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CLASSIFIED: Matter of Social Security

By Matt Pike

            The attitudes of our capitalist society are not evidenced anywhere more clearly than in television commercials. One commercial currently airing focuses on a high school desk with a purse on it. The caption informs the viewer that the purses owner is currently walking down the hall towards a bathroom with a new tampax tampon, which is so compact, she can carry it on her person, without her purse. It then closes by saying, "no one has to know." This is indicative of the societal attitude that the menstrual period is something shameful and wrong. It is considered uncouth in almost all levels of society, and girls are taught from a very young age it is something to be ashamed of. This attitude is evidence of the sexist bias within society, and its internalization by its targets.

            The menstrual cycle is something common to all women, and has been throughout time. Indeed, it is found in most mammals on the face of the earth. Yet, women in our society have been taught that it is something shameful, which is to be hidden. It is a topic not to be brought up in anything but the most intimate of situations, and even then, only between women. If the topic arises, it is quickly downplayed, and the subject changed in the hope of minimizing embarrasement. Society has developed an entire dictionary of slang terms to grant a barely sufficient explanation while avoiding the actual topic in full. If a woman is asked what is happening, she will most often reply, "feminine issues" which is equivalent to saying, " you don't want to know."

            An example of this stigmatization can be found in the products of the Hollywood movie industry. Modern films portray a wide range of touchy subjects, including violence, sex, and even celebrities using the restrooms. All films, however, steer away from the portrayal of a woman discussing or acting in regards to her period. With all that is acceptable in modern cinema, no film has ever portrayed Gina Davis or Sharon Stone carrying a Maxi pad. Something that is such a common part of life for 51% of the planets population would undoubtedly be portrayed heavily in film, and accepted within its portrayal, unless there was a strong social stigmatism.

One interesting question is when this attitude first began. It would seem that there was a point when the perception of natural female processes changed from being a simple fact of what was to a value laden judgment against what it is to be female. There is no evidence that animals exhibit a shameful or scorning attitude towards females having their periods, but human society at some point assigned a negative value to this, and has continued to do so to present. Perhaps one of the first observations to be made is that humans often fear what they do not understand. Without modern medicine and biology to explain what was occurring, early humans must have been terrified by unexplained bleeding. It was most likely initially viewed as an injury of some kind, but when it stopped and then reoccurred,  a new explanation would be needed.

Given the pre-historical tendency to appeal to supernatural forces to explain anything not currently understood, one can only speculate what tales where concocted to explain what was occurring. Any creature that had ever cut itself would naturally associate blood with pain and death, and thus the mythological fables concerning a woman's period would most likely center around demonic possession, or revenge by a deity on all women. The cycle most likely came to be regarded as a curse that had been placed on women, either in retribution, or as a sign of their inferiority to men. This explanation, taken either way, would indicate that women were not as worthy of power as men, and thus their period became a symbol of their inferiority, and was something to be played down and hidden.

            One thing that is unclear, however, is the causal relationship between the consternation of the menstrual period and the instituting of sexism in general. It is possible that society was shifting towards a patriarch cal society in the manner that Lerner explains, and the occurrence of the menstrual cycle only lent additional reason or justification to the development of sexism. It's also possible that the female difference in biology was what initially caused the separation of the sexes in terms of equality.

            In early Native America, many cultures developed a practice of segregating women during their menstrual periods. There was a separate tent within the tribe's camp where women had to remain for the entirety of their period. During this time, they were considered unclean and impure, and no one was to have any contact with them, for fear of being corrupted or dirtied. During this time, it was obviously impossible for the women to interact in a normal fashion, as well as to get their daily work done. This equates to imprisonment for one week a month, for no reason whatsoever. One can only speculate what would go through someone's mind in a situation such as this, but it seems unavoidable that the subject would internalize a feeling of wrongness and inferiority into their sense of self. Not only would an adolescent be experiencing questions herself, but she has her family and entire culture telling her that she is unclean and impure and must be separated. This is hardly a healthy explanation, and the separation and imprisonment would only further distance the situation of the women from that of the men.

