“Who Needs a Period?” – A Political Conflict

June 4th, 2010
GoodTherapy.org Featured Column written by Judith Barr, MS, LPC

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The theme of my recent post on my blog PoliPsych . . . is so important in today’s world!
What has been cursed or hidden because of its power needs to come out into the open.
As a result, I feel called to help it come into full view in June’s Power Abused, Power Healed newsletter.

Recently, I read an article on CNN.com* exploring the use of birth control to suppress a woman’s monthly period altogether . . .  and the startling fact that 72% of women said they “did not like having a period” and 40% of women would prefer never to have one! And now birth control pills are being utilized to avoid our periods almost completely.

My heart cried out as I read this article, and the words of women quoted in it who, consciously or unconsciously, thought of their periods as a curse or a burden . . .  something to get rid of. In response, I immediately wrote a post on my PoliPsych blog. I’ve made some changes to the post and I’m sending you the updated version below . . . in the hope that it will put some perspective on the sacredness of menstruation, and why our monthly period is so crucial to us as individual women and to our society . . .

In a world where misogyny is rampant . . .
In a world where, even with the advances women have made, many women are still treated horribly . . .
In a world where, perhaps because of the fear of the advances women have made, women are being treated worse than ever . . .
In a world where, if the abusive, cruel treatment of women were done to Jews, African Americans, Gays, or some other minority, the actions would be called hate crimes and prosecuted . . .
For women to suppress their menstrual bleeding, a natural part of their being, a crucial part of their innate, inborn power . . . is tantamount to colluding with the patriarchal attempts to discount, diminish, control, and have power over women. It is the equivalent of an alcoholic’s spouse enabling or colluding with the alcoholic. Or even closer, the equivalent of a sex addict’s spouse enabling the sex addict by having sex with the addict ‘on call.’ Or maybe even a closer equivalent . . .  Stockholm syndrome,** in which the hostage “falls in love” with the captor . . . leading her to do things she otherwise would only do out of fear.

A woman’s period is not simply the mechanism through which she is able to conceive and give birth to human babies. It is also the cycle that helps a woman be truly connected to herself – her body, her mind, her heart, and her own soul – and to root herself more and more deeply with her own instincts, her own knowings, her own strength and courage, her own gifts.

To suppress or give that up . . . is to give herself and her inner power away!

To suppress or give that up . . . is to be seduced into believing her menstrual bleeding is, in fact, a curse.
Or at the very least to not have been taught the powerful truth about the immense possibilities of menstruation . . .
by a mother who, perhaps, grew up believing her period was a curse.

To suppress or give that up . . . is to give herself and her inner power away!

This is not just a personal choice and action. This is a communal choice and action and a political choice and action.

We will be shocked and horrified, if we continue this blind trend, by the dire consequences of our actions -
in the actions of men toward us, in the actions of other women toward us, in our actions toward other women, in our actions toward men, and in our actions toward ourselves.

Who will help us if we continue?
Who will help us if we don’t help ourselves?

References:

* http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/05/06/period.monthly.menstruation/index.html?hpt=C2

** From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome: “Stockholm syndrome is a term used to describe a paradoxical psychological phenomenon wherein hostages express adulation and have positive feelings towards their captors that appear irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims.”

©Copyright 2010 by Judith Barr, MS, LMHC, therapist in Brookfield, CT. All Rights Reserved.

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