Women menstruate. It’s a natural, biological fact. However, society attaches wider connotations to the process of menstruation, all of them negative. Menstruation is often made to be one of the all-eclipsing facets about a woman’s body-jokes on how they become “irrational” or plain old “crazy” during “that time of the month“.
The time of menstruation becomes another excuse for patriarchal society to impose further rules to regulate their behaviour and their attitude towards their own bodies. We have all heard such illogical restrictions – don’t go to places of worship, don’t touch pickles, don’t go into the kitchen, and a similar series of don’ts. Menstruation is perceived as something dirty, impure and shameful, to be strictly kept hush-hush. This is indicative of women’s existing lower status in society.
You will probably remember the time your parents explained menstruation to you or the fact that it’s just another biological phenomenon. Or not, most likely. Because it is quite possible that conversation never really happened. To dispel the taboos and misconceptions regarding menstruation, it is important to begin an open conversation. With women sharing their personal experience with first period, this video by Old Delhi Films is a step in that direction.
