“In the red tent, the truth is known. In the red tent, where days pass like a gentle stream, as the gift of Inanna courses through us, cleansing the body of last month’s death, preparing the body to receive the new month’s life, women give thanks — for repose and restoration, for the knowledge that life comes from between our legs, and that life costs blood.”
― Anita Diamant, The Red Tent
Genesis 3 details the story of Adam and Eve, the mythological birth of original sin. In the story, a serpent tempts Eve with the forbidden fruit of knowledge of good and evil. Eve sees the beauty of the delectable fruit, and she hears the promises of power the serpent makes about what will happen when she eats the fruit, so she takes a bite of it, and gives some to her husband. Upon eating the fruit, Adam and Eve realize that they are naked and make themselves clothes, unleashing shame on humanity for all time to come. When God sees what Adam and Eve have done, he unleashes unto them multiple punishments, with women getting the worse punishment. God tells Eve, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you” (Genesis 3:16). Thus, in Genesis was the birth not only of shame, but the shame around female reproduction. Female functions: menstruation, childbirth became punishment from original sin, the torment of human existence. The mythology of the female body that has emerged from this bible story, and all stories like it, has resulted in stigma, and shame over biological function, especially menstruation. This stigma has been detrimental to women’s health, and women’s position in society. It has left women isolated, ashamed, embarrassed, sequestered. It has emboldened the idea that women’s bodies must be kept secret; they are too dirty to expose to the world. The stigma around menstruation must be lifted on a wide socio-cultural scale. Candid conversations on the reality of being in a female body must be had on a global scale, because women deserve to appreciate and advocate for their beautiful, complex biology. The female body is mystifying and powerful. The female body grows life, it tells time just as the sun and moon. It is imperative that women view their bodies in this way, for the continuation of shame centered on the female body leaves women vulnerable to low self esteem, illness, and poor conditions. In this paper I will outline how menstruation has become a social stigma, and I will show how this social stigma has negatively impacted women’s mental and physical health across the globe. I will then argue that society must take strides to eliminate the stigma around menstruation through candid conversations and direct measures to ensure the safety of the world’s women.
Stigmas mark or separate people who have a ‘defect.’ Stigmatization originated from a practice of the ancient greeks, where criminals and slaves were branded to mark their status as such (Goffman 1963). The ancient Greeks who were not branded acted with contempt and disgust towards branded individuals, avoiding all social interactions with these people (Goffman 1963). Stigmatized individuals thus became a danger, something that must be seen so as to be controlled (Johnston-Robledo, Chrisler 2013). In the journal Sex Roles: A Journal of Research Ingrid Johnson-Robledo and Joan Chrisler authored the article “The Menstrual Mark: Menstruation as Social Stigma.” In this article, the authors argue that menstruation is a source of social stigma for women (Johnston-Robledo, Chrisler 2013). Johnson-Robledo and Chrisler bring forward that menstrual blood is viewed as more disgusting than other bodily fluids such as breast milk and semen, and visible signs of menstruation “represent emblems of girl’s contamination”(Johnston-Robledo, Chrisler 2013). This article also illuminates research that shows “empirically even reminders of menstrual blood (e.g tampons) can lead to avoidance and social distancing, which suggests that menstrual blood may serve as a blemish on womens character,” its visibility is the physical reminder that a woman’s body is not that of the privileged male body (Johnston-Robledo, Chrisler 2013). Furthermore, this article brings forward that “menstruation is more like a hidden than a visible stigma because women go to a great deal of effort to conceal it (Oxley 1998). Menstrual hygiene products (e.g., tampons, pads) are designed to absorb fluid and odors, not to be visible through one's clothes, to be small enough to carry unobtrusively in one's purse, and to be discreetly discarded in a bathroom container. It is usually not possible to know for certain that a woman is menstruating unless she says so or unless menstrual blood leaks through her clothes and exposes her then stigmatized condition” (Johnston-Robledo, Chrisler 2013). The framing of menstruation as disgusting, and the desire to hide this biological process alienates women, marking them as “other.”
