The Period's Cultural War

For ages, the womb has been a battlefield, where faith leaders, authorities (all males) and later feminists fought.  The keywords were conception control, dynastic purity, social hierarchy, sexuality, birth control, contraception and abortion.  After a short lull, when women seemed to have been left alone to take care of their womb, the peach shaped organ is again becoming a political flashpoint.

In several countries, notably in the United States, womb owners are facing interferences from meddling conservative policymakers, this time males as well females.  Energized by the enactment of abortion restriction policies, these busy body lawmakers are now concerning themselves with women’s basic biological functions and nosing into their bathroom cabinet.  Fascinatingly, women’s periods and the modest products used to deal with them are the focus of a fierce cultural war.  

The rallying call ranges from the absurd: to ban girls younger than 12 from talking about their periods in school to the ridiculous: to block distribution of free tampons because the policy is “woke” inspired.  At the other end of the spectrum, in progressive Europe, and following the Spanish example, lawmakers are debating granting menstrual leave to employees.  The Spanish congress has voted a three-day menstrual leave which, in case of disabling cramp can be extended to five, all paid for by the social security system.

Let’s begin this story with that routine women’s monthly visitor, menstruation, which is at the center of this ideological Tohu Bohu.  The world over, women have been very inspired to describe their periods without pronouncing the word.  In the English-speaking world, more than 5000 euphemisms and colloquialisms substitute the socially stigmatized word.  They range from the poetic “surfing the crimson wave”, the subtle “lady time” to the vulgar “on the rag”.  I chose “the monthly visitor” (unwelcome, but not always!).  In other countries, imagination also runs wild.  Many French ladies fear that “The English have landed”; in Brazil, they are with Chico (“estar de chico”), chico means pig, in other words women are dirty (cultural stigma).  In Denmark, there is a bizarre political connotation “there are Communists in the funhouse”, probably waving their red blood flags!

I really wonder what term Florida’s 6th grader girls use when they chat in the schoolyard.  The Republican majority of the state legislature wants to curb sex education in public school, and if it has its way, teenagers will be forbidden from even speaking about periods.  Republicans stress that sexual education is a parental responsibility and want to limit what teachers are allowed to tell their students.  Pubertal girls may enjoy tricking these intrusive lawmakers and flout their farcical diktats.  Why not pepper their chats with the arcane word menarche which defines the first menstrual bleeding?  Conservative politicians probably do not know what it means! 

Florida is becoming a leader in the sex and gender war, but it is being challenged by other GOP-led states.  These states are falling over themselves to enact restrictive period policies.  “Woke free tampons” ran news headline after the Republican-led State House of Idaho blocked the distribution of free menstrual items to students.  In America, as in many other countries, surveys have indicated that many female students face financial constraints to buy sanitary pads and tampons.  The Idaho Period Project estimates that one in four students misses classes because she cannot afford menstrual products.  Female GOP legislators derided the policy as absurd and too liberal, dreading of turning Idaho into a nanny state.  They blocked the bill, putting their ideology before their sense of sisterhood.  One of these conservative politicians claimed that schools were “obsessed with the private parts of our children”.  It is the Northwest version of a purdah practice which keeps menstruating women away from the rest of the family and the community, barring them from carrying out their activities and education.  Elsewhere in Maine, a Republican state lawmaker opposed the distribution of menstrual hygiene product in the female jails because jails would become like “country clubs”!

Kenya was the first country to give menstrual products in school.  Period poverty has been debated in Brazil where it faced conservative opposition during the government of former president Jair Bolsonaro.  In 2021, he blocked a policy aimed at distributing free menstrual products to disadvantaged girls and women.  Six months later, the legislators overturned his veto and on March 8, 2023, Women’s Day, President Lula issued a decree to guarantee the product’s distribution. 

Falling short of free distribution, many countries have lifted sale taxes on menstrual products.  France has not been immune to male cluelessness and callowness.  In 2015, a minister opposed scrapping the VAT on pad and tampons, because for the sake of equity, shaving cream should also be exempt! This was before the beard raging era.

In terms of gender policies, France falls behind its neighbor Spain; this country has amazingly transformed itself from a conservative Opus Dei backwater to Europe progressive trailblazer.  The new law granting menstrual leave of absence for disabling periods is a European first. The law requires a doctor’s note and the social security system will foot the bill.  Spain joined Japan, Indonesia, Taiwan, S. Korea and Zambia, countries not famed for active female participation in politics and economy.  Few individual companies offer menstrual leave and the experience seems positive for all concerned.  Through these policies, female bodily functions are economically rewarded (taxpayer money) and the womb becomes a public good.

I am old-school feminist and have mixed feeling about this law: Is it liberating? Will it help or hinder women’s economic participation? Some pro-women laws have backfired and dragged women backward.  In stressed economic times, they become a disincentive to employment, let alone to attaining equal pay.  Menstrual leave can stigmatize and embarrass women who regard their periods as a functional, social and economic handicap.  Some jobs are still off limits to women.  As a former exploration geologist, I experienced menstrual hygiene constraints.  By preventing embarrassing situations, tampons were my liberators, they allowed me to work with my male peers.  In the bush, tampons were imported products and were neither easy to find or cheap.  My male colleagues had a beer budget, I had a Tampax budget, but freedom is priceless.  Free tampons are not “woke” but a sound social investment!