Period

by Kate Farrell

3. Enable federal grant funds to be used by homeless assistance providers to make available menstrual products, along with other allowable essentials like soap and toothpaste;

  4. Require that menstrual products be freely available to incarcerated inmates and detainees; and

  5. Mandate that large employers provide menstrual products to employees in workplace restrooms.

  Meanwhile, dozens of college campuses across the country—from NYU to UCLA and the University of Nebraska to the University of Arizona—have taken up the cause as well. Students have lobbied administrations or leveraged funds to ensure access for all. At Grinnell College, in Iowa, one intrepid student initiated a campus-wide caper that launched a powerful protest. She used bobby pins to break open campus dispensers, freeing all the tampons and pads for others to use. “I freed your tampons kept behind lock, key, and quarter,” she wrote in a public letter to the college. “Bleeding bodies deserve to think about Foucault and micro-organisms and the history of the bleeding bodies that came before them. When we menstruate, however unexpectedly, we should not feel fear in the pits of our stomachs because of your lack of foresight. We are a part of this college. Provide free menstrual products to students who need them so I can stop picking the locks on your bogus machines.” The president of Grinnell, a former deputy director of the National Institutes of Health, agreed. “It’s not unreasonable to provide free menstrual products everywhere, including on campuses,” he announced. “We have free toilet paper, so wanting the same for menstrual products is not extreme. This is a normal human function.” Indeed.

  THE FUTURE OF MENSTRUAL EQUITY

  Even with this progress, many other critical fights for women’s health and rights continue to be waged at all levels of government—from statehouses to Congress, and all the way up to the US Supreme Court.

  Which is exactly why I believe menstruation belongs smack in the middle of policymaking. Our periods, quite amazingly, are a potent rallying force. We are half the population and must leverage our collective voice and power. It is up to us to make menstruation a mainstream matter: It is not a secret; we deserve to have our basic needs met, and we should not be made to feel ashamed.

  How can we be political about periods? It’s actually remarkably simple. Talk about it. Tweet about it. Write about it. Whether you prefer to craft poetry or prose, publish a letter to the editor, or petition your school principal—or even the president of the United States—it all makes a difference.

  Let’s push our leaders to make menstrual equity a priority. At a minimum, that includes championing policies that prioritize the immediate needs of those who menstruate: access, affordability, safety. In so doing, we can recognize and elevate the power, pride—and absolute normalcy—of periods. It is a fight that stands to improve all our lives.

  Periods, According to Pop Culture

  ELIZABETH YUKO

  Every family is different, and talking about periods is no exception. Some people discuss menstruation with a family member or friend before puberty even starts. Others will learn about how the female reproductive system works in school or from looking information up on their own. But before most people get The Talk or do their first Google search, they’re given clues about how menstruation works from popular culture.

  ASK ANY WOMAN WHO CAME OF AGE BETWEEN THE 1970S AND 1990S TO NAME THEIR FIRST MEMORY OF PERIODS IN POP CULTURE AND, CHANCES ARE, A LOT OF THEM WILL MENTION JUDY BLUME’S 1970 NOVEL ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET.

  Our first exposure is typically advertisements on TV, where we’re offered small, inaccurate clues about what periods are like. If we believed what we saw on commercials, we’d think period blood is blue and wearing tampons magically gives you the ability to ride a horse or scale a mountain on a bike (as much as I’d love to take credit for this observation, it’s been around for quite a while, notably appearing in Pulling Our Own Strings (1980), an anthology of feminist humor and satire). In reality, it’s bright red, much thicker than water, can include dark-colored blood clots, and doesn’t make you any more skilled in outdoor activities. If this isn’t something you’re prepared for, it can be unsettling and scary. After being taught all our lives that blood is the sign that something’s wrong, all of a sudden we’re expected to be perfectly fine with bleeding involuntarily in our underwear a few days a month. It goes against everything we know, and it’s completely normal for it to take a while to get used to this.

  THANKS, MARGARET (AND JUDY!)

