Steph Gongora is a yoga practitioner and Instagram star with over 250,000 followers. She’s getting a lot of headlines for a video she posted, which you can see on People and Instagram, in which she does yoga poses while bleeding through her white pants. I think it’s a sophisticated ad for an organic line of tampons actually, but she seems to roll that back toward the end of her post and I can’t figure out if it’s sponsored or not. Anyway she writes that she’s only leaking a little, not free-flowing, and that she wants to reduce the stigma and shame around our periods. Here’s what she wrote and the video is on Instagram. She’s impressively strong and flexible:
I am a woman, therefore, I bleed.
It’s messy, it’s painful, it’s terrible, & it’s beautiful.
And yet, you wouldn’t know. Because I hide it.
I bury things at the bottom of the trash. I breathe, ragged and awkward through the cramps, all the while holding onto this tight lipped, painted on smile.
Tampons? Shhh. We don’t say those words out loud. Hide them. In the back pocket of your purse, in the corner of the bathroom drawer, at the very bottom of your shopping cart (please let me get a female cashier).
Events or engagements get missed. I’ll tell myself it’s the PMS, sure, but it has more to with the risk of being “caught,” at what…I’m not quite sure.
And I’m lucky.
Over 100 million young women around the globe miss school or work for lack of adequate menstrual supplies, & fear of what might happen if the world witnesses A NATURAL BODILY FUNCTION.
WHY?
Because hundreds of years of culture have made us embarrassed to bleed. Have left us feeling dirty and ashamed.
STOP PRETENDING. Stop using silly pet names like Aunt Flo because you’re too afraid to say “I’m bleeding” or “vagina.” Stop wasting so much effort hiding the very thing that gives this species continuity.
START talking about it. Educate your daughters. Make them understand that it can be both an inconvenience and a gift, but NEVER something to be ashamed about. Educate your sons so they don’t recoil from the word tampon. So when a girl bleeds through her khaki shorts in third period (pun intended), they don’t perpetuate the cycle of shame and intolerance.
This #StartSomethingSunday , I want to highlight @corawomen .
Cora Women is a 100% Organic tampon company.
But that’s not all. They are also breaking barriers. Making it ok to talk about periods, even on social media. Providing personalized, delivered tampon/pad orders right to your door. AND for every box purchased, donating a box of sustainable pads to girls who can’t afford menstruation products.
F-k yeah. That’s the kind of stuff I can galvanize behind, NO money OR product needed. Just a mission I support on a topic we should ALL be talking about.
THIS IS JUST A LEAK, NOT FREE BLEEDING
Do you know what this essay reminds me of? That scene in Carrie where they’re throwing pads and tampons at her in the locker room after she gets her period. It’s something we’re conditioned to be ashamed of and the little sheltered girl needs to learn shame. Whether this post is an ad or not she brings up some good points. There are so many days when I wish I could just tell people, men and women (not everyone, just the people I’m dealing with that day) that I feel like total sh-t because I’m on my period. I’m going through perimenopause now and it’s pretty bad, it’s like my period is fighting my body. Plus I’ve been getting it every three weeks instead of four for some reason. At least I work with great women and we chat about our periods because that’s normal. We’re otherwise supposed to keep quiet about it, even if it affects everything we do, and not talk about it whereas it’s socially acceptable to discuss less common health issues like a cold, for instance. Instead, we only tell our female friends and most trusted female co-workers in hushed tones after we’ve taken them aside. I don’t know how this can change though, because once we start saying “hey I’m menstruating” we become the weird ones, the Carries who don’t know or care about social norms. At least we’re talking about it.
I’m also a woman and a human being and I poop but the world doesn’t need to see it.
Amen, and I fart too.
Maybe we do. Maybe we need to stop pretending that poop magically disappears when we flush. Maybe we need to recognize and deal with our literal and metaphorical shit. And maybe we need to admit that women will never rule the world–and it’s time for us to do so–so long as we spend 1/4 of our time trying to pretend we don’t menstruate.
This is a conversation that needs to happen. And we need more women like Ms Gongora who are willing to put themselves out there–risking the disapproval of you and others–to help remove the shameful ‘dirty’ and ‘germ-filled’ stigma of periods.
Slow clap.
Well maybe it’s a conversation that needs to happen in your house because in mine my 11 year old son knows what a period is. The kids in my school boys included knows what a period is, we have sex education in our schools and the girls are not ashame to talk about their periods and when they’re on it.
By this lady saying we shouldn’t hide it well should we walk around with our tampon strings hanging out our skirts. Should I also not hide when I just took a crap. Sex is also natural but should I share with people evertime I get laid.
