Listen. If I am acting irrationally, please don’t brush me off by saying, “You’re probably just on your period.” That is upsetting, dismissive, insulting, and true. Like, very, very true.
It’s so belittling toward women to blame my irrational behavior on my “hormones” or my “period”. If I’m being irrational, it’s because I am being irrational, not because of the blood seeping out of my uterus right now. I can be completely unreasonable all on my own, thank you very much!
When you default to blaming my behavior on your own understanding of the natural processes of my body, you’re perpetuating stereotypes against women and no I am not crying right now, I just feel strongly about this issue. Okay yes I am crying, but there is no way of telling WHY I’m crying at you. So just accept it and please keep your judgment out of this conversation!
I’m tired of not being taken seriously just because I am a woman with a regular ovulation cycle. Why is it that every time I have feelings, you think it has to be caused by a hormonal imbalance, and therefore dismiss me when I hide underneath a table while sobbing or start beating on the hood of your car while sobbing? Maybe I just feel like being incoherent every 28 days or so; ever think of that? Of course you didn’t.
Even if I was on my period, which I am but that’s not important, there would be no way of knowing whether my emotional state was because my body is gushing or because that’s just how I felt. My reproductive organs don’t deserve to be dragged like that, even if they do hurt me once a month for almost every month of my life. My period doesn’t define me, and also fuck you!
And like sure maybe some of my behavior is because of my raging period, it being one of the worst of my life, but don’t you dare assume that. If I am angry and irrational with you, it’s because that is my honest reaction to what you are doing. If I am crying about how God won’t let Hillary be president, it might be because of my period because I know now that there is no God.
So please, don’t blame my sensitivity on my body. It is my mind that is wonky and it’s like this the other 80% of my life, too.
Plus, I’m on my period, so can you please just be nice to me?
