Why are you ashamed of female menstruation?

If we leave aside the information about menstrual shame that we have received since childhood, the essence of menstruation is fertility and vitality. All of us come from the same place as menstruation, as the aborigines in Ivory Coast think: menstruation is a flower that blooms first and then bears fruit, and there is nothing to be ashamed of.

But the environment we live in is full of artificial menstrual shame:

I recall that when I was growing up, discussing menstruation was full of all kinds of negative emotions or unspeakable obscurity:

"Here comes my" that "."

"Oh, no, I missed it."

"My period is so annoying."

Sanitary napkins bought in supermarkets will be packed in black bags.

Girls communicate by spitting out physical or psychological discomfort caused by menstruation.

……

And traditional culture is full of all kinds of taboos about menstruation:

Women are regarded as dirty because they have menstruation. When they come to menstruation, they can't go to the temple, attend the incense ceremony, break the ground, sit on the toolbox of the photography team, attend the funeral, and so on.

2. Cross-cultural menstrual shame

Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79), an ancient Roman writer, wrote: If you meet a woman's menstrual blood, it will make the newly brewed red wine sour, make the winemaker wither, kill the twigs, dry up the seeds in the garden, make the fruit fall early and make the mirror pale. ...

1878 published in the British Medical Journal has the following records: In Toad in the Cave, it is not appropriate for women to smear pig legs with salt water during menstruation.

Even in today's European and American media, women who come to menstruation are either silent or portrayed as extremely unstable and impulsive. 20 15 photographer Rupi Kaur took a picture of her lying in bed. Her menstruation leaked to her pants and bed, which was deleted because it violated the rules of the app. This is a typical way to strengthen the stigma of menstruation through "silence". In fact, the word "lateral leakage" itself is stigmatized: it implies that what is leaked is something dirty that should not be seen, that is, a woman's blood is dirty, which is actually a part of a woman's body-shame.

In the United States, condoms, Viagra and medicines are tax-free, but feminine hygiene products are taxed as ordinary commodities.

3. The psychology behind menstrual shame?

What is the psychology and purpose behind these cultures that make menstruation shameful, dirty and unsuitable for public discussion?

Here, we have to talk about the role of "humiliation" from a feminist perspective: humiliation will make the parties deeply feel that they are not good enough, so they tend to avoid socializing to cover up their "bad" parts, so as to avoid experiencing humiliation. However, this action will make TA isolated, helpless, trapped and further marginalized, so the system will realize the right to construct through shame and let TA get stuck in the closed loop of marginalization.

The key to breaking through this closed loop is to link with people in similar situations so that their marginalized voices can be heard, but this is an action that the humiliated object will instinctively avoid, so if it is unconscious, it will really get stuck in this closed loop.

Therefore, in view of the sense of shame in menstrual period, we should first realize from the cognitive level that menstrual period is a natural function of women's body, and the sense of shame in menstrual period is completely constructed by patriarchal culture, and there is no scientific or natural basis. The root of menstrual shame comes from the concept that men are superior to women, including that men's bodies are superior to women's.