Agree!
@Lascivious: great comment! +1!
+1!
Who are all you women that hide your period?
Whoevers near me, man or woman, will usually find out at some point during the month. I don’t hide my period.
I don’t get it on my computer chair. Or on the bus seat. Or down my legs. I wear products because they protect me from getting my blood everywhere. Just like tissue prevents me from snotting everywhere.
Yes, but it’s important to have a dialogue about this. I’m a sole parent of a ten year old boy and when I first told him I was “bleeding” he was mortified and thoroughly confused. While I don’t want to mortify him, he needs to be helpful to his future wife and not shaming towards her. I’m getting my head around this one- why am I “disgusting” for a bodily function as normal as breathing, yet a function that has rendered me a human who can literally produce life. Sigh. This is a relevant topic.
As a mother of boys, I’m going through the same ting at the moment. My eldest is understanding but says it’s ‘gross’. When I ask him why it’s gross, he doesn’t seem to know. To poop is gross, to pee is not really so much and I don’t think that having a period is really gross at all. Yet we feel more able to say ‘I need to pee’ in front of a group of people, than ‘I need to change my tampon’. Women need to be taught not to be ashamed of something which gives them the ability to bring life into the world and men need to know it’s not gross and they have no right to make a woman feel bad about it.
Agreed. OH GROSS. It is one thing to give and expect respect, it’s another thing to push bodily fluids in peoples’ faces.
Agree. FFS, not every topic needs to be discussed or turn into a “conversation”. Give me a break.
So very true!
This yogi is cray. Lots of bodily functions are natural but doesn’t mean we need to share with the world and show it on our pants. It’s also unsanitary. I have never been with a man that shamed me for having a period. If this is her problem she should make educational videos for men that help sensitize them to menstruation, walking around with bloodied pants does nothing but make a mockery of a natural body function.
I can’t get with people doing free bleeding to prove a point. I’m definitely not a period shamer. I post on Facebook all the time about sending re usable pads to girls in CPU tries so they can go to school, about how women in prisons and poverty to have access to adequate menstrual products.
I’m married to an OB/Gyn, so it’s a not big deal at our house. To me, it’s a hygiene thing, you know. Maybe it wouldn’t attract bacteria (I need to ask DH about that!), but it just like it would. I would cover a cut to stop bleeding to protect myself and others, you know? Maybe I’m over sensitive about germs? I’m a PharmD, and we have to work in super sterile environments to compound medications and IVs.
Her post ( the insta video link) states that the blood is the result of a leak, and it is not free bleeding.
Yeah, I’m kind of torn. I personally feel no shame and I’m not by any means a “hippy” kind of girl. I like to normalize things for my daughters. But I also know the myriad of things that can be contained in blood (diseases, infections etc.) and I’m not behind free bleeding. No shame, but no….uncontained, intentional bodily fluid exposure?
My period is gross. Maybe other women have beautiful, tame periods but mine is like mo’fo. I don’t think that I MYSELF am gross, but my period is uncomfortable, smelly, messy and painful. I don’t want to celebrate it and I don’t need to let everyone see my shed uterine lining to feel validated as a woman, sister, wife and mother.
That’s what I keep thinking! If she can do all this yoga with her period, she is pretty fortunate! I know so many women whose periods are not so tame – they can really suffer, or at least not do what they normally do during them. It’s easy to talk about “embracing” one’s period when that period doesn’t seriously limit your life – we are not all so lucky. I consider myself lucky with mine and I still tend to have 1-2 days where I do very little except stay home and hunt for a human-sized salt lick.
This reminds me that at 18 at Uni, once a month my job was to follow a friend behind to see if anything was leaking. Poor thing had the most terrible periods and she couldn’t contain it for more than 1 hour.She had to get changed or else….. It took her a while to accept that normal pads were not for her. She started using maternity pads (as super maxi pads) and she still had to change them often. I also had chocolates in my bag: first because I needed them for myself and secondly I had to feed her because of her blood loss she would faint. I was lucky that I had no flow but I had the biggest pain. Still do. And no I don’t want to show it but I want to be able to say it and not getting judged by it.
I will always remember the look of shame of a woman that had this deer in the lights eyes look..I just knew because she was trying to contain herself and stand up without anyone noticing. I knew because when I feel the flow and I am scared I will leak I want to be invisible and pray that nothing transpire. I read it on her. I felt her. And I wanted to go and help her but I didn’t want to bring attention to her. You just get this flush and all the emotions at once. I feel for us, ladies. It’s nature and yet these days everything is made so women shouldn’t exist at all.
