Period: Why Do We Get Red in the Face

GIF by @headexplodie

Menstruation. Honestly, that word gives you the cringes right? It sounds like a dirty word. Like for some people, they get disgusted at the word 'moist'. And by dirty, I mean revolting, disgusting, soiled, indecent, obscene, nasty and not in any sexual Fifty Shades of Grey-way. Menstruation could be the equivalent to the idea of garbage - something to be disposed of and unwanted. Unfortunately, that idea is associated with our daughters, sisters, mothers, our nieces, our grand-daughters and practically any female human being in our lives including yourself if you are a woman. Why is that?

In this post, we will discover - but only scratch the surface - what it means to be a woman on her period. A topic heavily discussed and debated on by scientists, medical practitioners, scholars, anthropologists and feminists. Of course, the discussion comes without the pain, agony, mood swings, oily and blemish filled faces. This post will mention some cultural taboos, customs and practices which are still implemented in some cultures until today.

The “Best friend”

Personally, my first period experience was a bit scary. I felt confused mostly. The thought of “Why am I bleeding when I did not even hurt myself?” went racing through my mind. I don’t exactly remember if we talked about it in primary school but we definitely talked about it in secondary school. Some of my schoolmates already had it or did have it later in the year or the following year so we could talk about it then. I was in an all-girl’s school, so having your period was not really a big deal or something to be really embarrassed about. We could borrow sanitary pads to our friends and help cover up period blotches on our uniforms.

Women would agree that the process of menstruation is completely normal. When a woman does not get her period, that's when we universally categorize her situation as abnormal. Yet, it's such a highly top-secret phenomenon every month in most cultures. We see girls running into the bathroom every few hours, running the bidet water to mask the sound of opening the plastic cover of a pad or tampon, cleaning a leak spot or quietly taking pills to get rid of the aches and bloating. There are many other embarrassing period moments I'm sure many girls want to tell that I don't know about. It's all pretty hush hush. We call the process of menstruation by nicknames to avoid saying the word itself. I remember people calling it the girls' "best friend" in school, and even my mother still uses that term. For some it is called "that time of the month".

In some cultures, it is a serious stigma. It is a figure of embarrassment and that girls should keep the blood to themselves. In many Asian cultures women are not allowed to enter places of worship while they're having their period and are not allowed to have physical contact with their spouse or male relatives during this time. In Nepal, women are made to sleep in separate huts while they're having their period claiming that the woman will contaminate the rest of the family members and enrage the gods. This practice is known as chhaupadi. Several women were killed every year in Nepal because of this practice that was finally considered illegal in 2017. Of course, the practice still goes on.

GIF by @headexplodie. Go to OvaryActions.com to look at more cute animated GIFs on period euphemisms. 

Taboo

Why is there a taboo? There are many versions of the source of a negative menstrual taboo. Shirley Lindenbaum, an anthropologist at New York City University, theorized in her paper 'Sorcerers, Ghosts, and Polluting Women: An Analysis of Religious Belief and Population Control' that the taboo was a form of natural population control by limiting sexual contact in fear of "pollution". Another scholar, Allan D. Coult contended that the taboo began when early humans found menstrual blood to be "having a depressive effect on organic materials". In Sigmund Freud's opinion, the taboo simply comes from our fear of blood. Clellan Ford suggested that the menstrual taboo was developed because early societies knew of its “toxic, disease-causing effects”. Of course, we now know that menstrual blood is not toxic. But this view persisted in the scientific community for over 60 years.

Here’s a story told by Dr. Kate Clancy, an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois, in her 2011 Scientific American article 'Menstruation is just blood and tissue you ended up not using':

In the 1920s, there was a famous doctor named Dr. Bela Schick. He often received flowers from his patients and on one fine day he received one of his usual bouquets from a patient. As the story goes, he asked one of his nurses to help him put the bouquet in some water. The nurse politely declined. Dr. Schick requested the nurse to help him again and once again she did not want to touch the flowers. Upon questioning, the nurse explained that she had her period. He asked her why that mattered, she told him that when she menstruated, she made flowers wilt at her touch. Dr. Schick decided to run a test where he would gently place flowers in water on one hand and have a menstruating woman roughly handle another bunch in order to get her ‘dirty’ hands on them. The result? The flowers that were not handled thrived, while the flowers that were handled by a menstruating woman wilted. He later coined the term ‘menotoxin’ a substance secreted in the sweat of menstruating women. The theory of ‘menotoxin’ was then further expanded by other researchers.

In Clellan Ford’s book A comparative study of human reproduction, he also described two Harvard researchers, Olive and George Smith who were pioneers in the fields of gynecology and estrogen treatment. In their 1952 study, Olive and George Smith injected animals with bacteria-latent menstrual blood which resulted in the death of the animals. According to The Curse: A cultural history of menstruation written by Delaney, Lupton and Toth, the Smiths continued to believe that the deaths were caused by ‘menotoxin’ for several years, even after other research found that the animals died from bacterial contamination of the blood, rather than the blood itself.

Dr. Clancy on the Scientific American explained, in reference to Dr. Schicks theory, that science can be biased by the cultural conditioning of those who perform tests and experiments, and those who document them. She further explained that the people who studied the ‘menotoxin’ were persistent in their own views and beliefs causing them to ignore negative results and overstate the power of their scientific findings.

Just to be clear, I’m not saying that menstrual blood is totally “clean” either. I’m just saying that women do not produce toxic blood from our uterus. All types of fluid produced from our bodies have a risk of bacterial contamination. These bacteria live in our bodies, just outside of it or in the environment. The vagina has a bacteria flora that keeps the vagina healthy which inhibit the growth of yeast. But if there is an overgrowth of the same bacteria, it may cause infection.

