Why is menstruation so dirty?

[IceBeing]

I got so much interesting information from my last thread I thought I would try again!

I mean I know the answer is 'the patriarchy' but....

why do I feel so repelled by all things menstrual? I am pretty sure I'm not alone...but while I would have no issue whatsoever with someone seeing a blood stain on my arm (from a cut or something) I would actually die from shame if anyone saw my menstrual blood.

How do I stop my DD from being infected with the idea that menstruation is dirty?

How do I cure myself?

I have managed to cure myself of the idea that armpit hair is dirty...and leg hair...but this seems an order of magnitude harder!

Many of us us don't think menstrual blood is dirty, but I don't want to lick it off a penis, thank you.
Germaine Greer has always had wierd ideas. You don't have to go with them to prove that you are a feminist.

Some people think their own toddler's wee is so dirty that they throw away perfectly good shoes that have been wee'd in.

Parents holding a child over a gutter for a wee are castigated for being disgusting.
I was shocked that some women have only ever wee'd in a toilet, those I suppose maybe they have never taken a walk in the countryside.

This thread makes me think of this:

www.upworthy.com/if-youre-too-grossed-out-to-share-this-video-then-youre-exactly-why-it-exists?g=2&c=ufb1

I don't know OP- I have never thought menstruation is unclean. My toddlers watched me change pads since they were old enough to walk, so to them menstruation is no deal at all.
My teenage DD has a very relaxed attitude towards her own periods.

I like wearing sanitary towels, especially on the heavier days- I can feel congested and uncomfortable, having something stuffed up there like a mooncup or a tampon takes up room that I don't feel I have spare.

Besides I like the feeling of release when my menstrual flow leaves my body- as I walk or when I sit up- I feel all the last months stress ebb away, drop by drop. It is cathartic.

I can't wait for the menopause proper to hit (early signs). I'm so over dealing with all this every month.

Someone made a good point about most women having far fewer periods in the past. They'd start menstruating at an older age. They'd be pregnant more. Breastfeeding more. Quite a lot of women with low body weights restricting it again. I imagine there were women who'd only have something like 30 periods their whole lives. Although I'd still rather have the periods than 15 pregnancies.

does the disgust around menstruation tie in somehow with the idea that women's body hair is also disgusting. As a society are we hiding more of the traits that make us women in case they offend people?

That's a bit of an overreaction. As others have said it's not "disgust" as such but not particularly being keen on other people's (who aren't small children ) body waste. I really don't want to see the contents of any one' s snotty hanky or improperly flushed toilet.

I don't really care that at some point somewhere some women were so unbothered they bled freely on to the ground. So what? It's vaguely interesting and completely irrelevant. They were doing so due to lack of anything better.

As for tasting it- does any one taste earwax, snot, excrement?

The comparison with semen and fellatio and the fact some women will "taste " it perhaps falls down in that it's not a waste product. Clearly it's being wasted during fellatio but it's not in itself being expelled as waste.

So far as hair I'm not sure Western European society is keen on hairy women or men (I'm not )you don't see hairy chested male models.

This thread is awesome. Note to the laundry crew - I now have dark red sheets so the stains are easier to get out. Would recommend! Actually looks quite nice with a coordinated duvet cover

and Still I don't think anyone is seriously arguing that we should be slurping up menstrual blood with relish! It's more than people are SO revolted by it, it's disproportionate. e.g. how many women do you know who would happily go to the toilet in a restaurant just carrying a tampon? Women tend to take their whole handbag. Seems silly - why be ashamed?

Germaine Greer (be still my beating heart!) doesn't say in the Female Eunuch that women should taste their menstrual blood, only that if you're disgusted by even the thought of it "then you've got a long way to go, baby" - quite a different sentiment. I wouldn't want to taste urine, but the thought doesn't make me feel nauseous, and they're really very comparable excretions.

still, that's a bit illogical. Of course semen is a waste product if it ends up in your mouth! Just the same way your womb lining (which is what your period is) has been 'wasted' if you've not plonked a cute little embryo into it.

I don't think you can make much of an argument there.

Many lesbians have indeed tasted other women's menstrual blood. It is only blood.

