I, your inner Wild Woman, have emerged from the forest with another musing. So take off your shoes and that restrictive bra and join me on the forest floor to unpack the disconnect between humanity’s view of blood and why the only blood apparently worthy of shame, is a woman’s menstrual blood.

Bloody wars, gory movies, hunting, violent video games, boxing, animal fights: bring it on, say the men. But a woman’s menstrual bleeding? Disgusting! A natural process that happens to every woman, every month, for years on end, is apparently shameful.

Entire aisles of grocery stores avoided by the average man. The symptoms women experience, sometimes debilitating, kept secret. It is the bloody secret we dare not speak of. The only bloody secret; because it is a woman’s blood.

Sound extreme? Let’s take a stroll back to ancient cultures and take a peek at how menstrual blood used to be seen and how far we’ve come.

How Society Once Viewed Blood

Before Patriarchal religions ruled the day, when matrifocal egalitarian societies ruled the world, a woman’s cycle was honored. So honored that we used a different calendar, based around the moon due to its connection to the female menstrual cycle. Instead of 12 months, we had 13. And each month had 28 days, an exact mirror of the menstrual cycle. Why? Simple. 13 x 28 = 364 days plus 1 holy day for 365 days in a year. This lunar calendar shaped it all! We even aligned our holidays to these moon phases, such as solstices and equinoxes. Ancient cultures around the world framed their calendars & methods of measurement around this shared clock. The Latin word “menses” means month, and was based on the moon cycles. A typical moon cycle is 29.5 day, which aligns with women’s 25-30 day menstrual cycle. And didja know the Gaelic word, miosach, for “menstruation” is the same word for “monthly”, which is also the root for their word for “calendar?” Even Romans used the word “mensuration” for measuring time, with the word “mensura” (measure). That same root word gave us “mensis” or “month” and “menses”, the monthly cycle.

This is why you may have heard the moon is associated with the feminine. Right. We share the same damn cycle. We were the OG calendar and clock!

Because of this connection, in many historical cultures, a menstruating woman was seen as powerful, with psychic powers and healing abilities. She could call hailstorms or cause worms to fall from the crops. The Cherokee saw menstrual blood as a source of feminine strength and could destroy enemies.

How That was Perverted by Men

So what the hell happened? Why did it all get erased and replaced with shame?

Well duh – because it centered women. Male-dominated religions came about and stripped any sign of the feminine away. 13 became an unlucky number, and we were given a new 12-month calendar now centered around the Sun. Our moon rites became “witchcraft” and menstruation began it’s quick descent into becoming taboo.

Instead of a sign of power, they called us unclean. Instead of seeing it as sacred, they forbade us from participating in religious ceremonies, attending temples & sacred sites, making offerings, and even praying in some religions. They hid us away, either in the name of protection or banishment – you be the judge.

Naturally the greatest perverters of the sacredness of this monthly act was the Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. But these beliefs also infiltrated Japanese & Chinese belief systems, including Buddhism. There are a few religious exceptions to this rule, but clearly, they are just that, exceptions.

And so like all female power, they twisted it into a source of shame. Plugged their ears with their pathetic fingers. Left the room when the topic arose. And how did women respond? We didn’t say “Grow the fuck up, how do you think I bear your children?” Nope. We lowered our voices. We bled in silence and in darkness. We took on the shame.

How We View Menstrual Blood Now

A thing that women once held as a sacred time, was stolen and warped. Instead of seeing our monthly cycle as a connection to all the power we truly have, a connection to the goddamn cosmos, a source of pride in our womanhood, we saw it through the eyes of men: something to be embarrassed about.

Unclean. Polluted. Impure. Cursed.

Even our commercials for menstrual products use a “blue liquid” that has the consistency of water. Water! These products weren’t even tested with actual menstrual fluids.

This is Patriarchy.

So we learned to speak about it under our breath, speak in code, speak only when there were no men present. We accepted their immature & hypocritical view of our blood, and shamed ourselves. We allowed ourselves to be hidden away. We created a whole host of euphemisms for it. We’re having “our monthlies,” it’s “our time of the month,” or “shark week,” we’re “on the rag” or being “visited by Aunt Flo,” and on and on. I’ve never found them quite funny, but rather more embarrassing. As Albus Dumbledore said, “Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself.” And frankly, a name that pokes fun or humiliates, is poking fun at & humiliating the thing itself. It’s just another way to reinforce shame on women for something that is absolutely not deserving of shame. Menstruating is not a graphic word (ffs)- we could say we’re bleeding. Which is a fact. But no. We’re meant to keep it a secret shame. We must hide our painful cramps, our digestive distress, and still get shame for regular hormonal consequences such as acne or emotionality. And yet, while we’re expected to hide every symptom, men are somehow allowed to hurl the accusation that we’re on our period when we don’t tolerate their bullshit. The irony is, when women menstruate, it is actually a time when we experience an increase in testosterone. So technically, men are reacting to our being more manlike and hating it, belittling in, humiliating it, and disregarding it. You know, how they treat men lower on the ladder. Interesting no?

Not only are women shamed for this perfectly natural process, we are taxed for it! Menstrual products are expensive when they ought to be freely available. Not only are we paying monetarily for it, but our health is jeopardized. Tampons & pads are coated in cancer-causing chemicals which, apart from cancer, can also disrupt our endocrines and cause reproductive toxicity. What’s worse, even if a woman has access to tampons, she risks Toxic Shock Syndrome if she cannot changed it regularly, which can result in death. DEATH. All so women can work through.

We are not given any time off work for it. We are not given any special coverage on insurance for conditions related to birth control and uterus issues. They have pretended as though mensuration is not a thing. We must hide the pain of our cramps with a smile and go to work, care for the family, and carry on as normal. Plug it up. Keep working. Act like your insides aren’t literally shedding. For male comfort, to keep bearing the bulk of the workload, we literally risk death.

