Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Feminism: chat

Original poster

This article on Freebleeding is really interesting

156 replies

Mignonette · 28/01/2014 13:05

Freebleeding - why is this taboo when images of violence, sex and repression are not?

Or should we see menstruation as nothing more than a process of excretion and attach no special significance to it?

OP posts:
Salbertina · 28/01/2014 13:25

Definitely should be totally normalised and not shameful, hidden etc. however, i am v grateful to be able to afford the comfort & convenience of sanpro! In my country 25% of teenage girls skip 1 week of a school EACH month due to the shameful (in every way) lack of affordable pads, tampons etc. As a result, many many more girls fail to pass high school and end up working as a maid for life. It really can be that important! Angry

sleepyhead · 28/01/2014 13:23

I don't think if someone accidentally leaks during their period and has visible blood on their skirt (for example) that it should be any more taboo or shameful than if they cut their finger and get blood on their clothes that way, and most definitely it is shameful and taboo.

However... menstrual blood, like all blood, stains clothing. I don't want to get it on my clothes because I have to wash them. I don't want to sit in it because it would feel soggy and unpleasant. I think it's antisocial to get blood (any blood) on furniture that other people have to sit on, or things that other people have to touch, for both staining and infection reasons. So, that's a no to freebleeding from me.

greenhill · 28/01/2014 13:17

There used to be articles about this in Spare Rib, 20 odd years ago, trying to do away with the taboo of bleeding; it's interesting to see it being talked of again.

The only person I knew personally that deliberately practiced it had a drug problem and untreated MH issues.

WildThong · 28/01/2014 13:12

Oh boak - personal standards!

NigellasDealer · 28/01/2014 13:10

gross - plus what custardo said

Custardo · 28/01/2014 13:07

I see it as just a bodily function

but I wouldn't not wear any sanitary products in the same way as I wouldn't walk around with shit on my skirt or piss down my leg

the whole thing is ridiculous.