Is there anything more irritating than when you, as a woman, express anger or irritation only to be asked 'is it that time of the month?'
It's classic sexism. It maintains that women aren't allowed to express strong emotions. It maintains that weighty opinions aren't something women are capable of having without being influenced by a hormonal imbalance. It maintains that women are over-emotional. That we are less capable of existing in a stable mental headspace than our male counterparts. IT'S BLOODY ANNOYING IS WHAT IT IS.
Sorry, excuse me. I'm just about to get my period.
Anyway, one guy in Australia has taken this mindset to the next level. After an argument with a male colleague, one woman found out that he had taken to tracking her periods to know when to avoid her lest he come across her during a bout of PMS.
Elizabeth Daoud, a writer who works for News.com.au said she was shocked when her friend (the track-ee) told her about it. 'They want to stay away from me when I'm PMSing, because I get a bit moody' she told her.
It turns out that the guy, who the woman says she is 'good friends' with, had been tracking her periods on his work calendar and sending it to other men in the office so they could stay aware of her cycle. The guy (who wished to remain anonymous, good idea buddy) said 'It's a good strategy...in order to avoid unnecessary situations. I'm just trying to stay away from trouble.'
Do you guys want to know the incident that Elizabeth says started the initial tracking? According to her, this guy and the woman were discussing relationships and he told her she was single because she 'talked back' to men. When she began to cry (obvs) he said he 'wished she had warned him earlier that she was on her period as it would've saved him from apologising so much'.
This guy. There's words for this guy but they're probably not printable on a nice family website like The Debrief.
Oh, BTW, his nickname for her period in his calendar is 'C63', after a Mercedes Benz that moves from 0km to 100km in four seconds.
As we've written about before, there's plenty of apps out there for guys to track their girlfriends' periods. Take Frederick for instance (which now mercifully seems to be no longer) which would track a woman's cycle and let it's male user know what percentage chance there was of him getting 'grief'. Then there's Shvrk (which again seems to have gone very quiet of late) which described itself as 'the shark themed period tracker for when the only period he knows is in hockey '.
Cute.
Clearly PMS does affect womens' moods. But just* how* badly is something we don't know. Because, guess what, researchers are struggling to get the heavily male-weighted science industry to pump money into research for it.
As we've mentioned previously, researcher Kathleen Lustyk, keen to investigate PMS, an areas that's had FIVE TIMES LESS research than what causes floppy willies, had her funding application rejected because PMS is 'merely a product of our society or culture that has painted a natural process in a negative light and, give it's monthly predictability, leads to suffering through anticipation.'
Basically, it's all in our silly little heads.
Until there is definitive research into what the symptoms of PMS are, there's no way to create a cure. Which is somewhat frustrating. Especially if we're going to be victimized for supposed over-reactions like Elizabeth's poor friend.
But hey, what would I know, I'm just an over-emotional woman being driven by a hormone imbalance.
Like this? Then you might also be interested in:
'Shvrk' Is An App That Lets Your Partner Know You're On Your Period
Funding Applications For PMS Research Being Rejected Because It's 'All In Our Heads'
Follow Jess on Twitter @Jess_Commons
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.