Long answer short: History is dumb. But just how dumb?
For as long as people have been walking the Earth, almost 50 per cent have been menstruating.
Yet it has taken thousands of years for people to accept that for us with a uterus, there’s a time of the month where our need for chocolate and panadol increases ten-fold.
People who menstruate have been likened to dark witches in the Ancient Roman times meanwhile an important Hindu goddess, Kamakhya, depicted menstruating, has a festival and temple in her honour [1].
Roman philosopher Pliny the Elder wrote about the extraordinary powers of a menstruating woman; he said they could stop hail storms and lightning as well as kill crops [1]. A Viennese scientist Bela Schick believed in the 1920s that women released a substance he called ‘menotoxins’ which destroyed plants and stopped dough rising and beer fermenting [1].
Hysteria continues to be linked to menstruation through modern-day comedy skits such as a school bully asking his teacher “Have you got your period or what, miss?” when she gives him a well-deserved telling off [2]. Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries it was widely believed that hysteria was due to the retention of sexual deprivation [3]. How many times have you heard in Hollywood films and everyday life that when a person is under-the-pump they just need to get a good lay? In the 16th and 17th centuries, people didn’t have a vibrator to ease their stresses and self-treatments such as masturbation was taboo [4]. Heterosexual marriage with regular sex was the prescription filled by most doctors in these times [4].
Old mate Pliny the Elder had another magical purpose for our crimson waves. He believed contact with menstrual blood would turn new wine sour, make the fruit of trees fall off, the edge of steel and the gleam of ivory dull and ornaments of bronze and iron rust. He believed the taste of Aunt Flow would drive dogs mad and infect their bites with an incurable poison [1].
Medieval Christianity was filled with shaming periods. British historian Greg Jenner wrote about the lengths women took to mask their cycles from public including carrying sweet smelling herbs around their necks and waists [5]. The ashes of a toad worn near the vagina was another trick for our medieval European ancestors [1]. However, pain relief was not available as the Church believed God wanted each cramp to reminder people of Eve’s original sin [5].
In our not-to-distant past, the American Journal of Obstetrics argued in 1875 that menstruation was “pathological, proof of the inactivity and threatened atrophy of the uterus.” [6] The article continued to explain that period sex was dangerous, forbidden and the source of male gonorrhea, but the likely key to contraception.
Unfortunately these prejudices towards menstruation are far from over.
Hillary Clinton faced concerns that she might hit the launch codes due to severe PMS in 2016 [7] and at The Cova Project, we are constantly faced with the realities of myths and misconceptions surrounding menstruation as a barrier to our work.
“I believe a major contributor to period poverty is male heavy governments that have grown up knowing periods only as ‘women’s business’ or something to be mocked or disgusted by.” The Cova Project founder G.D Anderson said.
“The result of men in power being misled by history’s nonsense is that progress is slow. Governments are not eager to step up and say, ‘let’s work on this issue’ because they’ve been told it’s not really an issue. In Nakivale Refugee Settlement, Uganda, girls are still using banana fibre as a substitute for pads. Sounds like a problem to me.”
“When we visit our projects, I’m constantly shocked by how universal the feeling of shame is,” she said.
“The girls tell me they’re ashamed to go to school on their period or to even talk about it.
“Lack of education, patriarchal societies and a general willingness not to do better have left women tied up when it comes to menstruation.
“The cure is an open dialogue and education. We need to have conversations with everyone. We need to be period positive, share our experiences; the good the bad and the ugly and slowly dismantle the shame that comes with them.
“The Cova Project is part of a global sisterhood spanning generations and globally we stand to represent and serve those we can support through easing menstruation with a cup.”
