Women are not weak for having periods
A female’s average menstrual cycle is typically 28 days. On average, she bleeds for 3-5 days. While she may only bleed during those days, she can experience cramps continuously before and after her menstrual flow phase. The cramps can range from small irritations in her lower abdomen to large, stabbing, painful cramps that can lead to nausea, temporal immobility and even fainting.
Right before the bleeding occurs, in the premenstrual phase, less serotonin is produced. As a result, many women endure lethargy, depressive episodes and poor sleep during these approximate two weeks.
I say this all not in an effort to earn sympathy or pity but rather to educate.
One problem in our society stems from treating the subject of menstruation as an embarrassing secret. In reality, the concept of menstruation is what keeps our society going. The women’s reproductive system functions to nurture and care for the possibility of a baby and the result of that is menstruation. What exactly do we gain as a society by treating periods with such a secretive negative connotation?
Another problem is our treatment of women. One would think that after all a woman goes through in the pregnancy process as well as her monthly period, that she would receive support for the hardship she has been brave enough to endure. Instead, our society labels women as weak, emotional and vain. During her months pregnant, while her body is controlled by hormones and her organs are literally displaced to care for the baby, she is labeled as hysteric and crazy. During her period when she is shedding her uterine lining and enduring painful contractions of the endometrial membrane, she is labeled as emotional and irrational. During the two weeks where her body is waiting to see if the egg will be fertilized, she is labeled as PMS-ing for acting sensitive.
For every time a woman’s actions or emotions are dismissed because it is deemed “that time of the month”, 1. It is a form of misogyny that justifies a patriarchal system built to delegitimize a woman’s mind and 2. It quite literally is a false statement because there are a total of practically three days that a woman’s body isn’t controlled by extreme hormones and so by that logic it would always be “that time of month” – which is truly insane.
I write this article, not to call out misogynistic or sexist behavior, but in the hopes that educating more people on periods will result in better treatment of women and greater respect for all that they do.
Women are not weak for being emotional. Women are not weak for having periods. Women are not weak for having children. Women are incredibly strong for enduring challenges that men cannot even imagine.
Women are capable for continuing to work while their bodies are enduring discomfort and pain. Women are brave for continuing to change the world in a society that actively prevents change.