While differences between the sexes are not intrinsically wrong, there is no such aversion for male biology. As a result of this stigma, female bodies and minds are outcasted, their experiences are silenced. They are forced to grapple with the reality of being in a female body in secret. This secret is tightly sealed and concealed because women are other, they are the second sex. Their experience is not known except for that it is not part of mankind. In Simone de Beauvoir's pivotal feminist philosophy The Second Sex De Beauvoir asserts that throughout history men are considered the default, and women are considered to be other. Men and women alike define women not in relation to themselves, but in relation to men, but this cannot work. When confronted with the reality of being a woman, what child bearing truly entails, the horror of feminine fertility is exposed, an experience so starkly different to men that women are considered almost alien. In order to align themselves with the ideal male body, women have hidden menstruation. In hiding this process, they have allowed for a narrative to persist that something is wrong with women because they menstruate and men do not. However, nothing is wrong with women, and the simple fact is life is not possible without both male and female biological processes. Significant strides for women have been made since DeBeauvoir authored this book in 1949. Women have now secured space in society, and they are not limited to define themselves in relation to men. They are no longer limited to roles as daughter’s, mother’s and grandmother’s; their dreams and aspirations go beyond creating and maintaining families, to being a male counterpart. Women are separate entities, just as any other individual. While these instrumental strides towards gender equality have been made, the taboo around female physiology persists. This taboo, or stigma perpetuates feminine invisibility, nurtures shame and disgust, and leaves women at a stalemate for progress.
The dimension of invisibility, where menstruation must be hidden, has had devastating effects on women. Always, an American brand of menstrual hygiene products, collaborated with WASH United, an organization dedicated to tackling issues of sanitation and hygiene, and Glocalities, a digital marketing firm, to survey and release how the stigmatization of menstruation affects women, both young and old. They collected data from 5 countries, and the results provide compelling insight into the harms this stigmatization causes. According to the survey, 52% of women lose confidence at puberty, and starting their period marked their most profound confidence drop. On average, 41% of women felt ashamed and embarrassed about their period, with 59% of women trying to hide their period. Additionally, less than half of adult women said they support candid conversations about their period, and only 30% of women said that they actually have honest conversations about their period. When people do discuss their period, the conversations are negative; approximately 1 in 3 women referred to their period as gross or disgusting. This has had a demonstrable impact, especially for young women, with 42% of young women feeling self conscious, 33% feeling embarrassed, and 26% feeling less confident. According to the award winning article “Menstrual Management: An Exploratory Study” from the journal Feminism and Psychology reported that “both undergraduate women and women employed in the medical professions reported high levels of self-consciousness during menstruation” (Oxley 1998). Additionally, these women cited extra precautions and activities they avoided during their period: they would wear baggy clothes, they preferred tampons to sanitary napkins, they avoided swimming or sexual activities, and they complained of bloating and break outs (Oxley 1998). What all of these avoidances and precautions have in common is the underlying assumption that these women’s bodies are betraying them, that there is something wrong with them. However, this cannot be the case when menstruation comes down to mere biology, biology of half of the human race. Oxley elaborates further, and advocates for a vastly different approach to tackling the period taboo. She illuminates that if women feel betrayed by their bodies during menstruation, women do not fully accept themselves throughout the duration of their life (Oxley 1998). When their period starts, their love of their body stops and can only resume once their cycle finishes. However, women deserve to love their bodies during all of its phases, and Oxley (2008) argues that cultures must reframe the way menstruation is viewed, they must attempt to reduce the stigma around their bodily function so as to love themselves for the complex beings they are, capable of supporting life.
