It’s Women’s History Month and the United States is turning into Gilead, that fictionalized world where women have no rights and are only given value via their reproductive systems and ability to give birth and/or be mothers. This transformation is not happening slowly either. Women in America have recently lost the right to privacy, and female health care, and abortion care, and miscarriage care. It’s almost like male politicians don’t give a fuck if women live or die. It’s almost like they consider women their possessions. These are all, by the way, good examples of what passing the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) would prevent, but women are not allowed to have equal rights in the United States. We aren’t even expected to have our own “history month” discussed in the media!
Below is another astounding story on what American women and girls are losing in this country thanks to the terrifying and escalating actions of men. Now girls in Florida can’t even talk about their periods in school. This was a law made by – of course – ignorant men.
How long will it be until men are the actual, declared enemies of women? If this keeps up, it won’t be long.
The Florida GOP is on a truly stunning tear of misogyny, ignorance, homophobia and censorship, culminating in a bill that just passed the Florida House that would bar young girls from discussing menstruation, including their own menstrual periods, in school. Fifty three years since Judy Blume wrote “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” some Republican legislators still seem less comfortable with puberty and sexuality than pre-teen girls (maybe they should go see the movie when it hits theaters next month).
The Florida bill states that education around sex, reproduction and sexuality cannot begin until 6th grade. On Wednesday, when Florida state Rep. Ashley Gantt, a Democrat, asked her Republican colleague who sponsored the legislation, state Rep. Stan McClain, if the bill means that girls who get their periods before sixth grade couldn’t discuss that in school, he said yes.
“So if little girls experience their menstrual cycle in fifth grade or fourth grade,” she asked, “will that prohibit conversations from them since they are in the grade lower than sixth grade?”
“It would,” McClain said.
And while he clarified that barring such discussions wasn’t the bill’s intent, and that he would be open to amending it, the bill passed as-is with universal Republican support. The proposed prohibitions of this bill, however, are not in the Senate version, said a spokesperson of state Senate president Kathleen Passidomo, explaining that the bill still has one more committee hearing before it goes to the full senate.
While the average American girl is 12 when she gets her first period, the age of menarche has been decreasing, with girls starting to menstruate at younger and younger ages, making precocious puberty something of a “new normal.” Half of American girls get their first period before their 12th birthday. And girls who menstruate early are also more likely to be sexually active at a younger age.
In Florida, those girls – who arguably need the most support as their bodies develop earlier than those of their peers – are being told by people in power that they have to keep their mouths shut about what they’re experiencing. If the bill passes the full legislature, Florida would be legislating shame.”
The main reasons this is so horrifying include 1) very young girls can get their periods, well before these stupid men think periods should be discussed in schools and 2) many Moms don’t even talk to their daughters about periods at all. I know this because my mother didn’t. Mine assumed it would be taught in health class in school, and it was, but it that doesn’t help if the health class covers the subject when you are 13 and you have been menstruating for four years already and your mother told you next to nothing about having periods and all that is involved. And imagine a single father talking to his daughter about something he knows nothing about. Then imagine being a 9 year old girl who gets her period for the first time ever during English class in school and she can’t even ask someone what the fuck is going on with her as she is bleeding through her clothes onto her chair?
Law against discussing periods in schools are madness, whether the law is against discussing it with a trusted teacher, a school nurse, or a girl’s peers. Lawsuits have to start happening all over the United States so that girls can get some justice and relief from this ignorant law. It’s like we’re going back to the Dark Ages. Men don’t know shit about women’s menstruation issues, or menstruating bodies, for that matter. Below is a small sampling of what men do not know about women’s periods – and yet they are freely making laws about women’s health care. And if you think male doctors are much better, you need to rethink that. (It’s the reason why I will never have a male doctor again. They are ignorant about women.)
All kinds of things can go wrong or off-kilter with any given menstrual cycle, meaning girls will want to talk to someone about these things. Below are some issues women can experience during their menstruating years that men have no clue about, like heavy bleeding and what that means. From the CDC.
Medical procedures that are associated with menstruating girls and women:
Lots of times periods are unexpectedly painful. When a girl starts to experience that pain, what can she do? Maybe not much, if she can’t even talk to someone knowledgable in her school about it. So just let girls suffer? That’s what the men in Florida want. Here are suggestions to deal with menstruation pain from the CDC:
These are just examples of the many reasons girls need to be able to talk about their periods in school. It’s not only pure ignorance that would make a man not allow these conversations to take place in schools [until a random age is reached, like sixth grade], it’s also cruelty. Meanwhile, I guarantee you that boys of all ages in schools are freely talking about women’s bodies and sex etc. all they want, with no repercussions whatsoever.
We women need to put our heads together to decide how to deal with this. It might involve unusual methods of retaliation, like destroying some men’s careers, or ending their political aspirations by creative methods.
