Once in a while everyone’s emotions can run a little bit high, and women are not the exception. Don’t worry, I’m not about to take off on a feminist rant (or maybe I am), but I am about to delve into a topic that can be taboo concerning the female race, so men, if you want to bail--now’s the time to keep reading.
I’m tired of talking in euphemisms and code when discussing…periods. So, there we go, now that the elephant has been acknowleged, I’m going to delve right into my carefully thought-out rant. I’ll admit, periods have been known to slightly alter female emotions, but just because one of us exhibits anger, or excitement, or any kind of heightened emotion for that matter, that does not mean that we’re on our period. In fact, a research team from the University of Toronto ran studies to find out if PMS was really the cause of attitude changes in women and they found that their tests, "...failed to provide clear evidence in support of the existence of a specific premenstrual negative mood syndrome." The studies suggests instead that these emotions women exhibit on their period could be from things like stress; something everyone experiences. It is a universal truth that once in a while everyone's emotions get the best of them. So, It aggravates me to no end when I’m asked by a male, “Are you on your period right now?,” concerning something I just said or did, and they need to realize that women's actions are not defined by period-induced hormones.
A common misconception among males is that when women are on their period, their cognitive and mental abilities are way out of whack, and that everything they say or do at that time should not be taken seriously. In the August GOP debate, Donald Trump judged Megyn Kelly's actions by clearly alluding to her being on her period when he claimed, “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever.” These kinds of assumptions by Trump and other men, whether they know it or not, allows them to assert their superiority over women, because they don’t have periods, so of course they are in check with their emotions at all times. I'm not a politician, but Trump's reaction to Kelly when her questions got tough during the debate seemed to be his own way of trying to show the public that he could regain the upper hand against her. Even when it is acknowledged that men sometimes lose control of their emotions, you can usually count on a bro to ask, “Dude are you PMSing or something?,” and that too is damaging to the female image. In fact, while I of course am hoping for some female validation on this article, I’m going to point a finger and say that part of the misrepresentation of female emotions regarding periods is generated by females ourselves. Every time we blame a fellow female’s action on their periods, we’re not only doing her an injustice, we are our doing ourselves an injustice. Period-blaming is so ingrained in our society that we think nothing of it, as it often rolls off our tongues without a second thought, and that is a problem.
By this point I’m hoping that I still have a few males in the audience because I am about to initiate a challenge for everyone. I challenge you to stop period blaming and to not endorse media that does, or laugh when people use it as a jab in conversation. Yes, I understand that this is hard and that by asking this I may come off as a feminist fun-sucker. But, if everyone does this we are not only one step closer to female equality, we are one step closer to gender equality and respecting each other, and isn’t the desire to be respected a universal truth as well?
