How do you disempower a woman’s emotions? Easy! “Are you on your period or summink?”
In my experience this comment used to be thrown about by misogynist arses who used it as a retort for a woman getting angry, upset or just feeling any emotion remotely powerfully. After all, quietly comforming to the concept of ideal womanhood does not allow you to shout “fuck off!” at someone who is deliberately picking on you, or telling you what they’d like to do to your various orifices simply because you dared to walk past their building site/van/cafe table. It’s obvious why this comment is used, it relies upon the woman-as-inferior paradigm whereby being called a girl/woman/sissy is an insult because my goodness, WHO would want to be called a woman?!? As well as making obvious your inferiority by calling you just what you are (as if nobody knew you were female! Well, that certainly puts you in your place!) it disregards a woman’s right to have genuine, powerful emotional reactions to anything. Men can be angry, irritable and fed up any day of the month (ok, they can’t cry or show ‘woman-like’ ‘weakness’ but this just goes to show how restrictive and oppressive these gender roles are to all genders) but if a woman shows anything other than delight at fluffy kittens, a peacable smile and eyelash-fluttering gratitude at leery chat up lines then well, she MUST be on her period.
And while, obviously, this attitude from men is to be dealt with via a reasoned (women can reason? Gasp!) discussion of how ridiculous this concept is (or, if necessary, some cherry picked obscenities but please, avoid cunt – it’s not an insult it’s a body part), this attitude from women must be nipped in the bud. Now, the women who propagate this myth tend to use a different method to the aforementioned men. These women will often be heard saying “oh just say you were on your period, then nobody will mind you were a bitch” or “having a period gives us the right to be unreasonable”. Uh huh. And having a fist gives me the right to beat people.
Using your period as an excuse for being unpleasant? Evidently you have no control over anything you do, and on top of that you’re adding to the myth that women only break out of the quiet, pleasant wallflower mould when they are menstruating. Either way you are actually relegating yourself to the moral level of slime (no offence to any fine morally upstanding slime out there) by using a myth that disempowers women and adds to the woman=inferior paradigm to behave however you wish.
Most women have periods. They bleed for a few days, they often feel more emotional than usual, and that’s about it. It’s not carte blanche to torture people around you, and it’s not a biological occurence that makes you inferior.
Guys, don’t use it as an insult, it makes you an idiot.
Gals, don’t use it as an excuse, grow the hell up.