  Ask any woman who came of age between the 1970s and 1990s to name their first memory of periods in pop culture and, chances are, a lot of them will mention Judy Blume’s 1970 novel Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. In the book, Margaret and her friends anxiously anticipate their first periods, ultimately walking the reader through the ups and downs of Margaret’s experience. For a lot of us, this was our introduction to periods. Sure, by the time I read it in the early 1990s, there were mentions of periods on TV and in the movies, but there was something extra private and secure about being able to read it in a book, at your own time and pace—rereading the same dog-eared pages to make sure you absorb it all before having to return the book to the library.

  Another notable menstruation mention actually came five years earlier in The Long Secret (the 1965 sort-of sequel to Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh). Although the book isn’t as inextricably linked to periods as Margaret, they are an important topic of conversation between Harriet and her friends Beth Ellen and Janie. Thanks to learning about periods from her Victorian grandmother, Beth Ann was under the impression that the bleeding was caused by rocks passing through her reproductive system. Janie puts an end to that rumor, reassuring Beth Ann and Harriet that that’s not what happens, and goes on to explain, in scientific detail, what actually happens during menstruation—disposal of the unused uterine lining and all. She also tells the girls that she’s working on developing a “cure” for periods (specifically for women who don’t want to have children), and that there is a (minor) upside to the monthly inconvenience: getting out of gym class.

  FIRST PERIODS: LIKE IT OR NOT, YOU’RE A WOMAN NOW

  First periods are usually shown as momentous occasions—a transition into “womanhood” (whatever that means). For some people it is. For others, it’s not. If you get your period and you feel completely different, more power to you. If you get your period and feel exactly the same, only now bleed once a month, that’s fine, too. If you get your period but don’t identify as a woman, that’s also a thing.

  As Lauren Rosewarne discusses in her excellent 2012 book Periods in Pop Culture, the only place people are ever really comfortable with periods—and even here, “comfortable” is a stretch—is in a bathroom. This provides both privacy for the menstruating person as well as physical separation from men. It also suggests that periods are in the same category as other bathroom functions, like urinating or pooping: something gross that you can control. This comes up in the 2007 movie Superbad when Jonah Hill’s character gets upset when “someone period-ed” on his leg—as if it was something intentional and controllable.

  IF YOU GET YOUR PERIOD AND YOU FEEL COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, MORE POWER TO YOU. IF YOU GET YOUR PERIOD AND FEEL EXACTLY THE SAME, ONLY NOW BLEED ONCE A MONTH, THAT’S FINE, TOO.

  Not everyone has had the benefit of TV and films for learning about periods. In three “period period pieces”—representations of menstruation on-screen taking place in the past—characters each think they’re dying when they get their first period. In My Girl (which came out in 1991 but took place in 1972), Vada (Anna Chlumsky) screams and tells her father’s girlfriend that she’s “hemorrhaging” when she first spots period blood. In Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (which aired from 1993–1998 and was set in the 1860s) and Anne with an E (based on L. M. Montgomery’s beloved Anne of Green Gables books, aired in 2017 and set in the 1890s), the characters of Colleen (Jessica Bowman) and Anne (Amybeth McNulty), respectively, think they’re dying when they first notice their periods. In all thre
e situations, each of the characters’ mothers are dead and were not able to fill their daughters in on the ins and outs of menstruation, resulting in them believing they were dying.

  In each of those shows, the characters eventually learn that menstruating is completely normal. That also happens in another period period piece—Mad Men (2007–2015)—Sally Draper (Kiernan Skipka), who is not particularly close with her mother, runs home to see her after getting her first period in the natural history museum. Her mother tells her that this is normal and means that “everything is working.” Similarly, in Roseanne (1988–1997; 2018), Darlene Conner (Sara Gilbert) gets her first period at the age of eleven and worries that it means that she’ll no longer be able to play baseball and instead will have to do things like wear panty hose. Her mother assures her that it doesn’t, telling her that “it’s almost magical” and that she “should be really proud today ’cause this is the beginning of a lot of really wonderful things in your life.” And just to keep it real, she acknowledges that cramps are also part of the deal.

