World Menstrual Hygiene Day: Let's talk 'PERIOD', let us break the taboo
Menstruation is often surrounded by many ridiculous myths. Here are some which will make you roll on the floor laughing!
FollowMenstruation is but a taboo topic in our society. Even today, sanitary napkins are covered with newspapers by pharmacists, lest people misunderstand it for a bomb! Actually, bombs create less anxiety in society than pads! After all, log kya kahenge if we discuss this openly?
Let’s now read on to know more weird taboos that surround our monthly menses:
You will spoil the achaar if you touch it during periods:
Periods gives you magical powers. I bet you didn’t know that! How else can you explain your body’s natural shedding of the uterine lining with the spoiling of pickles? It makes no sense, right?
The Period blood is impure:
The blood, if it comes out of our uterus, is impure, but the blood that flows in our bodies aren’t. Gross right? No, not the blood but the thought. Our societies have found yet another amusing taboo to vindicate women. Else, how do you differentiate between the blood, the same blood! Crazy!
You are impure and hence can’t enter the kitchen or the temple!
I think the gods never cared if women entered the temple when they are menstruating because even gods know that it is but natural. However, we are often warned of severe unknown mystical consequences if we ever violated this rule. To be honest, not entering the kitchen is indeed a blessing for the women, but that should be based on choice, right? Not compulsion or based on stigma!
You may lose your virginity if you use a tampon or a menstrual cup!
How easily society associates honour to the vagina. More so, let’s increase the already difficult lives of women by more weird stigmas. Menstrual cups are safer and better for the environment, but societal stigmatization prevents women from thinking about what is good for them. Of course, what more can we expect from a society that doesn’t believe in sex education!
Period pain is just like a headache!
Yes, it is, only for some the headache radiates through the body and feels like it will rip you apart! We are taught to never crib about the pain as it is “natural”, and we must “endure” like we endure everything else, including internalized misogyny! But no, you should not have to endure. If you do feel excruciating or abnormal pain, do give a visit to a gynaecologist!
Dear women, please don’t take the ridicule from others when they question your emotional outbursts as “that time of the month”. Of course, nobody believes PMS is real, but then, you shouldn’t subdue your urge to snap back at all those who put you down. Breaking taboos on menstruation might be the first of many steps we take to make our lives a little easier.
