Menses

In this male dominated society, women’s liberty would certainly be the last thing any patriarch would bargain for- hook, line and sinker. It’s a long part of history in medicine- not taking women’s health seriously. But since periods are still considered a “woman’s problem,” medical science has actively, with a preconceived notion ignored women’s bodies.

In India, the statistics display a jarring tragedy with at least 23% of girls getting dropped out of school altogether, upon reaching puberty. One reason being menstrual hygiene.

The idea being the 2015 incident in which Rupi Kaur's picture of her bleeding as part of a photo series project documenting her and her sister’s menstrual cycles, was taken down by Instagram citing violation of the 'Community Guidelines.'

This leaves me with a concern; Why are we so afraid to talk about something that is as natural and normal as menstruating?

Here's another tale to India's unsuccessful relationship with periods- when specs of blood and a used sanitary napkin were found in the bathroom at a hostel in UP's Muzaffarnagar, it made the warden so furious that she allegedly made seventy young women strip and searched to ascertain who amongst them has performed this heinous crime of menstruating.

The goal simply is humiliation, that’s where the whole control dynamic results into, these four thousand years of human civilization has gotten us nowhere, the questions are still the same yet pathetic, ‘How dare you bleed and then leave the evidence for everyone else to see?’

It’s a global problem now, as per the survey across U.K, nine out of 10 girls worry about attending schools because they fear they will be period shamed.

This is candidly embedded in the mindset at the very core of this society, to defy or even punish women solely based on their reproductive systems.

Now such a society still has the audacity to look down their nose at anyone who doesn't own a penis. The worst part isn't that they are this way, it is that they actually believe that blindly following these customs would make them feel content and satisfied.

…

A lot of our neighbours,

Who turn a blinds eye to ours weeping when;

Tries offering comfort

To tell us a way out of our own conscience.

…

When a woman’s worth is being compromised at the very expense of her body parts, self-sufficiency doesn't really end her want for validation from her elders, which then eventually results into a way, passing down those old customs and traditions with a guaranteed success.

In a place of dogma where hypocrisy bleeds

Let’s get out of this habit of finding a controversy where none exists.

Period.

References

1984′ – unLyricalthruths (wordpress.com)