Menstruation: The Shame Surrounding a Natural Process

 

Every person with a uterus menstruates. About half of the world's population (49.6%) gets their period monthly. Yet, from a very young age, women are taught that their period should be kept “quiet.” Menstruation has been a cause of embarrassment and stigma for many girls and women across cultures. This stigma has pushed girls and women to conceal their periods, taking extreme measures to avoid publicity regarding their menstruation. The image above shows a “Wiki How” titled “How to Sneak a Pad or Tampon to the Bathroom at School.” The images depict eight ways to hide menstrual products while at school. However, menstruation is a natural, biologically occurring process, so why is it so taboo? 

Mary Douglas, in her article “Purity and Danger, focuses on the concept of dirt and cleanliness. Specifically, societies focus on what comes in and out of the human body and whether it is deemed dirty. Douglas highlights the human body as a symbol of society; what is deemed acceptable to go in and out of the human body is thus deemed acceptable in society as a whole: “We cannot possibly interpret rituals …unless we are prepared to see in the body a symbol of society, and to see the powers and dangers credited to social structure reproduced in small on the human body” (Douglas 2002: 142). Based on the images pictured above, menstrual blood is deemed unacceptable to our standards of cleanliness. Various ways to hide the natural process of menstruation are depicted; image three suggests that a young girl should place menstrual products in her socks to shield her menstruation from society. Society views menstruation as impure, dirty, and even dangerous, suggesting it is necessary to hide products in one's socks to avoid embarrassment. These images provide women, particularly girls, with real tactics to conceal their menstruation. Further, this shame and stigma teach men to fear menstruation and perpetuates the tainted image of menstruation. According to Douglas’s logic, the shame surrounding menstruation reflects women's societal roles. Women are often taught from an early age to be ashamed of their bodies and sexuality; menstruation is a significant part of this.  

Works Cited 

Douglas, Mary. 2002. Purity and Danger. Routledge.

Rebecca, Levy-Gantt and Megaera, Lorenz. February 25, 2022. “How to Sneak a Pad or Tampon to the Bathroom at School.” From wikiHow. Retrieved March 22, 2023 https://www.wikihow.com/Sneak-a-Pad-or-Tampon-to-the-Bathroom-at-School