My 500 Words, Day 5: Write What You Know

Oh my GOD  a photo of WOMAN THINGS oh my GOD better DELETE MY BLOG so diSGUSTING!(!(!!))
PMS. I’ll take all the painkillers with a fat duvet and a side of 2 cherry cokes with 5 cheesecakes please, also get the fuck over here and love me because I want to rip your head off with my teeth so I can cradle it like a baby.
The reason I started with TMI is because girls lack the TMI that they need. Looking back, as a girl who was still learning about what it means to be a woman, I didn’t want people tiptoeing around a sensitive topic and making sure everything is man-friendly. I needed TMI, I needed detail and brutal truth. We don’t need those tampon adverts showing us that women are bright and happy whilst half bleeding to death, we need the realities of waking up and being too cautious to move out of bed in case you paint the sheets red, the stomach cramps that make you pass out, the fact that going through something natural is so damn expensive.
Especially Muslim women, who are constantly watched for what they talk about. I’m sure it’s usually men who say women need to not discuss personal matters so openly but you know what? Fuck that. Talking about periods, pregnancy, relationships etc does NOT make woman immodest. Who else is going to talk about it? Growing up, the only information I received on periods and relationships was in sex ed and movies… my mother never ever spoke a word of any of that in our house, as many ~minority~ mothers are. But it’s so important for young girls to have others to go to for advice and information. And for Gods sake, there should be no shame in talking about periods. The only reason women are shamed for it is because men don’t like it or want to read about this ‘womanly’ stuff, because woah it’s a subject men know NOTHING about. And they don’t like that, or they [not all] choose to stay ignorant.
The reason I say [some] men are so ignorant is simply because periods are still treated as something that we can control. I’m not saying that sanitary products should be free, because the country would probably go bankrupt, I’m saying this – why are they taxed as a ‘luxury’ if you don’t want women bleeding on train seats and in business meetings? Why? Why is toilet paper freely available in public toilets but we have to pay £1 for a tampon in an emergency? I’m not comparing a period to shit, but they both exit the body and are unprofessional to have leaking through your clothes, am I wrong? [On the topic of toilets, why has Britain STILL not got these bidet spray things? How you gonna call non-white countries dirty when your nasty ass is dry wiping? We even have these in our public toilets]. What about homeless women, what can they do? It hurts my heart to have to think about the women who don’t even have access to these things, or the means to buy them.
I also believe that women should be allowed time off during their time of the month, either unpaid or half-rate. I understand that some women may exploit this [which is why unpaid would be acceptable], but honestly, some women cannot even function for some of the days. Periods are hit and miss. It’s either painful as fuck, or there’s nothing. But remember that no two women are the same, and some may suffer a lot and for longer than average.
At the end of the day, no matter how much we complain about periods, we have to admit that we feel a sense of relief knowing that things are okay in the lady department. But damn. Does it need to be such a nuisance? And do we need to be punished or shamed by society for having what they should be thankful for? And do we NEED to tiptoe around the reality of being a woman just so we avoid grossing men out and ruining their image of a perfect pure sugar fairy? We fucking bleed and we will stab you in the neck if you make one wrong move. Deal with it.
But we’re sweet after that.
– k.


Word count: 720

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