Everything is made so that women shouldn’t exist at all? I am honestly curious at what you mean? Please explain.
As in, be quiet, don’t make too much of a fuss, act like a lady, do your best to be unobtrusive and invisible. I hate that act like a lady please.
Yes and make sure nobody see’s or realizes that you’re menstruating because you’ll embarrass them. God forbid anyone should have to witness that. (being sarcastic of course)
There’s more, “could you be smaller? Thinner? You know, just less of you in general?” “Oh and when you hit 40 could you just disappear? We don’t want to see your face anymore”. “Only speak when spoken too”. There is a strong pressure for women to try to be invisible…
I only ever bled once publically when I had just started my period and it was a male friend of mine who whispered to me “I think you got your period”….white pants and all. Of course I felt embarrassed & sped walked home but after that, I kinda felt weirdly liberated. Now idc who I say it to or who hears “I’m on my period, it’s that kinda day” & walk away, smiling like yeah, tampon change
Good for her! I have always believed that tampons or other menstrual supplies should be government subsidised, or better yet, free… but I realise that ain’t gonna happen. I do love men, I really do, but can we all for a moment stop and try and imagine what would happen to world productivity (at the very least) if men got periods?!
Probably menstrual products would be very cheap and accessible even in the developing world. And in the western world, men would probably get at least 3 paid period days a month. Definitely sexism drives these things. And men in general can’t take pain like women can. And yet they wanna tell us what we can and can’t do with our bodies. Smh
Men would be competing with each other as to who could bleed the most and the longest. It would be a sign of virtue, strength, and honor, to bleed more. And everyone would have to know about it. And films would be made focusing on it. And no I dont want to think they would have women doing with it.
teehee, you are so right.
awfully so.
There are movies about periods lol
It’s so true. That and they would have found a cure for all of the nasty symptoms that come with it.
LMAO. I think you’re right teehee.
Why should they be free..?
I don’t get why they should be free either. Toilet paper isn’t. Women don’t HAVE to use mass produced hygiene products, there are plenty of people on Etsy selling re-usable pads and it’s easy to make your own if you don’t want to buy any.
If men got their periods instead of women, I am sure pads and tampons would be free, or very cheap and not taxed. There would already have been some pill made to rid men of menstrual pain that didn’t have side effects like Advil, etc. does. There would be way more research on period “problems” and solutions. Oh and we’d see actual red liquid during period commercials instead of the standard blue.
Macscore you hit the nail on the head.
I too agree tampons and pads should be government-subsidized or free, after all we don’t pay extra for toilet supplies in public restrooms so why should women pay extra to sanitize themselves over a natural bodily function? I wish there was a bigger movement behind this idea.
At least younger women and girls should have access to free sanitary products. Some high school girls in New York City have this type of access now, which is great.
I bet tampons and pads would be free if men got periods. Sigh.
FOOD and WATER aren’t free, you think tampons are gonna be free??
Food and water are basic necessities for survival and yet unless you earn them you don’t get the right to enjoy them and survive.
Why do you think the poor and homeless beg on the street? And no one gives a $hit that they’re probably not gonna last long and starve to death.
We live in capitalism and the western world in particular loves capitalism. Well there it is, nothing is free in capitalism, you have to work for the privilege to stay alive and even more to enjoy life and get help if you need it.
Come to think of it MEDICINE is not free. Hospitals and doctors aren’t free.
Tampons are the least of our problems yet people always tend to focus on the insignificant details.
I agree with everything she’s saying. Just the actively bleeding with no protection makes me feel…ick. Because that has to be uncomfortable. Not shameful. Just uncomfortable.
But ok, point taken. No, we should not be ashamed of our periods. It’s natural.
She states at the end of her (insta video link) post that it is a leak, and not free bleeding, which I agree would be really uncomfortable.
Yeah I saw that and even a leak would be uncomfortable for me. *shrug*
Seems like it’s being used for advertisement. A lot of shame does surround periods, especially for younger people. Sad for young people to be so ashamed of something totally natural. Glad she has the guts to be the face of this campaign because I could never do it!
Peeing and pooping is natural too but not everyone wants to tell people when they have to do it.
It’s not really about brazenly telling people whenever it happens just for yucks. It’s about minimizing the shame and stigma around it. Because men also pee and poop, periods are a source of confusion and embarrassment for women who find their regular cycles of inconvenience and discomfort are considered MORE taboo than those other bodily functions.
