What Men Should Know About Periods
Photo by Annika Gordon
While scrolling on your newsfeed last year you might have come across the headlines about two German men who created the Pinky Glove—a medical latex glove, in pink of course, that is designed specifically for women to use when handling used menstruation products.
Now, as someone who menstruates, it’s easy for me to incredulously roll my eyes, scoff, and maybe share it in my friend’s group chat to revel in how out of touch this product is from our experiences.
It’s not the first time a product aiming to solve a non-existent problem only reinforces stereotypes and the internet, including myself, responded with its usual jokes and well deserved ire.
Nothing out of the ordinary. Just internet fun. Rinse. Repeat.
But this conversation can’t end with just a witty tweet. Because the most important lesson has gone unlearned: Why did these men feel the need to make a tampon-removal glove?
The answer is that menstruation stigma is real, pervasive—and has great implications for gender equality.
It’s time to call it as it is.
Part of the problem with stigma is that it is often reinforced by the unwillingness to discuss the topic openly, which lets misunderstanding fester. Menstruation stigma is no exception—even though half of the population will menstruate at one point in their lifetime, we still feel uncomfortable even calling it menstruation.
Code Red. Period. The Curse. Lady Business. Aunt Flo. Time of the month.
In fact, the International Women’s Health Coalition found that there are over 5,000 slang words and euphemisms for menstruation in just ten languages. All these terms attempt to make menstruation more palatable, not to trigger the association of dirty, gross, or dangerous.
It's not surprising then, that menstruation carries a sense of shame. We have to navigate our first menstrual cycles in junior high or high school, an already tumultuous time, quickly hiding sanitary products up our long sleeves, in our pockets or bags, in fear that someone will know. Worse—the constant threat of blood leaking through has friends using the universal code of ‘check me’ with a quick turn and subtle nod signalling there’s nothing to see.
It’s hard to be confident and comfortable in your body when a natural process you go through every month needs to be hidden.
Although feeling the weight of stigma is shared among all those who menstruate, menstruation is not a universal experience. The discrimination and lack of access to sanitary products disproportionately effect menstruators in communities experiencing poverty or with limit healthcare access.
Let’s talk real menstruation pains.
Menstruators rely on sanitary products such as tampons, pads, and menstruation cups to participate in our daily lives as we usually would. Unfortunately not all people who menstruate have equal access to menstrual products.
Up until 2015, Canada had considered menstrual products non-essential or luxury items and therefore were subject to GST. The cost of menstrual products and added taxes leave many menstruators to resort to using toilet paper, plastic bags, clothes, and newspapers to manage their period.
Without these products menstruators are at health risk for infections and can force them to miss out on school or work. The International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stated that, youth who miss school because of menstruation put them 145 days behind their non-menstruating counterparts. Feeling further excluded from education or work only reinforces menstruation stigma and gender inequality.
We don’t need to create a useless product to support menstruators.
We can’t continue the status quo that there’s nothing to see.
We need to help menstruators gain equal footing by talking openly about menstruation and advocating for accessible sanitary products.
Following advocacy by Women No Women Without, the City of Edmonton recently announced that city-owned facilities will offer free menstrual products in all women’s and gender-inclusive washrooms.
It’s a promising step towards a future of menstrual equality, but it is only the first step of many.
We can hope to emulate Scotland’s move to be the first nation to make sanitary products freely available in all community centres, youth clubs and pharmacies.
But we can’t do that without everyone.
From the Future of Masculinity weekly newsletter, where our community’s hearts and minds come together each week to do the work, tell the stories, and build the blueprint for a future where men and boys experience less pain and cause less harm.