Talking Of Period Shaming

I am a woman and I fully understand the importance of the monthly period, wherein a woman’s body sheds out the comfort cushion that it had created in her uterus to conceive a baby.

I know that women have now reached a point where period shaming is not acceptable to them. At all. And rightfully so.

It is no man’s (or woman’s) business to shame or restrict a woman because of her period. I used the word restrict because according to some age old customs in India, a woman is isolated during her period. I have read many reasons for this. Some even saying that it is to benefit the woman because she needs rest and a whole lot of other garbage.

News flash: If a woman needs rest while she’s on her period, she will give herself some rest. If her body has grown enough to hold a baby, you can be assured that she is fit to know what she needs and when.

Now turning the coin over and talking of how women respond to this shaming.

Women have now started responding to period shaming in a manner that I would call demeaning. To me, it is demeaning because keeping your period to yourself is just maintaining  your own hygiene and also respecting your own body. Sorry, exposing ones period blood does not seem the right way to me, to deal with this backwardness of thought. It only defeats the purpose.

I know I will be at the receiving end of a lot of flak for making this statement; But in no way do I find showing your period discharge to the world through pictures and videos as a necessary means to put your point forward.

One thing that bothers me a lot about this is that the internet is easily accessible to people across the globe, across all age groups. And in some corner of the world, there will be a little child going through these obscene pictures of your period blood. I understand that we want our children to be aware and responsible young people, but I fail to understand how an image of someone’s period blood will serve that purpose.

I feel that women are going out of the way to make this look normal. But doing this, in my opinion is a reflection that women themselves find a need to prove their point. Which I believe is absolutely unnecessary.

With the passing of time people have not learnt that a woman’s period is very very important and is a natural process, I don’t think a picture of your used tampon, pad, period cup, or stained clothes will make any difference.

So save yourself the time, spare people the displeasure, and let the socially illiterate continue to do what they’re best at.