Not to mention the fact that there is a literal, appreciable education gap between boys and girls in many parts of the world based expressly on access to sanitary and medical supplies to support periods. I believe it’s a tremendously important feminist cause to be open and honest about the normalcy of periods, to push for reforms to help young girls get to school when on their periods, and yes, to occasionally cause discomfort in the long-term goal of reducing stigma and shame.
nobody makes a big deal out of pooping and peeing and farting because they don’t carry inherent stigma with them.
nobody makes a big deal out of pooping and peeing and farting because they are biological functions that are not solely belonging to women, like menstruation is.
this is about reminding the world that the female half of the human race has a monthly experience that is natural and should NOT be some kind of thing to hide or not talk about because x/y/z.
because of these dialogues, and the normalizing of a normal function, less and less women and young women will have to feel shame for ANY reason, let alone unexpected leaks and such.
Good for her! She is 100% correct. I wish I could force prudish men ( and yes, tRump would be one of them, he called breastfeeding disgusting to a female employee, can you believe that?) to see this over and over. I have a 19 year old daughter and two 16 year old sons, and they see and hear it all, from graphic descriptions from my daughter’s period pain/ flow and her endometriosis surgery and treatment to the slovenly way she leave wrappers, etc around their shared bathroom, and they are also the trash collectors- let me tell you she is a gigantic mess maker ( thank goodness she is at college now)- they are thoroughly exposed to menstruation and body talk is a normal thing here.
I sympathize with the perimenopause business. I’m just a couple months from 51 and still getting periods (not regularly, phew!)- I went through the every three weeks thing for three months then skip three months as a repeating pattern. Now, I believe things are simmering down- this mental clarity is arriving, this calmness, this unflappability- hot flashes are diminishing- you’ll get through it, and it will be mighty and good, and you will be a new and even better person.
I’ve made sure the Sixlets are the same. It’s just body stuff. I’m a governor at our local school and you wouldn’t believe how many boys get to the sex ed and relationships bit of the curriculum and have absolutely no idea whatsoever about periods or anything else about female anatomy or reproduction.
Thanks this really helps to hear! I’m so glad to know that it gets better.
Whaaaat?! Celebitchy is covering the Instagram yogis?! This makes my heart so happy!
I’m a yoga teacher and all around yoga freak, and I’m involved in the Instagram yoga community as well. I follow Steph, and I love her yoga flows and her insights. I saw this video when she posted it, and I had mixed feelings. It made me uncomfortable at first, but I think that was the point. I had to look at that. In the end I was really inspired by her, and I admired her ballsiness.
I’ve always had a heavy flow, and I’ve had to deal with bleeding out many, many times. I’m just now getting to a place where I know that my body and what it does is nothing to be ashamed of.
I still can’t believe I’m seeing this on my Celebitchy! Two worlds collide.
Yeah I mean good for her. I couldn’t handle a leak like that but good on her for destigmatizing menstrual cycles.
…” I feel like total sh-t because I’m on my period”…..Eh, I have days when I feel like a total sh-t even without period.
I didn’t know there is a stigma attached to my period. Men seem not to care at all if I have it or not. I do however try to be prepared, not only because of the stains but also because of the smell. So no free bleeding for me, thanks.
I’ve never felt the need to hide my period from anyone. I guess it’s a different culture.
My eyes rolled too. I give a hard side-eye to anyone who says things are “beautiful” because they’re natural. Nothing about getting my period was beautiful. You know what is beautiful? The medical science that created the IUS so I don’t have to have a period anymore.
You know what freedom is? Not having to plan around an event that happens for 8 days every damn month.
Thank you science.
edit: I meant to reply to someone else, but somehow it didn’t work out 🙂
^^^ Ranic
+1000
I am not ashamed of my period, bit I am not going to walk around with blood on my pants. It’s a hygiene issue.
I know it’s natural. So are dumping and urinating, but I don’t walk around woth either of those on my clothes.
All the likes! I’m not ashamed I have a period but I’m not aiming to wreck my clothes with it or make people around me deal with it. Plus this just all sounds so woo woo 90s goddess feminist, like by drawing attention to our super speshul lady moments (that most women genuinely don’t think about in those terms) we just end up othering ourselves more. Yes periods can be embarrassing, so can getting a blood nose all over your nice new shirt or having a LeakAnn moment or a snot hanging out your nose. Nobody was all that ashamed until this one up here decided we were so she could profit by the looks of it.
I’ve never experienced period shame, but at the same time I’ve never felt the need to bang on about them either.
