# I am a man with a healthy attitude about menstruation. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 15, 2001, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-man-with-a-healthy-attitude-about-menstruation/87465 "2001-10-15T09:01:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2001, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-man-with-a-healthy-attitude-about-menstruation/87465/1 "2001-10-15T09:01:50Z")
Isn’t \*[this\*](http://www.mum.org/) fascinating? The early [products](http://www.mum.org/comtampons.htm) are an eye-opener. ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2001, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-man-with-a-healthy-attitude-about-menstruation/87465/2 "2001-10-15T09:25:43Z")
What, exactly, were you searching for when you found this? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Cougarfang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c67d28/32.png) [@Cougarfang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cougarfang)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2001, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-man-with-a-healthy-attitude-about-menstruation/87465/3 "2001-10-15T09:44:28Z")
a healthy attitude about _wanking_?! (ok, ok, i’ve been reading Angela’s Ashes and i wanted to post that somewhere) (ow! stoppit!) _d&r_ ---
**Author:** ![Cougarfang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c67d28/32.png) [@Cougarfang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cougarfang)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2001, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-man-with-a-healthy-attitude-about-menstruation/87465/4 "2001-10-15T09:54:59Z")
damn, i read it wrong. i thought it was _masturbation_. [sub]how embarrassing… but i still got to use the word anyway[/sub] _d&r_ (again) ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2001, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-man-with-a-healthy-attitude-about-menstruation/87465/5 "2001-10-15T13:43:13Z")
In several cultures, menstrual blood was thought to be the medium for witchcraft that wives used against their husbands. In some Melanesian islands, men are worried that their wives are slipping menstrual blood into their food in order to gain power over them. (Saw a picture, I think it was in _National Geographic_, of a skit put on by some Melanesian men in which one of them portrayed a wife serving dinner to her husband; he conspicuously sprinkled red flower petals on top.) The Menstruation Museum site discusses Islamic law in relation to menses, but you have to admit the Islamic approach is moderate and rational in relation to other cultures. The Hindus forbid a menstruating woman to enter the pantry where pickles are put up, fearing that the food will spoil (due to some unhealthy sort of emanations she supposedly gives off?); she must separate herself from normal human contact for the duration of her period. If earlier cultures used no means to stanch the flow, then keeping the woman segregated in a little hut was partly a practical way to not spread blood all over the place (in addition to superstitious taboos). Jewish halakhah requires the woman to abstain from sex for another whole week after the period ceases, before taking her ritual purification bath. In Islamic law, the woman takes a bath and resumes normal sex and prayer as soon as the period is finished. Note how sex and prayer go together. In Islam there is no suggestion of superstitious fear over menstruation; it’s part of a general rule of cleanliness required for prayer. The Hindus call menstruation by the euphemism _pushpa_ ‘flower’. The woman has red “flowers,” so to speak, on her skirt. As for superstition, Carlo Levi’s book _Christ Stopped at Eboli_ will give you some idea. In the 1930s he was exiled by the Fascists to a little village in Basilicata, the most underdeveloped region of Italy. The village doctor was the only person there who could read and write. He took Levi aside and whispered a warning that the women praticed witchcraft _with their menstrual blood!_ ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2001, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-man-with-a-healthy-attitude-about-menstruation/87465/6 "2001-10-15T15:08:01Z")
Ever notice that the title of this thread parses like a Gilbert & Sullivan song? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-man-with-a-healthy-attitude-about-menstruation/87465/7 "2001-10-16T00:51:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by slortar \* > \*\*Ever notice that the title of this thread parses like a Gilbert & Sullivan song? 😃 \*\* It’s actually from Kids in the Hall, but extra points anyway! ---
**Author:** ![Tommy\_the\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@Tommy\_the\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tommy_the_Cat)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-man-with-a-healthy-attitude-about-menstruation/87465/8 "2001-10-16T01:31:32Z")
Am I the only one who thought this thread was a take-off of [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=91658)? I wonder what the lyrics would be like? ---
**Author:** ![moe.ron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ed8c4c/32.png) [@moe.ron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moe.ron)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-man-with-a-healthy-attitude-about-menstruation/87465/9 "2001-10-16T02:39:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Smeghead \* > \*\* > > It’s actually from Kids in the Hall, but extra points anyway! \*\* Forty Helens agree, this is definitely from Kids in the Hall moe “Sausages!!! I Want SAUSAGES!!!” .ron