If Men Could Menstruate

By Gloria Steinem (Edited - From sociology class)

   A white minority of the world has spent centuries conning us into thinking that a white skin makes people superior - even though the only thing it really does is make them more subject to ultraviolet rays and to wrinkles. Male human beings have built whole cultures around the idea that penis envy is "natural" to women - though having such an unprotected organ might be said to make men vulnerable, and the power to give birth makes womb - envy at least as logical.

   In short, the characteristics of the powerful, whatever they may be, are thought to be better than the characteristics of the powerless -  and logic has nothing to do with it.

    What would happen, for instance, if suddenly, magically, men could menstrate and women could not?

    The answer is clear - menstruation would become an enviable, boastworthy, masculine event:

Men would brag about how long and how much.

Boys would mark the onset of menses, that longed-for proof of manhood, with religious rituals and stag parties.

Congress would fund a National Institute of Dysmenorrhea to help stamp out monthly discomforts.

Sanitary supplies would be federally funded and free. (Of course, some men would still pay for the prestige of commerical brands such as John Wayne Tampons, Muhammad Ali's Rope-a-dope Pads, Joe Namath Jock Shields - "For Those Light Bachelor Days," and Robert "Baretta" Blake Maxi-Pads)

......

    Street guys would brag "I'm a three-pad man" or answer praise from a buddy ("Man, you lookin' good!") by giving fives and saying, "Yeah, man, I'm on the rag!"

    TV shows would treat the subject at length. ("Happy Days": Richie and Potsie try to convince Fonzie that he is still "The Fonz" though he has missed two periods in a row.) So would newspapers. (SHARK SCARE THREATENS MENSTRUATING MEN. JUDGE CITES MONTHLY STRESS IN PARDONING RAPIST.) And movies. (Newman and Redford in "Blood Brothers"!)

    Men would convince women that intercourse was more pleasurable at "that time of the month." Lesbians would be said to fear blood and therefore life itself - though probably only because they need a good menstruating man.

......  

   In fact, if men could menstruate, the power justifications could probably go on forever.

   If we let them.

just thought you'd all enjoy this as much as I had fun reading it. Pardon my spelling errors if any. My word programs have no spelling error checkers...

Has been edited for your enjoyment.