Women are always apologizing. They’re always hiding, always embarrassed by things they shouldn’t be embarrassed about. You can see them in droves on any given day, hiding tampons under other groceries as if they’re drug tests, awkwardly putting them on the checkout belt when the cashier is male, avoiding eye contact with him when he picks it up to scan it.
You can see them whispering requests for pads to each other when one of them is having an unexpected visit from Aunt Flo, handing them off to each other inconspicuously like an ’80s after school drug deal, hastily tripping all over themselves to pick one up that may have fallen out of their bags in public. It’s as though being caught with a sanitary napkin is like walking around with a Scarlet Letter on your chest.
Yet somehow, buying toilet paper, a utensil that takes care of much grosser outputs from the human body than tampons do, isn’t embarrassing. Anyone can walk into a store and loudly inquire what aisle the TP hangs out in without a second thought, and there’s a very simple reason for that:
Only women experience menstruation.
Men do not. This particular ordeal plagues only the female body. That is why it’s taboo. That is why expressing any indication that we may be on our periods is an uncomfortable conversation topic. That is why we are compelled to conceal our tampons at the bottom of our bags. That is why many men get so uncomfortable when they are looking to pick up tampons for their significant other; Because skulking around in the feminine hygiene aisle is somehow a better option than just asking a store worker where he can find “Pearl.”
The fact that a normal bodily function is a social unmentionable is outrageous, and it is only one of the many little things that show just how low on the totem pole women’s issues actually are in our society. Yes, many of us have reached a point where we no longer care whether someone sees a tampon in our hands, but that isn’t the norm.
Worst of all, so many of us don’t even seem to see why that’s a problem, and that is the result of systematic sexism and brainwashing that is still rampant in our world.
So, what’s the fix?
Conversation. Just like we talk about the major issues, we have to talk about the minor as ones, as well. This is simply because smaller concerns pile up on top of each other to create a mountain that started as a molehill. Those conversations have to include the men because ignorance and lack of education about menstruation is a key component as to why it has become taboo.
We have to stop avoiding things that make us uncomfortable because we have no chance of building bridges and progressing positively together if we don’t. Women experience menstruation, and it is okay to talk about it.
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