67 Per Cent of Women Get a Side Serve of Pain with Their Period
Kel Campbell recently wrote about one of the times she ‘period-ed’ on herself. It was a good, light-hearted piece which is helping to shatter the taboos around vaginas and things. And I wanted to request it for Absurdist, but too late!
Kel, if you’re reading this, perhaps we can collaborate on ideas for the continuation of the series: those awkward stains that sometimes appear on office and classroom chairs, for instance. No one wants to own up to it. Everyone hopes it wasn’t them. If a woman (or anyone with a vagina) bleeds on a chair and no one’s there to see it, did it really happen?
It got me thinking though, what compels us to smile like it’s a beautiful day, even though our uterus is trying to invert itself into our underwear? Why do we feign ‘headaches’ and other ailments instead of acknowledging the truth every woman knows: that our major sex organ bleeds every month and periods hurt like f*ck? Must everyone to be sexless to get ahead in life these days? Or is a penis still a prerequisite for power?
I don’t know about you, but people who can push through serious soreness and loss of bodily fluids each month sound pretty powerful to me.
There are times I’ve almost passed out from the cramping and nausea induced by this weird monthly ritual I was born into. People, except those close to me — or those who happened to witness me dry retching into a bucket (I’m so sorry) — barely notice … I just pop a few more nurofen. It usually takes the drugs at least 20 minutes to kick in. Sometimes, if I only have slower acting painkillers, or if I’m too late with my dose, I experience hours of agony before things subside and I can carry on as if nothing happened.
Does that sound weak to you? No, we are glorious vagina-wielding humans. We are anything but weak. We will walk through fire just to get to work on time.
Periods suck and we are badass. Period.
Post-script: To anyone who has given birth to a child, you are next-level hardcore. If you’re a man and you think you could do it without bellowing like a dying elephant, you should watch this.