It’s just a bodily function, I don’t discuss my bowel movements either. In fact I think sh*tting is something Women are more embarrassed about then periods.
Most of the Women I know seem to have to wait about 6 Months into a new relationship before they admit to a bloke that they have bowel movements, while the bloke goes happily off to the toilet each morning, whistling, with the newspaper under his arm.
As for leaking through her clothes, each to their own I suppose, but it rather smacks of attention seeking to me.
I have no shame, but this just seems so unnecessary.
As a woman with fibroids I can’t even imagine….
ETA: Oop she’s not free bleeding. My bad.
Do women in Western culture really not leave the house and miss social events because they’re on their period??? I don’t mean those of us who get cramps from hell. No, just because you bleed? I don’t know whether I just grew up in a more relaxed environment but that seems crazy. I talk about my period sometimes (mostly there’s no reason to, it’s usually not especially painful) and I don’t give a f*ck whether the cashier is a dude. If my significant other ever acted like a child about this, I’d probably have to re-think my life choices but that’s never happened either.
On the free bleeding thing … I mean I don’t free pee either.
This x 1m (and ditto to Tray) . I have chronic diarrhoea which is more debilitating for me than periods (noting I am lucky and don’t get cramps) – I do not, however, feel the need to share this with colleagues or post picture of myself sprinting to the bog on instagram. Nor do I have any interest in hearing any co-workers toilet worries. Over-sharing is over-rated.
I had a friend who never went out, except to school (when we were still so young…), during her period. I don’t know how is it now, but I doubt that she has changed, she probably goes to work only during those days. Anyhow, I could never understand it. In my house growing up, my father bought me and my mom pads, I never burried them at the bottom of the trash bin or shopping cart, I don’t care who sees me buying them, who is the cashier and I most certainly don’t feel ashamed for having periods, it never ocurred to me that I should be.
That being said, I don’t understand this free bleeding thing, I mean, not to mention the obvious things like comfort, clensiness, leaving blood stains everywhere etc, but you also have to wash a bunch of bloody clothes, how is that even practical?
I think it’s worth mentioning that some women don’t go out or take it easy during their periods not for any reason of shame, but because a lot of us genuinely feel BAD during them. We shouldn’t forget that, for some women, periods are a genuinely exhausting or painful time. I’ve met women who tend to not do much during them, and they’re not ashamed, they’re just feeling LOUSY. I think it’s important to not ascribe ulterior motives to people unless we really know for a fact what’s up with them.
Oh, I know for a fact that this friend of mine didn’t have cramps or feel bad, we would sometimes all hang out at her house if she had period during the weekend just so that she wouldn’t have to leave the house.
That’s why I made the comment. I agree with what you’re saying, I also had a friend who had such bad cramps during the first couple of days of her period that she couldn’t even go to school, that is awful.
That’s what I dont understand – hiding my period has never been why I buy tampons.
Dont get me wrong, though, menstruo-phobia or whatever it’s called exists. I’ve had guys look at me weirdly when I talk about it with my friends, as if we were admitting to murder. There was one time a guy even told us to discuss it outside because “he didnt have to know all that”. My friend told him that maybe he could go outside because she DID have to know what was going on with her irregular, dense, and unusually stinky period. But hiding tampons on your cart and not buying them from male cashiers? That sounds like a stretch.
I definitely miss things because of my period, but I have endometriosis and extreme pain, that now comes with extreme bleeding the first two days, as in have to change my tampon and pad every 30 minutes or the blood clots bleed fall and leak through my pants. It’s hard to be out in public with that type of pain and fear of leaking, but otherwise I don’t know many women who stay in from shame or anything.
The emissions of man are literally celebrated and praised as something great. “Money shot”– it makes people rich, even. Its horrible. All the while women are never to be seen, heard, smelled, mentioned, a bother to anyone…… honesstly just really tell me what the difference between either is supposed to be, besides pure bias.
Yeah I gotta say..no lies detected in your comment.
Men in your country walk around with cum stains in their pants? Sounds gross.
You seem a bit blind. What is all porn about? Its a celebration of male virility. And that is just a reflection of the male social construct. (Why is there no male birth control on the market?) It has nothing to do with their laundry. And what country am I even in? Dont divide in order to decieve (yourself).
You are on fire.
This is right, all of it.
Growing up, my very conservative father used to mute the tv whenever a feminine hygiene product commercial came on. It annoyed the shit out of me; like there was shame in it. I was like, ‘You don’t mute toilet paper commercials!’ ‘That’s different.’ ‘Oh, I guess because men use toilet paper too?’ and on and on.
