Period Portrayal and Menstrual Stigmas in Media

When menstruation is brought up in the media, it is either seen as traumatic, embarrassing, or comedic. In a video published by ItsKatLazo, titled “Period in the Media”, she reviews clip after clip of different moments in media that a woman's period is talked about in a negative or inaccurate light. For example, in ‘Carrie’, when she gets her period, her mom thinks she’s the devil, crazy, and a whore. And in ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’, there are moments where men accuse women of being irrational or idiotic while menstruating.

Repeated moments like these in the media have proven to be dangerous to young girls growing up because they begin to associate them with real-world behavior and attitudes. As Christina Bobel, an associate professor of women’s studies at the University of Boston Massachusetts points out: “What we say does make a difference. If most of our exposure is ‘keep it hidden’ and when you fail at that ‘be ashamed’ how can that encourage self confidence?” BleedShamelessly.com backs this up by stating how “psychological professionals across the globe have found that menstruating people tend to have more negative and uneasy feelings about their periods, but support and validation can make them feel more positive”. Therefore, it is imperative to change the narrative about how menstruation is talked about. If spoken about positively, young girls won't have pessimistic about their menstrual cycle.

Today, people have begun to fight the period stigmas, and a lot of that is thanks to social media. Social media has become a space to openly talk about and embrace periods when before there was no space to do so. According to YourPeriodCalled.com, social media has become a place to teach men about periods, inform people about sustainable period products, be a platform for menstrual activism, and, of course, unite menstruators in shared experiences. There have even been a few period-related hashtags that gained attention in the past yeast such as #Tweetyourperiod, #Periodsarenotaninsult, #Justatampon, #Freethetampon, #Ifmenhadperiods, #Happytobleed. If you are interested in following some period-positive accounts, here are 5 Instagram Accounts Tackling Menstrual Stigma.

Social media has become vital in shifting conversations about periods to be more positive and accepting. We must continue to make strides to dismiss negative connotations associated with periods because it is about time we stop feeling ashamed of something so natural.