Brief and Sad History of the Period

About the Brief and Sad History of the Period (and a little bit more)

translated by María García

From the remotest times you could imagine, menstruation has had ignorant and frightened enemies that complicated the lives of menstruating women.

In the beginning of our era Pliny the Elder wrote in his Natural History that the sole contact with a woman in that condition "made the wine become vinegar, withered the crops, made the fruits fall off from their trees, steamed up the glass of the mirrors, dulled the point of a weapon, oxidized the iron and the copper, caused the death of bees, made the dogs that tasted that liquid suffer from rabies, caused abortions in the mares" and more.

For centuries false believes about bleeding women were maintained. Menstruation was considered a disposable product, an impure and dangerous liquid that was necessary to eliminate without witnesses. In those moments a woman had supernatural powers and thus kept out without the chance of having contacts of any kind.

Woman was wicked and slave-like during those days. Nowadays, some of those antique believes seem ridiculous, we think we have overcome many myths and superstitions, and we assume we are civilized, comprehensive and so well informed.

But even though the worst part is over we are not done yet. Up-to-date myths about menstruation include: a menstruating woman cannot make mayonnaise because she spoils it, menstruation purifies and detoxifies the organism, a menstruating woman cannot wash her hair nor take a bath while she menstruates, she cannot go to the hairdresser, she cannot eat strawberries or have sex, she cannot ride a horse or practice some sports. Some women still describe their state as an illness, saying, "I got ill some days ago" to point out the beginning of their periods or "I am ill" while the menstruation takes place.

Nowadays, Jewish and Islamic religions maintain prejudices about women having their periods, say almost every woman.

But above all, it continues being a taboo topic. Even at the present time, mothers or some other elder woman is the person in charge to talk to girls before puberty about what it is going to happen, recommend discretion and celebrate in silence the fertility of daughters.

Fathers, brothers, male friends, boyfriends and husbands do not have to find out about the beginning, nor the days, nor the way each woman takes care of herself in those days.

In social events the subject is only accepted when deals with the mythical psychological disorders that supposedly causes: more sensibility, irritation, bad temper.

Finally, considering that menstruation lasts up to eight days, and a month usually has thirty days, then, one out of seven women is menstruating right now, and under those prejudices is completely disabled and is good almost for nothing and, what's more, she has to pay every month to become disabled, and "let's keep it as a secret!" and all this makes me lose my temper (and I am not menstruating, ha ha ha).

But, there's a holy remedy in fighting the taboo, which is not precisely holy, but secular, but it's a remedy at last.

The menstruating girl doesn't have just to wait for those days and try to make them as tolerable as possible, because nowadays she can get along much better with a little help from science and technology.

You can postpone or bring forward the day of your menstruation, menstruation can be suppressed, choose the day you want your period to take place, the flow can be changed in order to become more liquid or thicker, pains and swelling can be suppressed, abundance diminished, etc., etc. Woman has taken possession of her period just as before she was wicked and slave-like during those days. But, is it really desirable or necessary to take possession of it or is it rather a kind of pseudoliberation from a natural fact in order to fulfill social obligations and not to seem dirty or disabled?

Once more commerce has a lot to do with that. Pharmacological and feminine hygiene industries have provided women with thousand of devices: tampons, menstrual pads, pills, injections, hormones and has earned and keeps earning a lot of money with all the stuff that we introduce into our bodies. Are they really necessary? Is it worth while to enrich those who in public pledge to free us and in secrecy keep on making profit with the maintenance of the taboo and strengthening the stigma of being a woman?

Trial and sentence: guilty for trading with our bodies. Guilty for not warning us about side and secondary effects. Guilty for making us sick. And guilty also ourselves, for listening to them. However, as the saying says, at least in Argentina, if you don't want to be stepped on, don't disguise yourself as a carpet.