I find a bleeding wound much grosser than menstrual blood. I'd rather taste my period than lick a bleeding cut on my arm. Period blood is natural and healthy. A bleeding cut is a wound and means your hurt, don't like it.
I also think semen is much more disgusting and would rather go down on a menstruating woman that take semen in my mouth and swallow it. Semen is grotesque it's odd that that act is normal and expected. I don't get why women do it!

I like anice bleeding wound. Like that one dear baby jesus had in his side. Nothing repulsive about a man's stomach sliced open and pouring blood.

The one that looks like a bleeding vagina?

I am good on Jesus-wound vaginas. People used to want to creep inside it so they could be in the Christ-womb. Nothing creepy about that at all.

Good honest man-wound. Lovely.

The parallel with come is an interesting one.

I think that more people would find it more revolting the idea of going down on a menstruating woman than swallowing come. But in terms of the possibility of infection & not generally being OK to be seen in public with it on you, they're on a similar level.

In terms of whether it's considered "disgusting" or not and why that might be, I think that while many mainstream religions have rules and laws around menstruating women (whether they are still enforced or not) there can't be any argument that periods aren't considered to be "unclean". In the UK we are a Christian culture and have a shit-ton of baggage to do with all sorts of things related to that.

FWIW I would be understanding of a man who didn't want to perform certain sex acts while I was menstruating, although I dont' recall ever having met one As long as precautions are taken against getting blood anywhere it's not wanted then fine by me also. I don't feel that it's particularly "dirty" at least not when fresh, just more messy. So on a par with vaginal secretions generally, semen I guess.

I am surprised no one has yet raised a comparison with the change in attitudes around childbirth. Up to 50 years ago childbirth and even pregnancy was a taboo topic and not something talked about openly in polite circles. My own mother was discretely shushed by her mother and her pregnancies were never openly referred to, this was a woman legally married who felt unable to share her joy with her adored mother.

I guess part of the issue was about admitting sex had occurred, but also men had no place in childbirth and certainly the messy aspects of childbirth were also taboo as was breastfeeding. Women proudly talking about "their confinements" or problems "down below" was not acceptable. Menstruation is the last taboo from this cultural suppression and disgust about a normal bodily function.

I can still my otherwise quite liberated mother giving me the talk about puberty advising that periods were not something you should talk to the men in my family about!

• still remember

I have never found semen grotesque or menstrual blood disgusting.

It is odd carrying a whole handbag it hiding tampons up sleeves...

I have today personally I find the idea if swallowing come or having it my mouth equally as revolting as swallowing mentrual blood.

In regard to a wound on the skin is probably prefer it because mentrual blood isn't just blood and for want of a better word doesn't seem as fresh. Especially not at the start.

Argh I've not today anything !! Jesus what kind of autocorrect is that ?

I mean I personally find

To put that last sentence in more context my family had no prudery around me getting my first bra, which my Dad and brothers loved to friendly tease me about and we shared a love of lavatorial humour. It was just menstruation that was the issue.

In regard to a wound on the skin is probably prefer it because mentrual blood isn't just blood and for want of a better word doesn't seem as fresh. Especially not at the start.

Yes, really not getting the horror at a say a fresh paper cut, which I'd definitely put in my mouth if only to stop it getting on to clothes, compared to the clotted,quivering liver like lumps which my menstrual flow consisted of.

I find the idea of oral sex with a menstruating women revolting.

Are you a lesbian, still?

Why? Am I not allowed to have an opinion otherwise? I'm not and I find the idea of a man performing oral sex on a menstruating woman revolting too.

Oh, goodness, no. I'm not a lesbian and I am guessing most of us on the thread aren't.

It's just, it seems unremarkable to me that you might not like the idea of something that isn't part of your sexual make-up to like (if that makes sense?).

Do we all have to like the same things in order to discuss them as cultural taboos? I think not.

I did wonder what you'd been doing today, revealing!

I use a cup sometimes but also use washable towels, my dcs have watched me rinsing blood out of them out at the sink and have seen rows of the drying on the washing line or radiator.

Hence a discussion of what periods are has been on going at an age appropriate level since they were tiny. There is now no mystery, I can't see me ever needing to have a 'talk' with dd, it will just seen normal to her when it finally arrives.