00:15Everyone quiet. We brought in Dr. Hughes. You may know her as your Aunt Flo, the Crimson Tide, the Red
00:23Wedding, Shark Week, the Rag, but you know what's even cuter than these nicknames?
00:27Being mature enough to talk about periods because they're happening.
00:30They're happening all around you. All the time.
00:35Dr. Hughes, how did bleeding profusely from the vagina for a couple of days every month become so taboo?
00:41Like pretty much any and all displaced anger about sex organs, the stigma against menstruation can be traced back to
00:47organized religion.
00:48At the Hathor Temple in Egypt, an ancient inscription lists among one god's dislikes, menstruation.
00:54Up there with pineapple on pizza and commercial breaks.
00:57Oh my god!
00:58I think that's just very offensive to Hawaii. I'm all about being offensive. I'm not to Hawaii.
01:05Just kidding. Well, not about the period part.
01:08See, Christianity too has blood on its hands for making this natural process a shameful one for many women.
01:14Leviticus, the book of all things sexual repression, claims that anyone who even touches a menstruating woman or anything she
01:23sat on will be unclean for hours.
01:26That means no riding on public transportation basically.
01:29Well, I feel like if you don't want to deal with blood on public transit, you should probably walk.
01:35Leviticus has a lot to say about vaginas, but forgot to kindly suggest that men wash their balls before they
01:40have sex.
01:41But I'm sleep though. I'm sleep.
01:42In Islam, Muslim women aren't allowed to engage with the Prophet Muhammad in any way while on their periods.
01:48That means no fasting during Ramadan, no daily prayers, no reading the Quran, and definitely not going into any mosques.
01:55And according to Orthodox Judaism, a woman has to refrain from kissing, hugging, snuggling, canoodling, oh, and fucking her husband
02:02for the five days.
02:04As if all periods are the same length.
02:06And then for another week afterwards. But that's not all.
02:10See, she has to then dip her puss into a natural spring before she can get down again.
02:18I have a lot of it.
02:19I guess so.
02:20Sounds good.
02:21So this is what religious texts say, regardless of whether or not religious folks actually do any of this stuff.
02:27Excuse me, Dr. Hughes, what effect do these religious texts have on biological women today?
02:32A ton. This minstrophobia affects every part of their lives.
02:38Many completely sane people have argued that they would never vote for a menstruating presidential candidate
02:42because of the popular belief that periods make women crazy.
02:45The nuclear holocaust would be eminent if the blab was allowed to live.
02:57Mr. President, it has the codes.
03:00Dear God.
03:04The societal stigma around implying that you're bleeding from your vagina is enormous.
03:09Okay, if you have a period, think back to the first month that it happened.
03:13Did you feel comfortable talking about it with anyone?
03:15Did the boys in your class make you feel like you had cooties?
03:18Did you feel like it was something that you could openly discuss?
03:21No?
03:23Imagine if we felt the same way about sneezing or any other normal bodily function.
03:30Mr. President, on top of all of this, the literal cost of having a period is sky high.
03:36One tabulation claims that a person with a period will spend close to $20,000 in their lifetime on period
03:42supplies.
03:43I don't understand why we can't just stop the blob with a pill. Our problems would be over.
03:48Chad, you're killing me.
03:49Please pay attention to your information packets.
03:52Wait, why?
03:53Children!
03:54Children!
03:55When you combine the cost of containing menstrual flow with the fact that women are the most economically vulnerable members
04:01of society,
04:01you've got yourself a scary statistic about just how deeply the patriarchy has screwed women.
04:07But not women on their periods, because that would be icky.
04:13The point is, periods aren't a curse or a shameful event.
04:16Okay, periods are natural.
04:18They should be considered as beautiful and amazing as pregnancy.
04:21Our bodies built a home for a baby that isn't coming,
04:24and so we clean house once a month to make an even nicer home for said potential baby.
04:29Okay, periods should represent the hopefulness of life and the opportunity for the incredible,
04:35not just some dishonorable jinx to shun and ignore.
04:38We're all here because somebody had a period in the first place.
04:43So let's grow up and stop acting like it's gross or weird.
04:58The earth was too good for us anyway.
05:01If you want to check out last week's episode before the blob exploded the earth,
05:04you can check it out here.
05:05And also, make sure to subscribe.
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