Opposing viewpoint: Nah. While I’m not in favor of forcing guys to sit through masses of menstruation talk if they don’t want to, I’m against trying to shut down male curiosity about the details of how it works, or casually dismissing it as not worth knowing about.
Look at how many threads we’ve had on these boards about minutiae of face shaving and beard growing, for example. If nobody feels the need to apologize for talking about, or getting educated about, maintenance issues of male physiology, then discussing maintenance issues of female physiology requires no apology either.
(Related: I am still kind of impressed by the male college friend—not a boyfriend—who asked me as a favor to show him (both fully clothed) a used tampon, and give him a brief rundown on the mechanics of menstrual hygiene. Which I was happy to do. It wasn’t any kind of kink, AFAICT; I think he had just started dating somebody and didn’t want to come across as an ignoramus about the basics, or get blindsided by aspects he didn’t expect. Like a lot of young guys, especially back in those pre-internet days, most of what he knew about the actual lived-experience details of menstruation was probably derived from locker-room misogynistic joking about disgusting contaminants and horrible stenches, and he wanted a more realistic understanding so he would seem cooler to his lady. I think that sort of respectful curiosity should be accommodated, not waved away with a dismissive “we bleed, it sometimes gets messy.”
P., if you’re ever reading this, I see you. Respect.)
Menstruating is something that people do. This affects the lives of all such people to some extent, and the lives of some of them to a significant extent. People who menstruate live in the same society as those who don’t and never will because they don’t have the relevant organs; everybody ought to have at least some basic information, and wanting more than basic information is normal behavior.
We need to stop trying to keep this a secret. Or allowing anyone to tell us to keep it a secret.
I sometimes pay attention to videos or posts about “bad women’s anatomy,” There are a lot of misconceptions that a decent number of guys seem to have. There’s the idea that women have some level of control over menses or can “hold it in.” There’s thinking it comes out of the bladder, or that there’s only one hole.
I’ll admit that last one was not something I remember being covered in school. But even I marvel how people could think women could control it. What exactly is being covered in their health classes?
Not what I meant at all. Just that for most men, the biggest physiological annoyance we’re personally aware of is an awkwardly timed boner (ok, getting hit in the balls is pretty bad too), so threads like this provide a fuller sense of what women have to deal with.
Guess what I googled? You mention it like it’s a commonly discussed subject. I never heard of it so I googled it, Bad women’s anatomy.
Now that shit is cringy AF, yanno most of those dudes spewing nonsense could easily google menstruation if they wanted to really educate themselves. Forget 6th grade health class, the info is widely available.
But instead they’d rather act like beavis and butthead or drooling morons having fits of shits and giggles while talking about female anatomy.
Me, too. And I hate to see men who clutch their pearls and fall down into a dead faint at any mention of menstruation. I wanna say, “It’s no worse than any of the fluids your body secretes; grow the hell up.”
Body Form is a UK brand of feminine hygiene products, and they make some interesting ads. I’m mentioning them because I wanted to post this ad of theirs, which speaks to your remarks:
Along the way, I found this 3-minute work of art they made. Blurring link due to brief scenes of intimacy:
Me, too, and the pads threaded into metal gizmos. Once, in high school, this metal piece got wedged into the top of my butt crack, and it hurt. I should have just asked to be excused so I could go to the bathroom and adjust everything, but I didn’t. I can still remember that pain.
