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!

Just bumping this to add a quotation from Heloise (as in 'and Abelard', medieval) who's writing about how the monastic rules for Benedictine nuns don't really work because they were written for monks. She says:

'how can women be concerned with what is written there about cowls, drawers, and scapulars? Or indeed , with tunics and woollen garments, when the monthly purging of their superfluous humours must avoid such things?'

I thought that was interesting, both for what she implies about women's underclothing and for her frankness in writing to someone who is both a man, and in some sense her lover.

It's quite common to get menstrual blood in the mouth during cunnilingus I expect. Not unclean and has never killed anyone as far as I know.

Been there done that.

Not a problem

Jeanne that is interesting. And I shall be calling my period my "purging of superfluous humours" from now on.

Re the Fanny Hill thing, how many of you actually bled when you lost your virginity? I know I didn't and I was not consciously aware of my hymen breaking at any point either during, or before either. Maybe for women who have had no petting or gradual sexual experience/exposure whatsoever before their wedding night, or a very forceful or clumsy first sexual experience with no warm-up it may have happened but for the rest of us…?

I did a bit, which surprised me, as I'd been using tampons for about 5 years at that point. It wasn't forceful or anything, either.

It wasn't floods of blood, certainly not enough to mark the sheets, but when I went to the loo after, there was some.

I suppose people are finicky about menstrual blood because it is, after all, a bodily waste product. In cultures where no one's bothered about piss or snot or puke, there's probably less squeamishness about menstruation as well, but in our current culture (by which I mean European/American industrialised) we're obsessed with cleanliness and 'aroma' eg air fresheners and scented candles, so we get all unhinged about the smell of a good fart as well as any other bodily function.

chopper - I certainly feel superfluous humour is bleeding away during the week before.

daily - can't remember, but have subsequently (not in any quantity, and not painful at all). Think it has to do with what shape you are partly.

Which societies are this which are not squeamish about menstruation?

newint.org/blog/2013/07/25/menstrual-sanitation-development-education/

www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2014/03/what-life-when-your-period-means-you-are-shunned-society

Yes, being able to buy cheap sanitary protection sold on open display,sometimes even by men, and carrying on with your normal day really is such a trial for European and American women.

People have been talking about societies in the past, still, and their own experiences.

You've missed most of the thread - it is all there.

SGB's post refers to cultures in the present tense being less squeamish , and is a generlisation, not a personal experience.

Weren't you a busy boy in the middle of the night, mep?

It's all back in the thread, still, honest.

I was referring specifically to SGB's post.

It isn't referring to societies in the past unless you're suggesting "there's" is a contraction of "there was" not "there is" and "no one's bothered" means "no one was bothered"

Are you suggesting that modern western culture isn't overly bothered by cleanliness and being sweet smelling at all times, Still? Not noticed the feminine washes and scented sanitary towels and in the US tampons, ffs?

SGB's post was quite specific in differentiating cultures where bodily functions are viewed less squeamishly than our modern one in the west. It's what the but meant.

And the points you made have been discussed already.

I think she's just missed most of the thread.

still, we've all been talking about different societies and different attitudes, both in the past and in the present. You know, Western culture isn't a monolith, and experiences are valid individual perceptions of culture.

I have read the thread. The point I was querying is where are these wonderful,, laid back societies NOW, not some dim, and distant past, who are not squesmish and are so much better than current western society? The post I am querying is referring to current times not past. As indeed does Puffin's reply.

As for western culture being a monolith I did not say that. SGB's post did.

Nor did I say anything about western culture not being concerned with cleanliness. That isn't my point.

I bled when I lost my virginity (had used tampons for several years). And sex hurt for ages after that as well (was in a 'steady' relationship). Good thing we're so randy as teenagers, when sex hurt after DD2 was born I just didn't bother for ages but as a teenager in lurve it didn't stop me at all.

still - no, it didn't. She actually specified quite carefully.

Seriously - you need to read stuff instead of just arguing with the last post at random, if you want to get anything except confused/irritated replies. I know that sounds harsh but it's exhausting trying to figure out how to answer your questions when you insist we need to rehash the whole debate for you instead of just reading it again.

blue - ah, yes, the randiness of teenagers. Same thing with carpet burns.