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franceslievensM. LeBlanc has written a nice piece wherein she comes out of the menstruation closet over on Bitch. Ph.D.'s blog. She coins the expression "culture of concealment" to indicate the way women handle their period. One can safely assume that there is a lot of shame surrounding That Time of the Month (TTotM), but having experienced bloody clothes more than once in secondary school (no girls in class that could borrow me something and schools don't seem to be very open in where to get pads or tampons in case of emergency) I can assure you the shame is more related to walking around with a blood stain on your clothes than that everyone knows you're having your period. I'd feel equally bad when I found out I'd sat in ketchup.
After 16 years of menstruation cycles I have become quite confident in listening to my body and knowing when to put a tampon in my bag – just in case. I'm still very shy in talking about it, though. But I'm very shy in talking about everything, so usually I'm crampy for the outside world. Every good listener knows what that word means: me feeling awful and wanting to lie down for a couple of hours.
I come from a family of women, so periods and other girly things were often discussed, especially when both my aunts would get debilitating migraines and Big Sis suffered from excruciating pains (later in her life she'd get the migraines as well). I didn't know how to get the whole thing across to men, though. Boyfriends were a difficult issue. It took some persuading before I got that sex and periods do go together and that boyfriends don't make an issue about it.
I do conceal my period most of the time, but it's not really a conscious thing. It's just I don't feel crampy after the first day, and I don't bleed that much, so I like to forget about it myself. Forgetting does make me end up with bloodstains in my knickers every couple of months, but my boyfriend doesn't mind bloody knickers lying in the sink* – as long as I get them out of there when he wants to brush his teeth.
*As learned from my mother: one can rinse blood from clothes by putting them into cold water when the blood hasn't dried yet.
After 16 years of menstruation cycles I have become quite confident in listening to my body and knowing when to put a tampon in my bag – just in case. I'm still very shy in talking about it, though. But I'm very shy in talking about everything, so usually I'm crampy for the outside world. Every good listener knows what that word means: me feeling awful and wanting to lie down for a couple of hours.
I come from a family of women, so periods and other girly things were often discussed, especially when both my aunts would get debilitating migraines and Big Sis suffered from excruciating pains (later in her life she'd get the migraines as well). I didn't know how to get the whole thing across to men, though. Boyfriends were a difficult issue. It took some persuading before I got that sex and periods do go together and that boyfriends don't make an issue about it.
I do conceal my period most of the time, but it's not really a conscious thing. It's just I don't feel crampy after the first day, and I don't bleed that much, so I like to forget about it myself. Forgetting does make me end up with bloodstains in my knickers every couple of months, but my boyfriend doesn't mind bloody knickers lying in the sink* – as long as I get them out of there when he wants to brush his teeth.
*As learned from my mother: one can rinse blood from clothes by putting them into cold water when the blood hasn't dried yet.
