Thanks Uterus.

You wake up one morning double over in pain. You can't walk. You can't eat but you still throw up because you are in so much pain. Just a typical day on your period.
Despite this being the worst pain that you've ever felt, having cramps and being on your period is not something that you can talk about much less an valid excuse to miss class. With most professors being male, talking openly and honestly about why you are pale and shaky and why you miss class is not something that you feel comfortable doing. Even if that were possible, most professors wouldn't understand the pain.
That's not the main complaint, however. The societal phobia of periods and the barrier that prevents you from talking about it is the main issue. You know, despite the actual blood coming from you body.
This societal phobia is not anything new. In the medieval times, period blood was even more feared and taboo that it is today. In Only Women Bleed it says that "Women's blood-menstruation and the blood or parturition-have long been associated with pollution in the Judeo-Christian tradition" (3). This traces back the Eve and after the original sin, both men and women were punished. Men were cured with working in the sun for their food and women were cursed with periods and painful childbirth. Even though men were also cursed, it was the women's punishment that became taboo and a negative symbol.

Expanding the definition of virginity and purity that we know today, in medieval times women that were considered virgins and pure were not just women that abstained from premarital sex. These pure women also did not bleed. This is, of course, ridiculous, since women cannot reasonable control whether or not they have their period. Even though this more extreme view has not been carried over to present day, the fear of women starting their periods is still very real and present. People worry that once a girl's period starts, she will also become sexually aroused, have sex, and get pregnant. There is a sort of innocence around a girl that has not started her period.
This negativity and way of thinking continues through today. Men and even women are uncomfortable talking about periods and most things associated with the uterus, even though it is a natural part of the female body. In fact, it is actual a sign of a fertile, healthy woman. Despite that fact, when a girl is in pain while she is on her period, the chances of her actually saying that to a male or even female professor is very slim. This is because you don't want to make anyone uncomfortable or come across as weak. Most of the time, you just say it's stomach pains or say something else vague or simply avoid saying anything at all. While we are lucky enough to now have all of the taboos that women in the medieval ages had to deal with, being a woman with a functioning uterus is still difficult.

The P Word

In Peggy McCracken’s “Only Women Bleed”, she makes a point to say there are multifaceted views of menstruation in medieval literature.  “… the exploration of the value of menstrual blood in medieval culture allows us to perceive that menstrual blood can be seen as both polluting and healing, as a sign of fertility and as a sign of death, or as a curse and as an ingredient in a love potion…” (6). However, the negative connotations of menstruation seem to outweigh the positive, especially, when men and women’s bodies or blood are compared: “semen was seen as a pure form of blood that demonstrates the superiority of the hot, dry male body over the humid, cold female body” (4). This view proposed by Aristotle, influenced many medieval writers, thus resulting in the idea that women’s bodies and blood are to be perceived as inferior. Menstruation making them more vulnerable, and more unlike to their male counterparts: “Menstrual blood, like other bodily wastes (urine or feces), is anomalous, ‘out of place’” (5). Many medieval discourses refer to menstruation as “a polluting blood, a feature of the imperfect female body whose imperfections mirror the perfections of the male body”, ultimately, “men’s blood is more valorized and women’s blood more marginalized” (20) in majority of medieval literature and therefore, creates a negative stigma of menstruation while adhering to the continuation of misogynistic views.

                While reading this article I decided to find modern day examples of the menstruation/period stigma. This menstrual taboo is very much alive in today’s society.

These pictures above are just recent examples that reiterate the stigma of periods. On the left is a picture of a student, Rupi Kaur, who decided to make the ‘menstruation taboo’ as a theme in her college photo project.  When she posted it on the social network, Instagram, it created a lot of controversy. At first it was deleted by the network because it did not fit the “community guide lines”.

The picture on the right is called “The Bride”, a chandelier made out of 25,000 tampons done by Joana Vasconcelos. She tried to include her work at the Palace of Versailles, but it was banned because it was referred to as a “sexual work.”

Even in the political realm, Hillary Clinton was negatively associated with menstruation:

The attitudes against women and their bodies in medieval literature can be applied to contemporary times. Periods and menstruation is still a subject that alienates women. 

So, one question remains: how different would the views on menstrual bleeding be if men had periods?

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/if-men-had-periods/