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Can We All Calm the F*ck Down about Periods Please?

By Courtney Enlow | Think Pieces | September 6, 2016 |

By Courtney Enlow | Think Pieces | September 6, 2016 |


At this moment, #IfMenHadPeriods is trending on Twitter. Part of it is stuff like this:

And the rest of it is, awesomely, stuff like this:

This comes on the heels of a Twitter TERF emotionthon that took place the other night.

Yes. Men have periods. No, genitals do not define gender. Even if they did, I’d kind of prefer not to be defined by my garbage-ass period at all because it sucks EXCEPT IT IS ALSO BEAUTIFUL OR SOMETHING.

Periods have been used against cis women our whole lives, as a marker of our weakness and inferiority. That is true and that cannot be taken away from us. But never under any circumstance should anyone engage in “Whose Suffering Has Been Worse?” because it’s the worst game ever. And trans men have to deal with this shit too on top of all the other shit they already have to deal with.

Periods are natural and fine and they totally suck, but a lot of us are stuck with them. Cis men, calm the fuck down about them—they’re not gross, they just EXIST. Cis women, calm the fuck down, we don’t have the monopoly on fucking periods AND WHY DO YOU EVEN WANT THAT?

I have PMDD, premenstrual dysphoric disorder. It’s a condition some doctors don’t even think is real, because some doctors, even women, don’t trust that women know what the fuck they’re talking about. My period has very actually destroyed my life in many ways. So I take them quite seriously. So seriously that I believe absolutely that everyone who has one deserves inclusion in this stupid beautiful physical mess of a situation. Feminism MUST be intersectional. Yes, we are all learning. But kneejerk attacks against the marginalized should be everything we’re against. If your concern is that a person is being necessarily included, you’ve lost the thread of passion for that issue and your humanity.

Some men get periods. Not all women get periods, regardless of whether or not they’re cis or trans. Let’s just all calm the fuck down about fucking periods, fuck.