There are many superstitions surrounding a woman’s period that span across the globe, ranging from having menstruating women banned from places of worship or from preparing food, to having them segregated from their community altogether in a lodge until their period is complete. These practices serve only to subjugate women in varying degrees, but if we look back further to the ancient times, we will find that this wasn’t always the case. In fact, it was rather the opposite.
Throughout modern history, women on their period have traditionally been regarded with a sense of misgiving and trepidation, so much so that the very word ‘period’ or ‘menstruation’ are seldom heard in discussion. It is no surprise then that there are so many substitutes for these terms. Aunt Flo. The Crimson Tide. That Time of the Month. These are but a few of the euphemisms I have encountered for a woman’s period, yet the one which perplexes me the most when it comes to discussing menstruation is: The Curse. The connotations of the word link it to malevolence and evil. To curse is to wish bad things upon someone. To say that women are cursed is to say that they are condemned, a wicked woman, damned, and yet periods are entirely natural and experienced by most female mammals in the animal kingdom.
An independent global study for The Women’s Health Coalition found 5000 slang terms for menstruation with many countries referring to periods in majority slang terms as opposed to speaking plainly about them. In German, there exists the word Erdbeerwoche translating to ‘Strawberry Week’ and in Finland, there is the much less flattering ‘Mad Cow Disease’ or Hullum lechman tauti. My favourite euphemism for periods comes from the Middles Ages where the term, “to bring flowers” has been recorded.
The frequency of slang terms when discussing periods is interesting, since we use euphemisms as a way of talking about topics that make us feel uncomfortable. Subjects which are taboo. A lot of what is considered taboo are things we consider unnatural. Death of children. Depraved behaviour. Scandal. Anything that veers away from societal standards for the natural order of things. The language we use to discuss periods exemplifies the ways in which women are demonised via their bodies or in this case, their bodily functions.
The thread of female vilification as a result of fear, and ill-founded superstition can be followed back to 1612 Britain, where the famous Pendle Witches of Lancashire were accused and condemned to death under the rule of James I, a monarch who held strong beliefs about the supernatural and went as far as to pen a book titled ‘Demonology’, which in turn influenced the writing of what was effectively a witch finder’s handbook by Richard Bernard. Within this manual, details on how to obtain evidence of witchcraft include her presenting strange diseases and physical ailments, leading to the false accusation of these women. This is yet another example of women have suffered simply for experiencing an involuntary physical phenomenon, such as illness.
Growing up in London to a Muslim family I was told that I was exempt from joining in with prayers during the week of my period. I didn’t choose to have a period, yet it came when I was eleven years old along with the latent knowledge that this event marked my crossing a threshold from girlhood to womanhood. Surely this was something to be celebrated? Being so young I did not question the reason I was unable to pray until much later when my mother told me that I couldn’t worship because I was ‘unclean’, and that was the reason I had to have a bath once was my period was finished; in order to cleanse myself – and that included washing my hair too or it didn’t count. As a girl this made me feel confused and ashamed of my body, but I also felt the beginnings of a deep-rooted, quiet rage that would swell into adulthood.
The idea that periods cause women to be deemed ‘impure’ is present not only in Islam but in other faiths including Judaism, Christianity and Hinduism where some women on their period are prohibited from carrying out household duties or preparing food for fear that it will become contaminated.
Menstruating women being excused from preparing food goes back as far as 1878, where it is documented in the British Medical Journal that women on their period should not cure meat for fear of spoiling it, nor should they touch wine as they would turn it to vinegar.
More food-related superstitions with histories from Argentina and France detail the discouragement of women on periods working with dairy such as whipped cream and mayonnaise as they will cause it to curdle. Menstruating women being perceived as noxious can also be seen in Nepal where, according to Clue, some women on their period cannot come into contact with anybody or even stay within their home. Other modern-day beliefs cause some in Romania to believe that if a woman on her period touches flowers that they will die more quickly.
In some societies in India, the fear that a woman on her period will contaminate the food she touches exempts her from any involvement in preparing meals, thus ostracising her from her community since many socio-cultural events are underpinned by gathering together to cook and eat. Sadly, in all parts of the world including the UK, there are serious implications of how severely young girls and women miss out due to period poverty. The Journal of Family and Medicine and Primary Care found that “Large numbers of girls in many less economically developed countries drop out of school when they begin menstruating” due to a lack of provisions.
Exemption from household duties is not a new idea. Ancient Roman naturalist Pliny The Elder describes period blood as ‘poisonous’ going as far as to say that “linen, touched by the woman while boiling and washing it in the water, turns the water black”. Pliny goes as far as to say that menstruating women have the ability to kills bees, ruin crops and dull the shine of mirrors.
It is recorded in The Curse: A Cultural History of Menstruation that in the past, back in the day the French believed that sex during a period would cause deformities in babies. An interesting flipside to these superstitions is the fact that they speak to an arcane potency feared in women. The link between periods and sex is undeniable considering that periods are unique to female biology signalling fertility, and with that, the potential to create life. There is power in that. It is no wonder, then, that shame is often attached to periods given that the notion of female sexuality persists in causing discomfort even in these seemingly progressive times. A close friend recounted being slapped by her mother when she told her she had gotten her first period, to raise a blush, she was told, for her shame, the impact of which resonates with her to this day.
Though it may seem as though women on their period have been feared and treated with contempt throughout all of history, this is not so. If we span back further to ancient practices, menstruation was sometimes revered. In many ancient cultures, menstrual blood was used to fortify potions, even if it was still often taboo. Ancient Egyptian Priests and Priestesses believed that menstrual blood was linked to female goddesses and this is echoed in Nordic religion where the blood is connected with the blood of a primordial goddess whose menstrual blood created a divine river. In these instances, blood is not impure or unclean but considered divine and potent. A symbol of fertility and therefore of creation. Even Neolithic people depicted their goddesses as bleeding and giving birth, so the association between menstruation and the divine existed as far back as then.
The idea of the Triple Goddess found in Neopaganism shows reverence for the three stages of a woman’s life: Maiden, Mother, Crone. The Maiden, the virgin, can only become a mother once she is fertile and a girl’s period was, Neo-Pagans speculate, celebrated as it aligned her with the goddess. This celebration of female energy and potency is far more empowering to me than believing that I am in some way unclean or potentially toxic to those around me.
With a daughter of my own fast approaching teen years, I have chosen to frame the narrative of her period around one of empowerment and awakening; that it is a time of celebration, not fear. That hers will be an experience of gain rather than loss. So much of what society tells women and young girls about the way we should relate to our bodies is embedded with feelings of guilt and shame. This is not a cycle I wish to perpetuate with my own child. Whenever she expresses anxiety about this coming transition, I tell her not to fear; I tell her she is coming into her power.