The Bloody Double-Standard

Yet while half our population bleeds every month, in shame & silence, the other half pursue death for sport. They embrace violent video games, the more graphic the better. They hunt for sport, hanging carcasses in their garages & sheds to ooze blood in a gory stream. They beat each other up, in jest and in truth, drawing blood from noses and from knuckles, in the name of “honor.” They send each other into war in pursuit of more land, wealth, and titles. They beat & kill their wives and girlfriends in astronomical numbers. They go on shooting sprees. These same “men” are the ones who laugh at a woman with a red stain on her pants, leave the room when period symptoms are discussed, and call women impure for menstruating.

As I said: Men don’t fear blood. They aren’t even grossed out by it. In truth: men LOVE blood and gore.

They just hate women’s menstrual blood.

They hate blood freely spilt, they love blood forcibly taken.

Menstrual blood is a stark reminder of the bleeding men can never do. It’s a reminder of the power women will always have. They try to draw blood in as many ways as possible, but they’ll never be able to bleed effortlessly.

Men have perverted a sign of strength & power in women, and turned it into a display of weakness and shame. But have you ever seen a man attempt to wear a menstrual cramp simulator? Boys can hardly make it past level 2. And they hate this. Hate that we can bleed and feel this much pain, and do it with a smile and working full-time. Hate that every month we bleed it is a reminder of our woman-only potential to carry life.

The disconnect is real. And it’s time we start calling it out.

Reclaim Menstruation As Power

Our blood is not simply “blood.” Menstrual blood is special. Not just the timing of it, but the blood itself.

It reveals how fertile and healthy we are: everything from the length & timing, to the consistency & texture, to the brightness & color of our flow all reveal the condition of our uterus while also informing us if we are in need of more nutrients, are dehydrated etc. It is a natural monthly check-in. And we need to be paying attention to it, listening to it.

Not only that, but what if I told you that menstrual blood was once used as sacred fertilizer? That’s right. Menstrual blood contains a rich composition of essential nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, which is not found in normal blood and which are vital for plant growth. This is why ancient women would bleed onto the earth.

This is the blood the Patriarchy has shamed. Our magical blood. Our connection to the cycles of the moon. Our ancient history. We were not always deemed unclean or cursed. These are the words of jealous little boys. (Which btw, I can guarantee if men were the ones bleeding every month, they would make a big show of it, comparing how much they bled with other men, and likely insist on taking time off work to care for themselves as those cramps would do them in.)

Bleed Free Sister

The plea I am about to make is, naturally, only towards women who are privileged enough to do so without risk of bodily harm. I fully recognize that not every woman around the globe may do what I am about to ask.

Now, to my plea. Sisters who are able, the next time you bleed, I implore you: don’t cater to men’s delicate sensibilities and hide it. You are only doing yourself and all women a great disservice. If you stop believing it’s shameful, it will stop being shameful. If you start celebrating it, we can reclaim it as something celebratory.

Let the boys and childish men whine. Who cares? See your blood for what it is, a sign of strength. Use your blood on your crops & flowers & when they flourish, casually drop in conversation that you used menstrual blood as fertilizer. Or don’t, and let it be a secret for yourself, a reminder that your menstrual blood is, in fact, special.

Celebrate when a young girl gets her first blood. Bring back First Blood Rites and Ceremonies! Not because she is ready to be impregnated, as men see it, but because it is an initiation into womanhood and claiming her power to create life. Same idea, VERY different perspective.

Stop referring to your menstruation in code, and use the damn words. I’m on my period. I’m menstruating. Let the “men” be the ones uncomfortable with it. It is not women’s jobs to make men comfortable. And remember: the only reason they are uncomfortable, the only reason they want us to believe we are impure or cursed, is exactly because they know it’s the opposite.

Own the truth. Your period is a time of pride. A reminder to connect with yourself, with the cycles of the moon, with the earth. Live your life according to your cycles. Research it. It makes sense. The more we can embrace & celebrate our menstruation, the more we can own this power, the less we’ll allow men to deny us rights & liberties for it.

Bleed free sis. Bleed shamelessly. Bleed as healthily as possible. If you’re able, use all-natural microfiber pads instead of disposable. Use menstrual cups if you’re able to access clean water. Try out period panties if you’re able, probably the best method to allow free bleeding & nothing being inserted (just be sure to avoid the chemical-laden ones). Give these as gifts to your girlfriends and female family members.

Talk about it openly first with your sisters, I mean REALLY openly. Normalize it amongst women and we can start normalizing it amongst men. If we bear all the physical discomfort of menstruating, let men bear all the mental discomfort. It was never ours.

Reclaiming our menstrual blood is one of the very first steps women must do if we’re to reclaim feminine power. And if it gives you the ick, just remember, that was given to you by dudes.

Integrate This Transmission

Don’t just listen to my words, embody this wisdom by integrating it. If you’re an actively menstruating woman, then you are tasked with changing how you respond to your cycle the next time it rolls around. Change up your menstrual care so it feels less shameful and more empowering. Amp up the self-care, learn from your cycle, and see it through the eyes of your female ancestors. If you’re a woman who is no longer menstruating, you get to be the example. Call out men when they say something sexist or misogynistic. A simple, “I could do what you do only bleeding,” will make so many jaws hit the floor. If you’re really ready to take it up, buy one of those menstrual cramp simulators and bust it out at the next party challenging the men in the room, “If you’re tough enough to handle little womanly cramps, try this out.” Their ego won’t be able to handle it. And they’ll all be reminded of the strength of women. Definitely report back!

With a howl,

Your Inner Wild Woman