Photo by Dainis Graveris from Pexels

Something to Celebrate

On the flip side, women on their period in some cultures are celebrated. According to V. Radhika in her article ‘My big fat Sri Lankan coming-of-age ceremony’, there’s a special coming-of-age ceremony in Sri Lankan Tamil communities called the poopunitha neerathu vizha and party to mark the occasion. When a girl gets her first period, the parents will inform close relatives. She will be symbolically bathed with saffron (spice) and milk. A few days later, a priest will be invited to the house to perform a small blessing ceremony. The girl will wear a sari for the first time, commemorating her transition to womanhood. A big party will be held among family and friends. On the other hand, many Japanese families celebrate a daughter’s first period by eating a traditional dish called sekihan which is made of sticky rice and adzuki beans as told by Lebra in her book ‘Japanese Women: Constraint and Fulfillment’. The reddish color of the dish symbolizes happiness and celebration. The Navajo, a Native American tribe in North America celebrates a daughter’s first period with a coming-of-age ceremony called The Sunrise Ceremony or locally known as Kinaalda. Carey Jr. described in his article that the ceremony involves different rituals performed generally four days before the actual ceremony where girls from the tribe receive and offer gifts. The girls will wear their finest clothes and celebrate with a feast.

Alma Gottlieb, a professor of anthropology, gender and women studies at the University of Illinois shared that in some parts of Ghana, West Africa, girls who have their first period sit under decorative umbrellas, the families of these girls would give them gifts and treat them like queens. She also mentioned that among the Ulithi women of the South Pacific, breastfeeding women join menstruating women in huts, along with their children and she described the occasion as sort of a “party atmosphere”. Why is this? Gottlieb theorized that in societies where frequent pregnancies and long breastfeeding periods occur, women might only get their period only every two years or so which may be associated with fewer negative perceptions of menstruation.

In the United States, stand-up comedian Bert Kreischer shared an entertaining story during his appearance on “Conan” in August 2018 which was his daughter’s “period party.” He told the show that when his younger daughter first started her period, she asked him to pick up some supplies for a period party. She told him that “all the girls are throwing them” and instructed him to buy red velvet cake decorated with the name of her period in icing.  Kreischer was in the end excited by all the planning. He told the audience, “I had the best time of my life! I got beet juice, pomegranate juice, pasta with marinara sauce, ketchup and fries, red velvet cake, red wine!”. “It was awesome. I hope to God you hear it in a positive manner, and you fathers get to throw your daughter a period party.”

I think we all learned why women menstruate in our school text books or during talks. But honestly, I think we all forget. Men and women forget. So they tell icky stories to their children in the future, injecting the thought that period blood is disgusting and something to be ashamed of. Of course, we shouldn’t encourage women to walk around bleeding like it is some movement to take control of their bodies but women shouldn’t be punished for something natural about their bodies. So, how do we educate our daughters and sons? First, we must educate ourselves. We can’t pretend that deep-rooted cultures can be diminished in a blink of an eye but we must hold on to the hope that our thoughts and ideas can be changed and be built on.

Cheers to better periods ahead for our girls!

 

MY.

 

References 

Bologna, C. (January 24, 2019). 'Period Parties' Are Smashing The Stigma Of Menstruation. Huffington Post. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/period-parties-are-a-thing_l_5bfc2cace4b03b230fa57360

Brink, S. (August 11, 2015). Some Cultures Treat Menstruation with Respect. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/08/11/431605131/attention-trump-some-cultures-treat-menstruation-with-respect

Carey Jr, H. (December 16, 2010). Kinaalda – Celebrating maturity of girls among the Navajo. Retrieved from http://navajopeople.org/blog/kinaalda-celebrating-maturity-of-girls-among-the-navajo/

CDC. Bacterial Vaginosis – CDC Fact Sheet. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/std/bv/stdfact-bacterial-vaginosis.htm

Clancy, K. (September 9, 2011). Menstruation is just blood and tissue you ended up not using. Scientific American. Retrieved from https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/context-and-variation/menstruation-blood-and-tissue/

Coult, Allan D. 'Unconscious inference and cultural origins.' American Anthropologist 65 (1963a): 32–35.

Druet, A. (Sept 8, 2018). How did menstruation become taboo? Retrieved from https://helloclue.com/articles/culture/how-did-menstruation-become-taboo

Lebra, Takie Sugiyama (1985). Japanese Women: Constraint and Fulfillment. University of Hawaii Press. p. 72.

Lindenbaum S. 'Sorcerers, ghosts, and polluting women: An analysis of religious belief and population control.' Ethnology 11, no. 3, (July 1, 1972 ): 241–253.

Radhika, V. (August 25, 2007). My big fat Sri Lankan coming-of-age ceremony. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/my-big-fat-sri-lankan-coming-of-age-ceremony/article692437/

Tantry, T. (March 18, 2020). Menstruation Taboos Around the World: How Did Periods Become Taboo? Flo Health. Retrieved from https://flo.health/menstrual-cycle/health/period/menstruation-taboos

Tempest, N., Maclean, A., & Hapangama, D. K. (2018). Endometrial Stem Cell Markers: Current Concepts and Unresolved Questions. International journal of molecular sciences, 19(10), 3240. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms19103240

Vaughn, E. (17 December 2019). Menstrual Huts Are Illegal In Nepal. So Why Are Women Still Dying In Them? NPR.org. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/12/17/787808530/menstrual-huts-are-illegal-in-nepal-so-why-are-women-still-dying-in-them

Willis, O. (Sept 30, 2017). Breaking the menstrual taboo: Why period stigma still holds women back. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2017-09-30/menstrual-cycle-taboo-holds-women-back/8996526