Why do we refer to menstruation as a "Period?" Why not, "Bleeding," or, "Making a total mess?"

Answer 1

Do you wanna a bed of clouds?
do you wanna walk on a golden roud?
do you wanna be best men in the world?
I can do it for you Im a majico bird!

Answer 2

Because it is a period! Period! Got it? Don't mess with that, It's a simple way of telling an occurence specially for women bleeding on the other side will also applicable for the men.

Answer 3

Menstruation (a period) represents a major stage of puberty in girls; it's one of the many physical signs that a girl is turning into a woman. And like a lot of the other changes associated with puberty, menstruation can be confusing for girls (and guys). Some girls can't wait to start their periods, whereas others may feel afraid or anxious. Many girls and guys don't have a complete understanding of a woman's reproductive system or what actually happens during the menstrual cycle, making the process seem even more mysterious.

Menstruation: why is it so hard to say the word?
"Condoms", "anal sex", all sorts of previously banned terms are regularly bandied about by the mainstream media with scarcely a wince to be seen. Yet how often do you see the word "menstruation"? Nothing (necessarily) to do with the sexual act, so, you'd think, less likely to be taboo, but somehow it is still seen as something not to be mentioned in polite company, or "family newspapers".

I've been reflecting on this after reading Menstruation: A Cultural History, edited by Andrew Shail and Gillian Howie, which provides a historical framework for understanding the strength of the taboo. Also, it makes clear how much beliefs about women contributed to the framing of women as inferior.

It starts, as so often, with Aristotle. For him, there was only one sex, females being merely an inferior form of male. This conclusion arose because as the normal human shape was male, for a woman to be capable of producing a male, menstrual blood must be male, in effect a lesser form of sperm.

When this got picked up by medieval cleric scholars who, theoretically at least, had no contact with women, it only got worse. Menstruation was a cleansing process - uniquely required by the female body - (so emmenagogues - preparations for bring on menstruation - could be seen as pro-natal, rather than abortifacients). Although I wonder how many women really understood what was going on. As a consequence of this belief, menstrual blood and women who were menstruating, could be seen as impure, and dangerous. (The process of churching women after birth certainly had something to do with this - although not according to official theology.)

And it meant that menstruating women would stain mirrors. "If a woman has this flow and looks into a mirror during this time, this mirror becomes like a bloody cloud. And if the mirror is new, one can hardly remove the red staining from the mirror, but if it is old, one can easily remove it," said the Secreta Mullierum [Secrets of Women, written circa 1300.

Then such a lovely image: "Therefore Avicenna says that the uterus of women is like a toilet that stands in the middle of town and to which people go to defecate, just like all residues of the blood from all over the woman's body go to the uterus and are cleaned there." (p. 66)

And a menstruating woman can pollute in all sorts of ways - speaking to one makes a man's voice hoarse; a baby conceived when a woman is menstruating would become leprous, it could give children the evil eye, and sex with a menstruating woman could give men all manner of diseases.

It is not until the 20th century that you start to get to heroes in this story - usually female doctors and researchers, the "most definitive expression of the approach" was in The Hygiene of Menstruation: AN Authoritative Statement by the Medical Women's Federation in 1925, which said: "Menstruation is a natural function; it is not an illness, and girls should therefore continue their normal work and play during the period. It should not be and is not normally accompanied by pain or malaise." (p. 112)

Yet there were still social hangovers. In 1926 Johnson & Johnson printed a "silent purchase coupon" for Modess sanitary napkins, so it "may be obtained in a crowded store without embarrassment or discussion". But still women complained that the shape of the box was easily identifiable. (p. 250)

(Tampons, by the way, for the historical record, were patented in 1931 and put on sale in 1934.)

What strikes me is that growing up in the early Seventies in Australia I was still affected by many of these attitudes. Mum told me carefully that I had to make sure Dad didn't see my sanitary pads. (I don't recall any explanation being given, there was just an air of this being something shameful and dirty.) And this wasn't surprising when I read the sex education books that she'd had at my age, which still referred to "clearing out impurities" in the body and similar.

I wonder what messages young teens get today. Are they any better?


* An interesting side-point: a 14th-century London cleric wrote that some girls started menstruating "in the eleventh or in the tenth year. And at that point they are capable of conception." Which certainly doesn't seem to square with our ideas about medieval nutrition and health. (p. 55)

Answer 4

its because menstration arrives once a month and it occupies a certain period of time. if we will refer it as a bleeding it may also mean another term such as wound and its not really a total mess because it is vital for survival its a form of excretion that helps us get rid of toxic waste so its not really a total mess.

Answer 5

Why not call it "the time when she bitches about every f**king thing you do or not do"? It's because we try to soften it's title to lessen our fear of their blood spurting wrath. If it's called 'menstral cycle' or their 'period' it's like "okay, it'll be over soon.", vs. if it were called, 'Get the f**k outta here she's out for blood 'cause she's losin' hers!' the reaction is... "I have to stay late at the office to finish the extra files on our new clients, so don't wait up for me, I don't wanna die."

Answer 6

In the Old Testament, Jewish women had to be away from others for a "period" of time when they were "unclean."

Just a thought...

Answer 7

Cause they're trying to make it less embarrassing to the people that go through it.
You insensitive jerk.You give us dudes bad names.

Answer 8

how about you get a mop and clean up the mess, you are a neon maxi zoomed weebe

Answer 9

Some ladies refer to it as "treacle week", "on the rags" or "feeling poorly".

Answer 10

menstrual period....
uhm, i have the hard time to explain to u, its hard esp that the answer is obvious but ure messing it up..