Menstrual hygiene day was technically May 28th, but as usual I was too busy faffing about in my bubble to notice until recently. Have a belated linkspam about the politics and practicalities of menstruation:
- Periods and the Cycle of Learned Pain in Black Families
- Why are Inmates Still Being Denied Access to Menstrual Products?
- A Guide to Menstrual Hygiene Day
- I’m the One Who Bled But Does Not Bleed Anymore
- What It’s Like To Have Your Period as a Trans Man
- What I Learned From My Menstruation Ceremony
- That Christmas I Got My First Period in a Homeless Shelter
- The Dirty Politics of Period Sex
- Myths and Taboos Silence Menstruating Women in India
- The Puritanical Online Censorship of Periods
In summary: Most patriarchies have highly dysfunctional relationships with menstruation, which is itself a confluence of multiple factors. Thus, those raised in these attitudes and those who do not stop to interrogate said attitudes often continue the practice of singling out menstruation as a unique “moral failing,” despite the fact that there is nothing empirically to separate it from other bodily functions.
-Shiv