It is interesting to note that there is no equivalent stigmatization of anything associated with men. This assignment of negative value is unique to this aspect of femininity, despite the fact that men are not perfect, nor free from "undesirable" traits. Men have differences in there biology from that of females, yet no aspect of masculine biology has ever been singled out as a target for all of society. What is perhaps most interesting is the fact that women themselves ascribe to this view. It is not the case that men object to the mention of menstruation while women see no problems in its discussion. Both men and women shy away from the topic in conversation and in action. Men and women feel embarrassed the first time they purchace "feminine products" from the grocery store. 

If one considers Sartre's analysis of interpersonal relationships, it becomes apparent that much of an individuals actions are dictated by fear of judgment by another. Sartre develops a conception that all humans possess a duality of existing as a Being-for-itself and as a Being-in-itself. If one is engaged in actions with no one else present, the being is acting in a purely "for-itself" manner, driven purely by interacting with the surroundings in pursuit of one's desires. The instant that another being arrives, the subject becomes aware of the possibility that the other could  perceive them as an object, and assign a value of judgment to them. It is from this objectification that all inequalities stem. This is true for cases of racism, sexism, political oppression, and even menstruation.

A woman's biology dictates that she will experience menstruation for a large portion of her life. If this is something that she experiences in private, solely as a being-for-itself, then it simply is what it is. The moment that something happens to reveal this to others, for example, having tampons revealed by a bag search at an airport, she will suddenly and almost invariably become aware of the others ability to judge and objectify her, and will feel embarrassed. She feels that an element of her life that should remain private has been dragged into the light of public scrutiny. This makes her feel vulnerable in her interactions with those others, because now they are aware of a part of her being that she wished to keep hidden. The woman perceives this as a loss of power on her side in the interactions with the other, and will often leave the interaction feeling undermined as an individual. This is then reinforced every time the individual encounters others, and their accompanying societal attitude, leading to an internalization of the judgment; and thus, the cycle perpetuates itself. All this results from the stigmatization that society imposed in its ignorance.

Perhaps this development was unavoidable for early civilization due to its inability of understanding the natural processes at work within the human body. Modern technology, however, has successfully explained what is occurring, and what purpose it serves. Menstrual bleeding is not a result of some ancient curse by the Gods, nor a sign that women are inferior to men. It is not a sign of demonic possession, or a sinister alien plan for domination of the earth, and yet we still treat it as such. It is a natural part of all that is, an integral part in the processes of harmony and continuity within the universe, and should be uplifted as such, not hidden away and stamped "Classified: need to know basis only". For sexism to truly be eradicated, all aspects of femininity must be acknowledged and respected.

Random Appendix Insert

On a similar (and humorous) note, everything associated with PMS is negative, as evidenced by this email a friend (female) sent me.

Humour-How to tell if she's got PMS:

* She stops reading Cosmo and starts reading Guns and Ammo.

* She buys $100 worth of chocolate and justifies it by saying "But honey, I 

just know it's one of the major food groups."

* She puts on one of those pads with "wings," then flies off the roof

laughing hysterically while riding her broom.

* She's suddenly developed a new talent for spinning her head around in 360 

degree circles.

* She retains more water than Lake Superior.

* She buys me a new T-shirt with a "bulls eye" on the front.

* When I ask her to please pass the salt at the dinner table and she says, 

"All I ever do is give, give, give! AM I SUPPOSED TO DO EVERYTHING?"

* She enrolls in the Lizzie Borden School of Charm.

* She orders 3 Big Macs, 4 large fries, a bucket of Chicken McNuggets, and 

then mauls the manager because they're out of Diet Caffeine-free Coke.

* She denies she's in a bad mood as she pops a clip into her semiautomatic 

and "chambers a round."