My last post was about disgusting things us humans do. Natural “disgusting” things we do, that people shouldn’t be shunned or made fun of for doing. And today, I want to talk about something more specific along the lines of my last post: that time of the month…
The time of the month where most girls have to suffer through excruciating waves of pain and bloating stomachs and erupting Himalayas on tired faces.
Periods.
Seriously though, let’s ditch ‘I’m on my reds’ or ‘my oven is in cleaning mode’ as a way to cover up the fact you’re on your period to protect the poor fragile ears of those who can’t deal with something natural.
I had some friends over the other day just to chill after a term of a school. We were all in my room doing our thing and my friend turns to me and goes “Shay, can I have a pad?” So I go get her one at her request and as I walk back into the room, I yell “catch!” She has her hand out ready and because I’m physically incapable of doing any sports related activity, I threw like I was blindfolded. I mean honestly, I could’ve been next to her and still missed. Anyways, the pad landed on one of my friends’ leg. All our heads dart to the pad, resting there, minding its own business, on his stretched out leg and he begins to scream. He screamed. Because of pad. A clean pad. Still. In. It’s. Packaging.
It’s just sitting there.
If only he saw the leak on my bedsheets just ten minutes before.
My point is, there’s such a stigma around periods. I can admit that maybe the leak part was a little too much information. (I don’t even know how it happened, I was just sitting normally.) But come on, how can the even slightest acknowledgment of the presence of a pad or tampon, in someone’s peripheral vision, send sirens and alarms screeching “code red!” into people’s heads. Get a grip.
I’ve even been in conversations with girls where I’ll say “I’m on my period.” And a girl will go “oh…you don’t need to talk about that…”
I’ve even seen posts where people are making fun of and shaming those who have had unfortunate leaks.
I’m lucky to have close friends, who are completely fine and comfortable with talking about periods, even in public. And I’m not shaming anyone, who does find it uncomfortable to talk about, but I’m showing you that it’s fine.
I’m in sixth form now and as students, we are a lot more mature in comparison to when we were in year eleven but even now, I’ve heard boys go into great depth and detail about where their mark on their rulers are and how long they can go for (I hope you know what I’m talking about) yet us, women, can’t even mention a natural cycle that occurs.
Periods are not as gross as you think.
Stand up to people who make stupid ignorant comments and talk about it like any other health matter because guess what? It is.
And to those, who do have periods, support one another and share those experiences. In fact, even people who don’t have periods, support those that do. Steps like these and little changes like these can make a difference to the perception of periods.
-Shay
Planet Shay ☽ 