating, in the past and currently. All of these things source from the idea that periods make a woman disgusting and lesser than.
The solution to the problem is the de-stigmatization of menses. Instead of viewing periods as disgusting and unclean, they need to be viewed as a sign of health and vitality. Periods are an indication that the reproductive system is functioning properly. Shame is the main problem when it comes to menstruation. It is the source of most the issues that have sprung up. If shame is eradicated in regards to menstruation, than there will really be no problems. Where there is open discussion, there is change. Change in social beliefs, cultural practices, and even laws.
