This article on Freebleeding is really interesting

liberationcollective.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/the-shame-of-menstruation/

This article explains the history of free bleeding in the UK

Interestingly, about 150 years ago in the UK, working class girls and women did just let menstrual blood run down their legs. Even if they could get them, pads were resisted as open bleeding was a sign of fertility and used to attract a boyfriend.

Can I just say how happy it makes me to know that there are still feminist teenagers? I don't buy into the freebleeding malarkey for all the reasons already mentioned, but I can totally see that it might suit the teenage rebellious personality especially if they don't do much cleaning or care about boring staid things like houses and furniture.

This reminds me of the issue some people have with public breastfeeding: another example of a normal, female, bodily function being seen as deviant, weird, taboo. Whereas all sorts of properly deviant stuff done to women is completely normalised.

I agree with all the posters above that letting blood stain your clothes/furnishings is gross/impractical. I think the point being made, though, is not that women should bleed everywhere, but that women bleeding at all = normal, whereas women being gorily raped and dismembered 1000s of times on TV = not normal at all. But you wouldn't think it, given society's reaction to the one, and to the other.

Oh don't get me wrong, I have no problem with san pro being discreet. I have a problem with it being marketed along the lines of how discreet and secret and masking it is, because it plays it up to be a bigger issue than it actually is.

I've got a heavy cold just now and it is certainly seen as dirty to let your snot run down your face in public no matter how natural so why not menstrual blood?
I'm a mooncup user and strongly believe non-disposable sanpro should be more widely known both here and in countries where disposable sanpro is too expensive.

Free bleeding is mentioned in a book about the !Kung Tribe ( the exclamation mark should be there) about a woman called Nisa. They also have to go out and birth alone in silence in the wilderness. It's a very interesting book but forgive me for preferring to keep myself and my clothes clean and my babies delivered with support and yelling.

However I do agree that the menstrual taboos are ridiculous and a throwback to archaic patriarchal ideas. There is no reason why menstrual blood should be treated as any different from other bodily fluids.

I deep down believe I have a right to walk about bleeding on the floor, given that the alternative is to spend money to spare other people the discomfort of seeing me. However, I wouldn't actually put this into practice.

It's something I used to think about doing when I was a teen to fight the injustice of having to plug or pad it at my own expense.

And I disagree that sanpro shouldn't be 'discreet' etc, as above... it allows us to carry on worth our lives, in comfort. Gone are the days of sending us away so we didn't sour the milk..

I would probably presume mental health issues were at play too Ali

I know someone who did/does this - she has terrible MH problems that she refuses to accept treatment for.

I had horrendous heavy periods, with 'flooding' ... No predictability at all

Surely it's a hygiene risk though? Not to mention ruining clothing, bedding, furniture... fine if we dressed in rags & slept on hay.....

I don't think it is the same as other bleeding, though. If you are bleeding due to a cut or injury it generally can't be predicted in advance and of course you try to stop the blood because it would be dangerous to lose too much of it. People don't generally get angry about someone getting blood on their clothes, furniture etc because it's understood that they haven't hurt themselves on purpose! However, they might privately be annoyed or upset because it is difficult to get blood stains out of most soft fabrics and furnishings.

With menstruation you can definitely predict it in advance and hence take steps to prevent it staining fabrics etc. It isn't important to keep it in like with blood from an injury, it is a waste product. That part, the prevention etc, shouldn't be a taboo and I don't think it is for most of the younger generation, although things may start to go backwards when we have ridiculous ads showing how "discreet" their san pro is or how well it's disguised as a sweet or how it's scented to mask the terrible odour - that's damaging IMO and it should be no big deal.

Personally I am a big fan of the mooncup, to me, it's like having a bladder for your womb. I can empty it when it is convenient to me. Why didn't we evolve with one?? Proof God was a man

Why is it still 'embarrassing' to a lot of women ? Me included! I still feel conscious of the fact I'm clutching tampons when I'm in a line full of men at the till.

Why has it been ingrained that your monthlys should be kept secretive , I remember my sm mouthing the word to my neighbour when I was a teenager.

I hold my hands up, i can't remember exactly where it was in Africa, but it was certainly not South Africa.

More of a very primitive, remote tribe.

Yuck. Seriously, why? We are lucky to not have to do this, unlike women in south africa etc, who find it degrading & humiliating.

But Miss- that same culture, certainly in S Africa is NOT tolerant of this in school girls, at school, on the bus etc. seen with my own eyes! Might have worked a generation or 2 ago but severe disadvantage to be menstruating in those circs if you want am education.

Not for me either !

I watched a programme a couple of years ago about women from the UK (?) who went to live with tribes in different remote parts of the world.

I remember one woman commenting (in Africa it might have been ) about how normal it was to 'free bleed' and how shocked she was to see women getting up from their seat and not batting an eyelid about leaving some blood behind, and the next person just sitting in it.

Like I said, not for me, but if thats the culture you grow up in, so be it...

By which i mean this concept strikes me as a Western indulgence to want to let it all flow out (as it were).

Far more useful would be to campaign for cheaper sanpro everywhere esp in the developing world bet also in the UK where, shockingly, it's a "luxury item" and therefore got VAT.

Well it might all be very well for the groovy teenage hipster skateboarding feminists quoted in the article, but not so practical for the menopausal mother of two.

I can't imagine strolling around tesco dropping great clots in the dairy aisle.

Agree with custy. It's not taboo. If I get a cut, I put a plaster on. If you menstruate you put something in place to catch the blood. Blood is messy and it stains. I personally couldn't afford to replace all my knickers, skirts and trousers if they got stained.