According to a bit of a debate going on in America the taboo that once was talking about your period is over. Flavourwire is even convinced that periods are having a pop culture moment, with playlists, Buzzfeed quizzes, American Apparel campaigns and pop songs by Lily Allen all dedicated to riding the crimson wave.
Yes, there are the occasional idiots who troll any woman who dares to have an opinion on Redditby claiming she’s on her period, but a bit of digging shows just how uncommon attitudes like that really are and, for the most part, it looks like guys got over shaming us for our blobs by secondary school and periods have finally made it into mainstream conversation. Period sex is ‘a thing’, too, in case you were in any doubt.
But if we’re all so willing and open to talk about periods in the wider world, why do we still have those moments when we’re ashamed of the wider world knowing that we personally have our periods. Right at that moment. You know, the flush you get when you drop your handbag on a packed commuter train and send tampons ricocheting under a middle-aged bankers seat?
Or the journey you make from your work desk to the toilet with a tampon tucked up your sleeve to hide it from your colleagues? Or those times when someone – usually of the opposite sex – correctly identifies the fact that you’ve ‘come on’ and claims it’s your hormones, rather than their unreasonable behaviour, which is making you angry. (FYI, it’s not.)
But when you think about the very real stigma some women in the world face for getting their period, it makes all that trivial embarrasment you might feel occasionally feel, well, rather trivial. Many places around the world, including South Africa lack sanitary products, so young girls end up missing out on lessons whenever they come on, which means you’re automatically at a disadvantage compared to your male classmates.
Think that’s bad – in Nepal, a girl who is on her period has a status lower than a dog. She can only eat rice (which she’s fed from a height, in the same way a dog is) and cannot even enter her own home while she’s menstruating. She’s also forbidden from touching anyone in case they ‘sicken’ from her touch. If she enters a temple, then the gods will be so angry, they’ll set snakes upon her in revenge.
So, is our embarassment about having a tampon on display every now and then not just trivial but actually damaging? Because if we still feel moments of shame about our period, what’s to stop others using that shame against us? Just a thought.
Which is why next time we realise we’re in desperate need of a tampon but can’t leave our office, instead of furtively emailing a colleague, we’re going to try to remember just to casually ask the question across the desk as if a tampon isn’t anything more sinful than a Kleenex.
Mind you, we work in an office full of women, so that probably makes a difference...
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophiecullinane
Picture: Gosrad Kiev
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.