  Pop culture also tells us that there is no equivalent of getting a first period for boys. In My Girl, Vada says, “It’s not fair. Nothing happens to boys.” Along the same lines, in Anne with an E, Anne asks her classmates, “Do boys have to contend with anything like this?” Both characters feel unprepared and almost betrayed that their entry into adulthood is marked by blood and pain. Boys, on the other hand, are typically shown during puberty with voices dropping, masturbation, and wet dreams—none of which involve an element of pain and, if anything, are pleasurable or positive experiences.

  A CURSE TO BE FEARED

  Even though certain books, TV shows, and movies talk about periods, it doesn’t always involve characters assuring others that menstruating is normal and not something to be feared. For instance, variations of the man-to-man advice “never trust anything that can bleed for X days and not die” can be found throughout pop culture, including in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999). This idea positions menstruating women as creatures to be afraid of—dishonest and full of mysterious powers, likely used to the detriment of men—maybe even something inhuman. As Rosewarne points out, in 1976’s Carrie, the titular character obtains her telekinetic abilities during her first period; two years prior, Regan, Linda Blair’s character in The Exorcist, gets her powers—and possessed by the devil—as her period approaches. In some cases, fathers see it as their duty to educate their sons on the horrors of menstruation. In an episode of Roseanne, Dan Conner (John Goodman) finds his son, D.J. (Michael Fishman), running upstairs screaming. When Dan asks D.J. what’s wrong, D.J. tells him that his mother (Roseanne) was telling him about her period, to which Dan responds: “As you were”—implying that menstruation is so terrifying and horrific that it warrants running away and panicked shrieking. And it’s not just men who are taught to fear periods, as Blanche Devereaux (Rue McClanahan) demonstrated in an episode of The Golden Girls (1985–1992). She explains that she was terrified of The Curse, and only learned what it was two years after getting her period.

  OUT, DAMNED SPOT

  If periods are something men should fear because of the supposed supernatural powers that come along with them, women learn early on that we should be terrified of any visible stains during our period—a very public dead giveaway of this otherwise private bodily function. In Anne with an E, one of Anne Shirley’s classmates tells her that she stays home from school when she has her period out of fear of having an accident like someone else in their school did, instilling the fear of visible leakage in Anne, who places her hands behind her back the next time she stands up to answer a question in class.

  A rare exception to this is in an episode of Broad City (2014–) when Ilana Wexler (Ilana Glazer) wears jeans with a very obvious period bloodstain while traveling in order to get through airport security without any TSA agents conducting a thorough-enough search to locate the marijuana she is bringing on the trip. In this case, Ilana turns this common plot point on its head, triumphantly using her period-stained pants—and the fact that most people find them disgusting—to her advantage. Another advance in talking about this aspect of periods, although the scene doesn’t actually show period stains, is found in an episode of Girls (2012–2017). Hannah Horvath (Lena Dunham) tells her friend that she never knows when she’s going to get her period, so it’s always a surprise and is why her underwear are “covered in weird stains.” Even though as an audience we don’t see blood, the fact that Hannah is openly discussing these stains with her friend—as just another part of being in her twenties—destigmatizes the supposed horror we’re supposed to feel around having an “accident.” This also shows that even if you’ve been getting your period for several years, it doesn’t mean you won’t find yourself in a situation where you end up with unwanted underwear stains; this is just another normal thing that happens to a lot of people.

  READ (OR WATCH) INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY

  Despite the fact that Blume’s classic Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret was published in 1970, it has served as “Periods 101” for generations of women—myself included. What was infinitely easier than asking someone else about periods? Reading about them myself. This was one of the most checked-out and visibly-worn books in my Catholic elementary school library in rural Ohio. Reading it was a rite of passage, but it wasn’t only about Margaret’s fictional experience with her first period: For a lot of us, it was also an instruction manual, albeit in some cases, a very outdated one. In the first edition of the book, Blume describes the equipment Margaret used to handle her period, which involved a complicated system of pads, pins, belts, and hooks that frankly sounded like a medieval torture device when I was reading the book in the early 1990s (despite its being a popular book, our school library still had the original version). Turns out, Blume wrote in a 2011 post on her blog, pads became the norm a few months after Margaret was published, making the book immediately outdated. Although—at the suggestion of her editor—Blume had Margaret using modern pads in subsequent editions, the wildly popular first edition was already out there, along with the pins and belts. I imagine I wasn’t the only girl who was terribly confused—and also relieved—upon receiving a self-adhesive pad from my mother when I first got my period.

