I bleed monthly, deal with it.
I was using the washroom a couple days ago at McMaster, and on the back of the stall door was an advertisement for tampons. Good spot for advertising but the message? Not so great. It was for OB tampons and its main message was that OB tampons were so small you could carry them into the bathroom without anyone knowing. *GASP* because heaven forbid someone should know that my vagina bleeds once a month. Most women’s do but we have created and cultivate such a culture of shame around something that is natural to our bodies. However, we down play it; we make smaller tampons, ignore it, and pretend as if it does not exist. If the daily practices of humans are being shut away in a small room it is no wonder that this condition of monthly bleeding is also being tucked away as a topic that nice people do not talk about.
There is an on going debate about which is more hygienic: the tampon or the pad. A tampon being an internal menstrual elimination product and a pad being the external product. The tampon keeps the discharge hidden from the visible eye and allows a woman to deny the full range of human behavior. The use of a pad has been referred to as a diaper as part of advertising campaigns and in casual conversations because of the idea that a woman is sitting in her own waste. Both products are storing the discharge in close proximity with the body until changed, the only difference is that one is visible and the other is not. Both products are designed to absorb the liquid so, ideally, the pad would keep any moisture off the skin of a woman eliminating being in contact with the waste. It is problematic to consider how this understanding of product use affects women who may not have the financial recourses to purchase products and instead use rags or other means to collect the flow. If a woman, who uses a pad is dirty then what does this make a woman who uses a rag? This association of cleanliness and the bathroom has carried over to the biological production of women as a commercial endeavor.
At first glance, these products may appear to be more convenient by keeping a woman’s clothes clean from staining, being disposable, and being easily hidden, but upon closer inspection of the rituals surrounding the use of pads, another story is being told. Associated with this shame are the rituals that keep menstruation a secretive part of life and as clean as possible. This would encompass smuggling pads to the bathroom, or coughing when opening noisy plastic wrappers in the washrooms. Even the fact that in most public washrooms there is a sanitary napkin disposal unit conveniently located right next to the toilet in each female stall. Convenient for the user she doesn’t have to try and again smuggle the pad out of the stall into the very visible garbage but how convenient is it for the custodial staff who have to not only empty the large garbage but also all the small garbages in the stalls. This is extra work that is now necessary because no woman wants to walk out of a stale and have other women know that they had to deal with their period and are walking around dirty. There is no convenience in that but there is reinforcement of secrecy and of shame.
This feeling of shame women encounter does not come naturally to them, it is taught to them; it is incorporated as a part of their gender role. This social practice is preformed out of fear of the rejection one may face from peers. To step outside of the regulated norm would be to face social exile, so in a way it is easier to accept these norms then to fight them. Young girls hear the hushed conversations and see the advertisements that are telling them how terrible a period is, how it does not have to interrupt life if you use this or that product, and they are told how to hide their pads and how to hide them well.
It is to the advantage of men to keep the feminine secret; it keeps them comfortable and their body as the norm. It also allows for the erotics of representation to remain in their favor because the vagina stays a clean and sexual place. There is no association this way with the dirty or unclean. It allows men to feel dominance over women because it gives them the power to shape how a woman sees herself. This is obviously problematic because it allows one group’s preference to determine another’s gender role. It is because of males discomfort and their influence on women that the sanitary napkin has become an euphemism of shame.
At first glance seeing a box of pads on a shelf may appear harmless, just another product, but behind it is a pool of secrets and shame. A sanitary napkin holds more meaning and restrictions to a women’s view of herself then it first lets on. All the soap, perfumes, pads and scented products used are part of the rituals woman partake in to remove the biological remains of their periods and lift the shame associated with this aspect of their lives. The role of a sanitary napkin in this context is of a medium Western dominant culture uses to influence the rituals and development of a woman’s gender experience. Reflecting the fragile nature of what it means to be a woman and an indicator of how gender can be adapted to fit the desired roles. Mundane technologies which are used each day are determining how males and females will see themselves, an invisible dialogue which is being taught to younger generations. These are euphemisms of a cultural conflict surrounding the construction of gender.
BAH. If you cannot tell after this rant, I am pissed about how we have constructed menstruation. I bleed monthly; deal with it because it is not going away for a while.
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