In today's society periods are viewed as ugly and gross things. They are not talked about, and girls are basically forced to be embarrassed about them. A majority of this stigma comes from men not wanting to talk about it, but I also know women who feel this same way. Why is this? Why do we have a stigma on menstruation? Why is this something that we are told to hide?
When I was 13 and I got my first period, I didn’t think much of it. It was a little bit heavy but nothing crazy. When I was 15, my life flipped upside down. I was in a ridiculous amount of pain, losing tons of blood, and throwing up because of my period. Because of the stigma about periods, I was told that is was normal and not to talk about it. A few years later, I found out why those things happen to me on my period. I have endometriosis, and it took me years to get an answer because of the stigma surrounding periods. Maybe because I have this illness it has forced me to be more open about periods in general, but I honestly do not get it why we shouldn’t talk about them. Having a period is a normal thing, it is a normal part of development but yet young girls are being told not to talk about it. Why? So here is what I think about some of the stigmas of periods.
“Its gross”
Well, periods are just blood. It just happens to come out of a woman's vagina. You lose blood when you have a cut, so why is blood all of the sudden so gross? I have heard this from girl roommates I have had who used to hate it when there where bloody tampons in the garbage can. Now, this isn’t me saying to not wipe the toilet seat or wrap up your tampons, this is just me saying that if it is properly disposed of to get over it, because even you have a period. Because of this stigma, women live in fear of being considered gross because of her period. A young girl might be afraid to tell anyone she is on her period because if the guy she likes finds out he might call her gross. A woman is afraid that it might leak on her pants during a business meeting. How is it okay? No woman should live in fear once a month because of something that is out of her control. Every woman has a period.
“Don’t talk about it”
Well, when a man talks about how he got a a cut and how badly it bled, people gather around to listen to the story, and think its cool how much blood they lost. But when a girl talks about losing blood because of nature, its gross? I didn’t do anything stupid to make myself bleed. Girls are afraid to talk about it, so girls like me who have actually illnesses do not get treatment. We continue to suffer for no reason. Why are we making young girls suffer for no reason?
Stop the stigma!
