A woman’s menstrual cycle needs to be acknowledged. Period.
A woman’s natural cycle of menstruation, one which ensures that human species don’t go extinct, has always remained a taboo subject in our country.
Recently, when Zomato, a prominent Indian company, announced its policy of providing up to 10 days of “period” leave every year to its women and transgender employees, there were many who found it unreasonable.
A lot of men and women have argued that on one hand, women cry equality in the name of feminism, while on the other, they want reservations and period leaves. The inherent flaw in this argument reeks of patriarchy, which has always tried its best to dismiss women and their issues as petty, to say the least.
When we say sexism exists and that we must address it at every given opportunity, we are highlighting the need for a world that’s not built to provide convenience and comfort to only men.
The simple truth that periods are part of a woman’s biology and therefore, her life, should be enough to answer those who don’t understand how the patriarchal world has not considered this aspect while forming policies and systems across the world.
I have also come across women, yes WOMEN, argue that period pain, mood swings during periods, cramps, low 𝐁𝐏, swelling in the abdomen are all imaginary and it’s time for our gender to own the natural cycle they are born with. I believe these are women who are fortunate enough to not go through any kind of discomfort, suffering or life-threatening moments due to their periods.
There is a popular saying in Hindi that translates into “a woman is a woman’s biggest enemy.”
I shall not indulge in it because this saying is also a conditioning of the patriarchal society that a woman resides in right from the moment she’s born. But it’s definitely time for us to unlearn what’s we’ve been taught about our own selves over hundreds and thousands of years.
It is time to break the silence and have more conversations and discussions around the discomfort and exertion related to periods for women. We must unite to break the patriarchal patterns that are hellbent on proving that a woman is emotionally vulnerable and that a lot of her physical or mental pain is fabricated.
It is time to stop the sexist jokes in the name of periods and laughing at how a woman becomes a monster during her menstrual cycle. Let’s discuss this taboo among our family and friend, including the men, so that we can truly create an equal world in the 21st century.
Let periods not remain a dirty secret among us women anymore but a universal fact that we all must acknowledge.
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