I would never intentionally bleed through my pants, but I have had accidents (haven’t we all?) and I refuse to be embarrassed. I’m female, it’s what happens. I’m not ashamed. Love the boobs, hate the period? Nope, they go hand in hand guys. And I’d never shame a woman if I noticed a spot; I’d just quietly alert her and offer her my jacket if she needed it to wrap around her waist.
I came ready to eyeroll but She actually spoke with sense, I Can’t be mad at that ( but also im like not really a very shame based life form and I’m a Proselytizer for Diva cups since I got on Board 2 years ago, if anything I regret not starting years ago when I heard about em from my Hippier friends)
Love The Diva Cup!
I am regaled daily by my m-I-l about her evry bowel movement and her incontinence so i think im becoming immune to but if it means girls can get access to proper sanitary products then good on her, im fine with that.
Well, I was born in 1975 and period shaming has been a bigly issue my entire period having life.
I love seeing and hearing of folks who are making cracks in that glass ceiling. YOU GO you beautiful yogi!!
I was born way before that and never had an issue.
I would never ‘leak’ in public either, not because of my period but because I usually put a stop to all my leaks, bloody ones or not.
This trends about ‘leaks’ and ‘free nipples’ seem pretty silly stuff from my point of view
I swam competitively, and I remember how hard everyone worked to avoid people knowing they were having their period.
One girl just about died of embarrassment because she had the end of a string hanging from her suit. A clean white string, social devastation.
I remember dropping a sealed tampon on the ground in high school,and everyone freaked out, who’s is it, omg how gross etc.
This stuff totally still exists. And we live in a world when women are still sent to menstruate alone. There was an article recently about a young girl who died after being forced into seclusion for her period.
I love the message behind this, stop making us feel ashamed! It’s natural and we shouldn’t have to hide it! Of course we shouldn’t free bleed all over everything but accidents happen, we’ve all been there and felt the horror and of a spot being seen, which is silly when you think about it. My girlfriends and I have code words and are always asking each other to “check me when I get up”. I once gave my sweater to a stranger when I saw her stand up and she had a huge red spot on her jeans, She teared up and thanked me as she quickly wrapped it around her waist, it shouldn’t be that shameful when you get a leak!
who exactly is making us feel ashamed for having a period?? i have never once in my 46 years been shamed for having one.
How nice for you.
Me neither.
And I was born in conservative and Catholic Italy.
I still remember my mum filling the bathtub with the fabric towels in detergent or bleach for hours on end, she always hailed the new ‘stuff’ as a big progress. She also used to tell my father that if he didn’t like it, he could scuttle off somewhere else.
With all due respect, what many term as “hiding” it is for a lot of us just keeping it private. I prefer to keep my bodily functions to, uh, myself. I don’t appreciate being accused of being “ashamed” simply because I would rather not broadcast my body’s daily routines.
Same. Don’t even get the issue. I wouldn’t like the feeling of blood dripping along my legs anyway, even if at home. Yuck.
I’m embarrassed when I have a booger visible, or when my pants are unzipped and multiple other things. It’s life, embarrassing shit happens every day
I’m shocked. Embarrassed, dirty and ashamed? Hiding tampons? This is just contrary to my experience, personally or in my circle of females. Quite annoyed when a period causes inconvenience but that’s about it. I most certainly see the difficulty for someone unable to afford menstrual products though. I appreciate that focus on a vital need.
This is just disgusting! Period shaming? Uhh…pretty sure no one is being shamed for having a period. Just another made up bunch of junk to get attention. I am so sick of these “feminists” who think they have to show off their vaginas and their t*ts to protest objectification while they objectify themselves, and now feel they have to show off their blood stained panties. I’m so over these women. SO.OVER.IT.
Why, aren’t you such a comprehensive soul! I’m not sure whether you’re aman or a woman, but in case you happen to be the latter, keep in mind that most of the things you can do and have access to nowadays are there thanks to those feminists you seem to hate so much.
Do you remember “blood coming out her…wherever”? That’s period shaming. It’s dismissing women as hysterical–a term with origins that relate to this very discussion.
I agree with you. I was born in 1976, and I feel like there’s a lot of period shame. We hide our tampons,slide them to a gf of she needs one, but always on the DL.
This exactly. Maybe it’s a generational thing? I was born in ’78 and I definitely remember periods being very hush-hush and shameful. Even now, I could never call my boss up and tell him that I’m having insane period cramps and/or heavy flow so I can’t come in to work. I always have to make up some BS excuse. I’m actually really surprised so many women have never experienced the stigma attached to menstruating.