The stigmatization of menstruation creates not only mental harm, it creates sociological and physical harm as well on a global scale, especially in cultures that are expressly patriarchal such as India. This can be seen clearly in the article “Menstrual Justice: A Missing Element in India’s Health Policies” by Swatija Manorama and Radhika Desai. In India, where this research is directed, menstruation is largely shamed and silenced, “ the demarcation of female bodies as menstruating bodies is embedded deeply within religious, social, cultural, and political milieu and is customarily stigmatizing” (Manorama Desai 2020). As a result of this stigma, Indian women’s health suffers greatly. Authors Manorama and Desai present compelling research from UNICEF, the Indian Institute of Population Studies, and the India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative Collaborators that provide a picture of the health crisis women are dealing with. For example, Girl-children encounter unequal access to the nutritional, medical, and emotional support systems essential to basic health, approximately 38% girls under five are stunted, 21% are wasted, and 36% are underweight. Additionally, in the age group 15–19, 47% are underweight, compared to 22.9% in the age group 15–49. Based on this data, the authors conclude, “given their scale, these nutritional imbalances have a significant impact on menstrual health, as poor nutrition can delay menarche and disrupt the menstrual cycle” (Manorama Desai 2020). Additionally, their reproductive health suffers as well because there is “sociocultural silence and shame of what constitutes a ‘normal’ period, [and] Indian women often refrain from reporting symptoms associated with gynecological morbidities; they consider symptoms such as severe pain to be part and parcel of being women” (Manorama Desai 2020). The authors present data showing that Reproductive Tract Infections (RTIs) and menstrual disorders are among the most commonly observed gynecological morbidities, with increased incidence in older women, poor women, women with lower literacy, married women, and impoverished women (Manorama Desai 2020). RTI’s and menstrual disorders leading to death basically means that these women are just not taking care of themselves at a basic level, or getting the help they need in a timely fashion; they are extremely preventable ailments. To remedy the health crises of these women in India, as well as nations with similar cultural values, the authors propose a non reductionist approach to women’s health, an approach that goes beyond what has been ordinarily valued such as fertility to address the discrimination, and human rights violations that deem women’s bodies as “impure” on sociological and religious level (Manorama Desai 2020).
Part of the problem with menstruation being seen as something wrong with women is that it has caused taking sanitary precautions to become a luxury instead of a necessity. According to the National Organization for Women, the average woman spends twenty dollars a cycle on feminine hygiene products, amounting to about eighteen thousand dollars during their lifetime (Kim 2021). This is not cheap, and has had detrimental health effects on women who are impoverished. Homeless women, for example, may not be able to afford the feminine hygiene products that they need. Homelessness is a problem within itself, and homeless shelters often lack the resources to provide enough feminine hygiene products to overcrowded populations for the duration of homeless women's entire cycles. As a result, homeless women may overuse the few products given to them, and this over use in turn results in physical health problems. The over-use of pads and tampons can lead to toxic shock syndrome, when staph bacteria infects the blood stream and can cause sudden death, and the buildup of other bacteria may also wreak havoc on a woman’s health. Additionally, if a homeless woman is forced to use toilet paper or other objects as a makeshift sanitary napkin, they expose themselves to bacteria that can lead to yeast infections and urinary tract infections. Furthermore, women who are homeless may be denied access to general hygiene. They may be unable to shower and wash themselves. Compounded with the stigmatization of menstruation, women being unable to clean themselves as they menstruate creates an entirely separate horror. Not only are they denied the dignity of general hygiene, they feel exponentially more unclean, embarrassed, and alone during their cycle, and they may not seek help because of this deep stigmatization. While there is increased discourse surrounding the plight of women who are homeless, and many organizations have taken direct measures to provide homeless shelters with access to feminine hygiene products, there is still a general lack of discussion of how women faced with life crises must grapple with menstruation. An example of this would be women imprisoned in concentration camps during the holocaust. In Marion Kaplan’s article in the Feminist Studies Journal, her article “Jewish Women in Nazi Germany: Daily Life, Daily Struggles” asserts that “racism and persecution as well as survival meant something different for women than men—in practical and psychological terms” (Kaplan 1990). Women in the Holocaust were not only confronted with the horrors of the Holocaust as seen through public eyes, they were also forced to struggle with their physiology which added an alternative layer of torture. One woman who survived the Holocaust details why the lack of feminine supplies was especially horrific in JoAnn Owusu’s feature for History Today. The feature highlights Trude Levi’s account of coping with menstruation in camps, “We had no water to wash ourselves, we had no underwear. We could go nowhere. Everything was sticking to us, and for me, that was perhaps the most dehumanizing thing of everything”(Owusu 2019). Owusu elaborates on this stating that in her research “many women have talked about how menstruating with no access to supplies made them feel subhuman. It is the specific ‘dirt’ of menstruation more than any other dirt, and the fact that their menstrual blood marked them as female, that made these women feel as though they were the lowest level of humanity” (Owusu 2019). Likewise, in all human travesties similar and dissimilar to the Holocaust, through all human rights violations, women are denied dignity in a way that is all encompassing.
