If Men Could Menstruate

[seabeyond]

Reading Freud made me just as skeptical about penis envy. The power of giving birth makes "womb envy" more logical, and an organ as external and unprotected as the penis makes men very vulnerable indeed.

So what would happen if suddenly, magically, men could menstruate and women could not? Clearly, menstruation would become an enviable, worthy, masculine event: Men would brag about how long and how much. Young boys would talk about it as the envied beginning of manhood. Gifts, religious ceremonies, family dinners, and stag parties would mark the day.

*

Generals, right-wing politicians, and religious fundamentalists would cite menstruation ("men-struation&quot as proof that only men could serve God and country in combat ("You have to give blood to take blood&quot , occupy high political office ("Can women be properly fierce without a monthly cycle governed by the planet Mars?&quot , be priests, ministers, God Himself ("He gave this blood for our sins&quot , or rabbis ("Without a monthly purge of impurities, women are unclean&quot . Male liberals and radicals, however, would insist that women are equal, just different; and that any woman could join their ranks if only she were willing to recognize the primacy of menstrual rights ("Everything else is a single issue&quot or self-inflict a major wound every month ("You must give blood for the revolution&quot .

*

In short, we would discover, as we should already, that logic is in the eye of the logician. (For instance, here's an idea for theorists and logicians: if women are supposed to be less rational and more emotional at the beginning of our menstrual cycle when the female hormone is at its lowest level, then why isn't it logical to say that, in those few days, women behave the most like the way men behave all month long? I leave further improvisation up to you.)

The truth is that, if men could menstruate, the power justifications would go on and on.

http://www.haverford.edu/psych/ddavis/p109g/steinem.menstruate.html

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this was a fun article from steinem. fast/easy to read all the article

[MadrasT]

1. This is awesome.

Love it.

Thanks, sea!

[DetlefK]

2. It would replace the Is-my-penis-long-enough issue.

Did I bleed to much? Do I bleed enough? Did it have the right color? Does it really affect my attractiveness to women?

And of course men would talk openly about it.

And the sanitary napkin commercials would look totally different. (Maybe like an after-shave commercial?)

[seabeyond]

3. the competitive factor. lol. cute. nt

[DURHAM D]

4. To provide context for this 1978 article by Steinem

here is a link to a 2009 Master's Thesis -

SYMBOLIC GENDER ROLE REVERSAL AND TOUCHSTONE CRITICISM:
THE FEMINIST RHETORIC OF GLORIA STEINEM

http://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/dspace/bitstream/1808/6002/1/Howell_ku_0099M_10696_DATA_1.pdf

I just found this and am delighted that it provides context and analysis of Steinem's work - in particular “If Men Could Menstruate” and “What If Freud Were Phyllis?”

I just read the first 50 pages and am delighted to find this as I lived the movement and then watched with dismay as the opposition took wing in the 80s and succeeded as institutional academic drivel became the accepted critique of women's issues and the women's movement for a generation and helped to foster the current war on women.

This thesis is a blast of real air.

Note: Us old women don't get together over dinner to bore each other with war stories and shared disappointment. That would be too painful. But this is fun - a discussion about a 34 year old article that could not happen without the internet.

So us old women - Watch. Wait. And hope.

It is your world. Have fun.