Maybe because, legally, you do not have to provide a reason for taking sick time – mandating naming the reason would violate medical privacy laws. I have never stated the exact nature of an illness/injury to my workplace because I know that.
Because some women (myself included) don’t let the stigma to get attached to their periods. It starts from ourselves, men don’t care what you think about their farting and pooping and they talk about it as they wish, so women should equally not care about their opinion on periods and things would start to change.
Kitten I have stopped doing that–if I miss class because of my period, I email my professors (male and female) with the gritty details of how bad it is. Mine used to be so easy-breezy……….I didn’t even get cramps. Besides bleeding a shit ton, there was nothing else. But now? OMFG. I literally want to curl up and die sometimes. I get cramps, back pain, AND excruciating muscle pain in my thighs. The day I had to stand up and do yoga stretches as subtly as I could manage was the day I decided to stop coming to class if my period was that bad.
@Sam The Pink- Thanks so much for the (condescending) legal opinion but realistically, I can’t call my boss up and tell him I’m taking a sick day without giving him a reason. I work at a small family-owned agency with 7 employees total. If anyone in the office is sick, we know about it, we get asked about it the next day, etc.
@ V/C-Good for you for being honest about it, honey. I’m sorry you’re going through a bad patch. I hate how periods can just suddenly change like that. Mine have gotten longer in duration as I’ve gotten older and my cramps get worse every year it seems. Sigh.
Kitten, I wasn’t being condescending. I was pointing out that if your boss is asking you to give a reason, they’re breaking federal law and should know so. I’m sorry if pointing out an illegal action offends you so much. But no, you have no obligation to tell your employer your medical details and if they hold it against you, you have a lawsuit on your hands.
It seems you guys in USA, from what I read here, that you had it worse than us in Italy. I was born in the early 70ies and never experienced that.
I was actually ‘broadcasting’ my periods quite loudly lol
Yeah I wouldn’t be surprised if it was an American thing. (thanks, Puritans!)
And the thing is, I’m all for people keeping it private if they want to, it’s just the “hush-hush-don’t-talk-about-your-period” stuff that annoys me.
The difference between bodily functions and something like periods is that bodily functions belong to everyone and periods are a female-specific function that is necessary for furthering the human race. In that vain, maybe collectively we could be a bit more open-minded and less juvenile about it.
I never got shit from other women, it was always the guys. And consistently from the guys.
I was single for awhile in my early 20s and was absolutely appalled by the number of guys who were still grossed out by periods, since I would reference mine without real shame.
For anecdata reference, I was born in the 80s, liberal family, middle class non secular upbringing, and attended university where I met some of these man boys.
I remember my mom saying girls shouldn’t go to temple when they are on their periods because you’re considered “dirty” at that time of the month. My God. I didn’t listen…I mean God made women this way so why would he consider it dirty???!!!
Ha Ha my Irish Catholic Mother told me it was a “gift from the Virgin Mary” as she prepared me for puberty.
And my mate who was staying in Italy with her relatives when she got her first period had to run the gauntlet of the whole village congratulating her, and shouting “Ciao Senora” when she finally left the house.
They practically threw her a party.
LOL that’s fascinating !
A friend was once dating an African, I don’t remember from which country, but he told her once that he was so surprised at how we (Europeans) are practically ashamed of women’s periods, when where he comes from people threw a party when a girl got her first period, of course his parents had a party for his sister’s first period too.
Yes it’s actually not that bad in Italy, my first period got announced too lol
Eh….Yeah, I just can’t with this.
Is period shame a thing? Yes, in some places, where women can be considered “unclean” and be discriminated against. Those things happen, and we should oppose them.
But this just reeks of “look at me, please.” Listen, I do not want to “embrace” my period, nor do I wish to “celebrate” it. I honor it as part of the natural process, but that don’t mean I gotta like it. I am blessed with a relatively “easy” period as they go and I still have 1-2 days a month when I want to find the least-uncomfortable position I can and bellow like a mad cow. I also have no desire to express human waste (and yes, it is waste) on my clothes or on the furniture or anywhere else.
Personally, I’d like the idea of combatting harmful myths about menstruation without all….this. Many women prefer the idea of our bodily processes remaining, well, private, and preferring that is not playing into “shame” or “patriarchy.” Maybe I just want to keep my bodily functions to myself. So yeah, we can fight stigma, but please, let’s try to do it in some constructive ways.
