Hello everyone and welcome to Fistful of Feminism!
My name is Monica and today we're celebrating
Women's History Month and I'm going to go
on a little bit of a feminist 101 rant.
So I'm on my period right now.
And it really sucks.
I hate it, it's painful, it costs a lot of
money to manage, there's just nothing great
about it!
But what bugs me, and a lot of other people,
is when periods are associated with "womanhood".
Here's the 101 part: Not all women get periods!
or have uteruses, or have ovaries.
Some women don't have periods.
Some men have periods.
Some people who have no gender at all, have
periods.
Some non-binary folk, trans folk, many other
different kinds of identites, some of them
have periods.
But no, not every woman has a period.
We all should understand that gender, sex,
not the same things.
They are two completely different social constructions.
So what gets me really really angry is when
I, a person who does have a period, goes to
the store to buy some hygiene products, of
course all it says is "women's hygiene" or
"feminine hygiene".
And everything is gendered.
So you can buy, like, pink tampons and pink
pads, like somehow these materials are just
inherent to womanhood.
And for those of you who are new to feminism,
it's okay if you don't know right away that
gender and sex are different things.
It's okay if you're working through the narrative
that you've been taught all of your life that
all women have periods or uteruses, vaginas
etc.
But that's just simply not the truth.
There is way more diversity out there, not
to mention there are more than two genders,
more than two sexes, just *big gesture because
I'm dramatic*.
I just get so angry because labelling something
as a woman's item is just... what, why?!
I think all of this was really sparked by
the fact that I was followed by a radical
feminist group on Twitter who proudly state
that only "wombyn" are allowed in their feminism.
You all might be aware and familiar with the
term "trans exclusionary radical feminists
(TERFS)" and these are the people that I'm
talking about.
Just makes me so frustrated because intersectional
feminism has no room for exclusionary ANYTHING.
If you are excluding trans, non-binary, agender
people in your discourses... that's not good
enough!
I'm really frustrated because I know that
inclusivity is not a reality for so many different
people and the fact that I get my period is,
you know, whatever, I can talk about my experience
and all of that, but it's not inherent to
being a woman.
In the same token, we shouldn't be afraid
to talk about periods because periods are
an experience that lots of different people
have.
I just think that we need to remember that
it's not just women who have periods!
So, my name is Monica, I have a period, but
that does not make me any more of a woman
than anyone else.
I guess that was my mini little rant of today
because I don't really know what to film except
for how I'm feeling right now and how I'm
feeling is really angry with my uterus, but
angrier at how society views uteruses through
a very narrow lens.
I'm hoping that I'm destigmatizing a) talking
about periods and b) breaking down that barrier
of having period and woman be synonymous because
they are NOT. *sigh* So, let me know what
you think about periods, do you have a period?
Do you not have a period?
What are your experiences with periods being
gendered?
Let me know in the comments down below.
Think I'm going to go film a different rant
because this one is over.
If you'd like to can subscribe and go there
and da da da!
And I'll see you not next Friday, but the
Friday after that.
And if I don't see you for awhile, and I don't
post, it's because I'm having my wisdom teeth
taken out in two days.
So I'm going to be down for the count for
awhile so I'll see you when I get back.
Okay bye!
