Check out our latest episode of The Pod Millennial! I talk to photographer Dan Fleuette, author of Rebels, Rogues and Outlaws, about the state of art and culture in America. New episodes drop every Tuesday! Listen, rate (5 stars, of course!), and subscribe!
Let's get into it:
Women have been living with periods and reproductive changes due to aging since Eve took the first bite out of that apple way back in Eden. But now, politicians want something to be done about it.
In front of the Capitol, congresswomen got together to demand that women get extra sick days for their periods. They spoke about how painful menstruation can be. "About 15% of women have period pain so debilitating that it disrupts work or school. That is no small number, and yet we are told to suck it up," said Yassamin Ansari. "That's why, during Women's History Month, I've introduced legislation to give workers up to 12 days of paid leave a year for reproductive health. This would cover period pain, yes, but also menopause symptoms, IVF, miscarriages, endometriosis, flare-ups, and more."
Adelita Grijalva said that asking women to go to work while being in menstrual pain is "an economic violence." Others claimed that women have been "penalized" for their basic reproductive functions, that women have been said to be "overly dramatic." This rhetoric comes from the same women's movement that demanded women be given an equal place, a seat at the boardroom table, that the fact that they were women should not stand in the way of them playing with the big boys.
Now they want to be given a break because it's too hard to carry the same workload while bleeding? What absolute absurdity. Pregnancy deserves accommodations, we get that, that makes sense, you're carrying another person. But an extra 12 days off per year just for the condition of being female? No, thank you, ladies. Do they think this extra cost to employers will help them choose to hire women or aid their decision not to?
And speaking of infantilizing, Washington state Governor Bob Ferguson signed an executive order to ensure that "cabinet agencies have appropriate measures in place to support state employees experiencing menopause symptoms." It's a policy that demands agencies put into place telework options, flexible dress codes, access to cold water, and temperature control. This, of course, is from a governor who doesn't know what a woman is. And from this woman, I don't want any special treatment—especially as this kind of policy is ripe for abuse both by the employer and by the employee.
Massachusetts is holding a Trans Period Pride event intended to be "a consciousness-raising discussion on menstrual equity and the experiences of trans menstruators." In other words, women who wear pants and keep their hair short bleed too, and Massachusetts wants to make sure we all know about it. The thing is: we all know about it. Periods are not new.
Toronto's CN Tower lit all its lights red to honor the so-called Menstrual Health Day. It was stupid, it was demoralizing, and it does nothing for women. I don't know about all you ladies out there, but I don't need my workplace to know about my period, or symptoms of aging, or any of this. I show up to work to do a job, not bitch about how hard it is to do the job because my body hurts.
When I was a kid, I remember hearing about how difficult it was for women in prison to obtain necessary products to deal with their periods. Health classes had girls-only seminars where we could hear about the monthly curse. Menopause was whispered about, if talked about at all. In parts of Southeast Asia, girls go to special huts when they are menstruating to get them out of the home, but since there aren't lots of security measures and the location of these huts is known, girls are raped there, too.
In Islam, women are considered to be unclean while they are menstruating, and I remember a friend telling me that in Islam, she was not permitted to attend mosque with her family while menstruating. Eventually, she just didn't tell anyone, and went anyway. "How would they know?" She said.
Exactly. Women face extra difficulty and some prejudice because of the reproductive conditions of their bodies. But you know what? We deal with it, we don't need carve-outs or exemptions, we can be treated as equally as possible given those factors, and we sure as hell don't need to call attention to it en masse, in the form of federal or state policy. Ugh.
Libby