This Is How I'm Going To Break Period Superstitions For My Daughter

My great-grandmother was told never to leave her room during her period. My grandmother was told not to enter the kitchen. My mother was told not to enter the puja room. I was told not to touch the Pooja cabinet. Now I'm a mother of a three-year-old girl. What am I going to tell her 8–10 years down the line, when she gets her period? Am I going to instil meaningless superstitious beliefs into her mind?

Absolutely not! Being born into a generation of cycle breakers, I want the concept of period superstitions to end with me. I hope and wish that the insanity doesn't travel along to my daughter's generation. So, what am I going to do to break the cycle?

Breaking Period Superstitions

Simply put, I'm discarding everything I was taught, and I will model the behaviour I want to teach my daughter. When I'm on my period, I'm going to open that Pooja cabinet and pray if I feel like it; I'm going to go to the temple if I want to; and I'm going to touch everything that's considered "holy" and "sacred" if need be. Why should I not? I'm bleeding because the universe that created women bestowed us with a uterus that bleeds every month. So, why should I stop doing what I want to because of how the universe created my gender?

I'm going to teach her ">menstrual hygiene instead because that is the need of the hour. I'm going to teach her that menstruation is normal and natural. I'm going to teach her to follow personal hygiene during menstruation so that she feels refreshed. I'm going to educate her about periods as soon as she reaches an understanding age. I'm going to introduce her to the various products in the market and teach her how to be safe and hygienic. That is what I'm going to do as a cycle breaker.

Once, I remember someone telling me, “God will get angry and punish us if women enter the temple while menstruating." Yeah, you read that right! As a 12-year-old, I used to wonder why God would punish me because I was bleeding heavily from my vagina every month for five days, had painful cramps, and had mood swings. Shouldn't I be the one who's angry because I'm suffering for no fault of mine?

Back in the day, women used cloth during periods, which was most often not sufficient to absorb the bleeding. So women might have been asked to stay in one place so that they don't bleed all over.

Today, we have sanitary pads, tampons, and menstrual cups, which can very well contain blood even on high-flow days. When we are not going to go Carrie all over the place, why should we stop going to certain places and doing certain things? Logic, please?

Besides, why is it that a woman's first period, called the menarche, is celebrated like a festival, and from the very next month on, she is shunned as impure? Is the first period alone gold in colour for it to be considered precious? Isn't it surprising that generations after generations of women followed this without any logical or scientific explanation?

It's because I get periods that I was able to give birth to my daughter. She came out of my vagina covered in blood and mucus. So how can I tell her that the blood that comes out of my vagina is dirty, impure, and untouchable? So no, my daughter will be the first woman in my family to grow up with no superstitious beliefs about periods.

If she wants to go to the temple during her period, I'm going to take her. After all, unless we say anything, no one is going to know that she's on her period. In fact, why should something as private as her menstrual cycle be made public to the world? Let her generation and the ones that follow be free from the insanity that we all grew up with.

Suggested Reading: Bleed With Dignity: Millennial Busts Menstruation Myths