With the same gusto that people have fought for women’s right to vote, the right for a woman to not be discriminated against, and for general fairness that exists today, people must fight the stigmatization of menstruation to ensure women’s bodies do not remain invisible. In Jennifer Weiss Wolff’s article “U.S. Policymaking to Address Menstruation: Advancing an Equity Agenda” Wolff illuminates how in recent years starting in 2015, the movement for “menstrual equity” has cultivated meaningful change in public policy, and this change has facilitated in the upheaval of menstrual stigma. Over the past decade, activist have sought to remove the ‘tampon tax,’ the tax placed on feminine hygiene products that is not only discriminatory in an economic sense, but also provides barriers for women who cannot afford it. Discussions about the ‘tampon tax’ and the problems surrounding it have fostered discussions onto the widespread implications of menstruation that are social, economic, medical, and other wise (Wolff 2020). The results of this open forum are very promising, Wolff brings forward that “numerous campaigns to address the taxation of menstrual products have long been underway around the world. Notable examples are Kenya, Canada, England, Malaysia, India, Australia, and South Africa, all countries where the equivalent of sales tax has been successfully challenged” (Wolff 2020). In the United States, legislators have responded to the demand for menstrual equity, Between 2016 and 2018, twenty four state legislators debated on whether or not to get rid of the tampon tax, with successful measures being taken in Chicago, Florida, Connecticut, and Washington D.C. (Wolff 2020). In a hopeful address to the future, Wolff writes that “Menstruation provides an extraordinary lens for discerning whether these measures [towards menstrual equity] enable full, fair societal participation” (Wolff 2020). Wolff advocates that society must go further than product accessibility and safety, because that “is not the end game for a holistic menstrual agenda, or indeed agenda for gender equality” (Wolff 2020). Wolff argues that the end game towards gender equality is to eliminate the stigma around menstruation in the midst of menstrual equity’s policy success, “ the challenge is to move from the tangible, visible, and easily presentable to the underlying menstrual equity challenges that are much more deeply ingrained in society and accentuate gender inequalities” (Wolff 2020). She stresses that there are “possibilities to address these structural challenges [which] are educational opportunities that expand curricula on menstruation—beyond health and hygiene to integrate relevant content in lessons in history, literature, and science. This would go a long way helping to reduce the stigma and create an equitable learning environment” (Wolff 2020). Thus, it is essential that governments across the globe continue to implement policy surrounding menstrual equity because these policies spark conversations and opportunities to educate individuals, lessening the negative stigma surrounding menstruation.
People who menstruate comprise half of the population. Their bodies are no rarity, so why must the stigma around them persist? The stigma around menstruation negatively impacts the mind, body, and spirit of women. It adds additional burden to those who are already suffering, denying them the right to feel dignified and human. Menstruation is not wrong or dirty, and perpetuating this idea fosters otherness. Women are not other, they are not monstrous, gross, or disgusting. Women are life givers. Women carry, within their bodies, the capacity to grow and nurture life, something so precious it ought to be celebrated, not concealed and denigrated. Instead of framing menstruation as alien, secret, vile, and dirty, it should be framed as necessary, pivotal, awe-inspiring. Should menstruation start to be viewed this way, women would feel empowered by their bodies instead of betrayed. Governments and Institutions would seek to protect precious bodies capable of fortifying life for all time to come. Their bodies would no longer be invisible, and they would not have to grapple with their own biology in secret.
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