Me neither…
THANK YOU! I’m 46. I have never been shamed by a man or a woman for my period. Ever. All of this free bleeding nonsense doesn’t do anything but gross people out! What does free bleeding have to do with feminism or equality?? Why does this woman feel the need to spread her legs for the camera and show off a blood stain? If anything that will repel almost everyone, not misogynists or chauvanistic men. I remember a time – A LONG TIME AGO – when women wanted to be recognized for their minds and their ideas and their individuality and that’s what our fight was about – not free bleeding and showing off our bits and pieces or being a mannerless hag in general. This Yogi person, IMO, is a crackpot. Just sayin’.
I’ve shamelessly used my period to get out of dates. It actually helps me to weed out the immature ones.
Holy smoke. Did this women just suggest basically saying “I’m bleeding from my vagina?” That’s going for shock value rather than normalcy. Also if I wanted to call my vagina pet names rather than vagina that’s not beacause of pretending, hiding or fear. A pet name is a term of endearment by definition. Or sometimes not using the scientific term is just ordinary, with no basis in shame whatsoever. Who calls a jaw a mandible?
I dont know what she’s talking about. I only go to man cashiers bc i find joy in their awkwardness around my jumbo box of tampons. I buy too many tampons bc the big box is always the better deal. I just shrug at my period and say, “…it’s just the way it is…” my guy isnt all weird about periods either…he even asks how my period is that day…. maybe we spend too much time together? We shower more with each other than alone…
Shock, sell, repeat. No need to make it any more groundbreaking than it is.
Jesus Christ, wow. Lol
Really?!? Big woop. Everyone knows we have our periods. All these things people like her do are just for “shock value”. It is all under the guise of furthering a cause, but really it all “look at me!!!”
Free-bleeding is revolting, and not because it’s an “ewwwwww, menstruation- grosssss” thing, either. I’m a nurse in an OBGYN office and I see all manner of body-goo all day erry day. I treat all blood like it’s infected blood- I’m trained to do that. It’s called Universal Precautions and I have to take a blood borne pathogens test every year when I renew my license. ALL blood and blood products all pose the same threat at all times. Even dried blood is still blood. While I absolutely believe that periods should be de-stigmatized, I also absolutely believe that this Free-bleeding bullshit is a threat to public health and should be treated as such. If your blood is leaving your body and getting all over public stuff that other people come into contact with, it had better damn well be because you are injured and can’t help yourself, I don’t care where that blood is coming from.
If you want to free-bleed from somewhere- be it your nose, your crotch, or anywhere else- do it away from other humans. I don’t give a rats ass about whatever statement you’re trying to make. It’s not about if it’s icky or not, it’s about a threat to people’s health.
I 100% agree. It has nothing to do with shame over womanness or what our bodies do. It’s hygiene.
right on, B&C
Someone very privileged has time on her hands. Jesus.
Raising awareness, my arse. Attention seeker. End of.
I don’t consider my period shameful. Maybe it was because I was one of three sisters and between us and my mom, somebody was always on their period. My husband buys supplies for me with no embarrassment and both my elementary aged kids know about periods in a factual way.
The idea of leaking and leaving blood in a public place still feels horrifying. I feel about menstrual blood leaking on my clothes the same way that I would about pee or poo on my clothes.
But still something about the “just because it’s natural doesn’t mean I want to see it” argument reminds me of when my babies were small and the huge debates about breastfeeding in public that were on my mommy boards. (And it was never an issue in real life with friends; it was just a debate online).
So if this makes someone feel better about themselves and less ashamed of their bodies, good for them. But please clean up any bodily fluids you might leave on the seat behind you. (Shudders)
The only yogi I trust is the one who stole picnic baskets and ran from the forest cops in a cartoon world.
Attention seeker
Hmmn. Never knew someone who was ashamed of their period. Should i let snot run down my face because it’s natural? Every human poops, but i don’t flush and light palo santo afterwards because i feel ashamed…. I don’t bring up erections, bunions, or flossing in polite company either.
Oh just another one that needs attention so she’s going to bleed on her clothes and post photos… My god how vile, how desperate how sad you are not to mention repulsive.
I’m in my 30’s. We all talk about our periods. I don’t even call it my period, I tell people “I’m bleeding from my vagina”. Go on twitter girls my age use it as platform to complain about their periods. I agree with her that it aucks that it’s stigmatized but me and girls I know don’t hide it. I am a woman, I bleed. If anything I’m a magical creature because I can bleed for theee days and not die. I won’t be ashamed of that. and if you are a man? You’re going to hear me complain about it unfiltered because you don’t know what it’s like but I’m going to damn sure make sure you understand it.