Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about change & those that have managed to make it happen. Maybe it’s the looming election & all that goes with it. More often than not, I seem to find myself following link after link, opening tab after tab, finding page after page that in some way characterizes what I think is our newest women’s movement. I’m calling it right now, there is a Hormone Revolution (TM) taking place. It could be the videos that teens are posting on U by Kotex’s site or the taboo photos by Emma Arvida Bystrom recently posted on Vice. But one thing is for sure; the fact that everyone is always so up in arms about frank & open discussion of the stigma that is still attached to that-time-of-the-month is stopping fewer & fewer women from talking about it. Everywhere I turn, women are waking up. They are discovering hormones & their affect on us (www.myhormonesmademedoit.com). They are questioning the reasons behind our habit of using a softer voice when we say the words ‘period’ or ‘tampon’ or even ‘vagina’. They are sick & tired of having to hide that they are sick & tired for at least a few days out of the month, if not 2 weeks. Women have spent such a long time proving that we are equal & can do anything a man can, that we somehow managed to be convinced that we need to pretend our cycle doesn’t affect us. It does, & women everywhere are starting to own it.
Personally, I couldn’t be happier. It’s one of the reasons I started my service. Let’s face it, Periods suck. Aunt Ruby makes periods suck just a little less. After all, we put up with cyclical changes in our bodies that are often painful & tiring, sapping not only our energy but often our focus & even our patience. For most women, this happens for around FORTY YEARS of their life. Remind me again why we need to be quiet about it?
This Hormone Revolution is definitely in it’s beginning stages, but I have no doubt it is here to stay. The freedom to speak openly about who you are as a woman & to own all that comes with that, is something we should all be demanding on a daily basis. The next time somebody shushes you when you are talking about periods or hormones, just tell ‘em your Aunt Ruby said you have every right to talk about it. If they don’t listen, just take an overnight max-pad out of your purse, open it up, peel off the label & stick it to their forehead. That should fix ‘em. If you think I’m off my rocker, I’ll remind you of some other ideas in history that people thought were crazy:
- Although the women’s suffrage movement began in 1869, it wasn’t until 1893 that the first state gave women the right to vote (go Colorado!) However it took 27 more years until the 19th Amendement was signed into law for all states. 1920 was a great year.
- The subject of birth control was considered obscene & banned through US mail until 1936
- Up until 1973, you could place a help wanted ad & state specifically that you wanted a man.
(This is also the year that women were federally granted the right to abortion)
- Prior to 1993, there were still states in which, if a man raped his wife, that was fine by them.
Is 2020 the year we get Paid Period Leave? Hmmmmm…. maybe you should get involved in the discussion so the movement goes in the right direction. Don’t think your voice carries? You probably didn’t know that the infamous ‘Bra Burning’ was only a 100 person protest (I didn’t either). It got picked up by a syndicated columnist & the rest is history. I can’t wait to see what our history will be!
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