WIDENING OUR SPECTRUM

GENDER AND PERIODS

A couple of years back, the author of the famous Harry Potter series had faced massive backlash when she tweeted showing her confusion about why people who menstruate aren’t just called “Women” ? This is what her tweet read - “ ‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”

 

A similar event had unfolded in Texas, the USA nearly 9 months back from today where the representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez used the term “menstruating person’s body “referring to the bodies of all the females out there”, for which, she was heavily criticized. 

 

Not just these two, but for sure there must be a large number of people who find it hard to differentiate between a woman and a menstruator even in 2022. Although you expect more awareness from public figures like these two persons, there is still a huge lack of awareness regarding this topic. So let’s educate ourselves. 

 

Not all women menstruate and not all people who menstruate are women. Yes, you heard it right. For years, we have been conditioned to use the term “ women “ for people who menstruate which is not correct at all and is very offensive to many people because when a natural phenomenon like this is gendered, it violates the basic human rights and it leads to emotional turmoil, social exclusion, lack of healthcare among the minority. 

 

First of all, not every woman menstruates. Women who have amenorrhea either never get their periods or their periods stop after a while. Without going too much into the medical details, it is a condition in which your pituitary gland fails to produce the hormones that are responsible for the periods i.e  your ovaries fail to work leading to a woman never getting her periods. 

 

The point that should be noted here is that it is not a disease and the women who have amenorrhea shouldn’t be treated differently. It is normal for a woman to not get her periods at all. Another reason why some women don’t menstruate is if they had to undergo a surgical operation called hysterectomy wherein all the parts of the uterus are removed. It is done for various reasons like cancer of the uterus or ovaries,  chronic pelvic pain, abnormal vaginal bleeding etc.  

 

Now moving on to the second part of the story, people who don’t have amenorrhea and menstruate. It is the most confusing part of the topic for us because of the limitations we have set for ourselves.  This type includes trans men, intersex, non-binary people, etc who go through the same process that “ a female body that menstruates”  goes through during the menstruation cycle. It is important to understand that life isn’t binary, it’s not black and white, rather we have a much larger spectrum than just the binary male and female. It is also essential for us to understand that gender and sex aren’t the same and shouldn’t be used interchangeably.  Sex typically refers to our human anatomy but gender is more than just biology, it involves identifying self within the spectrum of gender identities or even going entirely outside it. In layman’s language there are some people who were labeled as male or female during birth and they grow up to be the same i.e they actually identify themselves as male/ female but some others don’t, their knowledge and identity of who they are contrasts with what was initially expected during their birth and they can be bisexual, asexual, pansexual, etc based on their preferences. So now anyone with a typically functioning uterus and vagina will menstruate because blood knows no gender. Let’s say a person is assigned the sex of a female during birth but with time they identify themselves as trans men. Now they can have period cycles as women do and they aren’t women and we shouldn’t force it on them just because they have a uterus. After all physical attributes shouldn’t define or alter one’s identity.

 

We must make this world a better place for them and help them feel comfortable with it because period stigma still exists and this can negatively impact the mental health and well being of menstruators. It is important to break our silence, talk about it often and encourage period positivity for all. If we don’t normalize this, they will struggle to talk about their discomfort, live in constant fear of being judged, be robbed of basic healthcare facilities and also experience gender dysphoria. 

 

The reason behind not everyone being aware of this lies in our social conditioning. We have been nurtured to divide the world into cisgender.  We aren’t given any education on this matter in schools and colleges so it involves a big process of learning, unlearning, and relearning. So I urge you all to take steps, no matter how small they seem. Try using the word menstruators instead of women when you are talking of periods. Words and inclusivity matter.  It's time to make everyone feel included, let’s think beyond the rigid boundaries.

 

And then there lies another problem among the people who are educated about binary and non-binary terms. While cisgender people are considered normal due to different reasons, non-cisgender people are looked at differently as if they are some special cases. It's not something to look down upon, it's just you identify yourself as the sex you were assigned to at birth. Let's normalize accepting people the way they are. 

 

It’s hard and a long road till everyone understands this but things are getting better slowly, at least in some parts of the world. There are companies who treat binary and non-binary equally or at least have started to look at them from the same lens. An American menstrual hygiene product company named Always removed the “ venus”  symbol back in 2019 which is used to showcase women from its products, acknowledging the point of our discussion. Although this move was opposed by lots of straight women arguing that their identity was in danger but it came purely out of a lack of awareness. It was still a pretty great sign to see some change in our outdated social values and beliefs. We now see menstrual hygiene companies doing their part and refraining themselves from showing periods as a ‘woman thing’ by using gender neutral terminology, appealing for unisex washrooms in public places etc., social media trends, and campaigns also help in creating awareness. The government also has a huge role to play in destigmatizing this topic as a whole in countries where talking about periods is also considered a taboo. 

 

    However the broader world is against individuality, it is against your being just your natural self but I hope that we all will live to see a day in this world where we all are actually treated as equals because if we are too entangled in things like gender, we shall not be able to touch the most precious dimensions of life that lie unexplored because we are too attached with the false identities that the world covers us with.  Let’s keep peeling off those layers one by one like onions and we might be able to uncover our true and best self.

 

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