  Even when periods are mentioned in other forms of pop culture, it’s rare that instructions and specifics, like the ones found in Margaret, are included. There are at least two notable exceptions to this, though—one of which is in a highly unlikely show for which the target audience is not prepubescent girls. It came in an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000–) when a Girl Scout comes to Larry David’s (Larry David) door selling cookies, at which time she gets her first period. In the show, Larry David plays a somewhat fictionalized version of himself—an awkward man in his sixties whose everyday life provides an opportunity to comment on various aspects of society (typically, the ones he finds most annoying). In other words, he’s not the most obvious character on television to be dealing with menstruation, let alone a girl’s first period. In this episode, David assures the Scout that she had her first period “in the right place” and runs upstairs to retrieve a tampon box his ex-wife left behind after she moved out. He gives her a tampon, but she doesn’t know how to use it, so he stands outside the (closed) door and reads out the instructions that came with the box, step-by-step, walking her through the process until she gets it in. In this case, you have a character (David) literally telling another character—and in turn, the viewers—how to insert a tampon.

  Another example came in an episode of Anne with an E, when the titular character gets her first period. Book purists—or those faithful to the beloved 1985 CBC film adaptation—will be quick to point out that this was never described or shown in previous versions, but given the fact that the story centers around a girl’s adolescence and coming of age, it makes sense. Just after the opening credits, Anne is shown waking up in the middle of the night, startled, and running downstairs to heat water and wash her
bedlinens. The camera pans to the washbasin, where a large bloodstain on white sheets clarifies that she’s gotten her first period. Marilla Cuthbert (Geraldine James)—Anne’s mother figure—finds Anne and tells her not to panic because this is a normal part of becoming a woman. She goes on to give Anne instructions on what to do: pin cotton cloths to her undergarments and wash them—first in cold water, then in hot water. Like in Margaret, this scene describes an outdated menstrual product, but the same method for washing period-bloodstained fabric that my mother taught me. Watching this in 2017, most of the audience will likely know that we’ve moved past pinning cloths to underwear, but at the same time, could benefit from the useful stain-removing tip.

  TIMING IS EVERYTHING, APPARENTLY

  Another aspect of menstruation that makes regularly scheduled appearances on television is the notion of periods being well, regularly scheduled. This can take the form of the myth of period synching—that a group of women who spend a lot of time together could end up on the same cycles—as well as the idea that these cycles can be used to keep track of time, or more frequently, the time of the month when male characters should be wary of ones who menstruate.

  Let’s start with some facts: This whole concept of period synching first came about from a 1971 study (www.nature.com/nature/journal/v229/n5282/abs/229244a0.html) that tracked the cycles of just 135 women living in one particular dorm at a university. Despite numerous attempts, the same results have never been found again, but given how quickly society jumped at the opportunity to explain one of the many complicated aspects of periods, this myth spread and stuck. More recent research—involving a lot more menstruating people—released in 2017 confirms that there is no truth to this. But it was too late: Period synching has become a routine—I’d even say cliché—part of pop culture.

  There are so many examples of this, including episodes of 30 Rock (2006–2013), The Office (2005–2013), and Community (2009–2015), where male characters remark on the fact that if the women in their inner circle spend a significant amount of time together, they will end up menstruating at the same time. In one of the very few episodes of Sex and the City (1998–2004) that even mentions periods, three of the women find that they are all menstruating at the same time. Unlike the other scenes mentioned above, this doesn’t involve commentary from a man, but rather is used as a device to show the close friendship of these women.