category: Blog
I love my father. I just have to start off with that, so you don’t get the wrong idea about what I’m about to write. I love my father, but sometimes, I don’t like him very much.
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My father and I have always been pretty close. He and I are gifted with the same warped sense of humor and he has always expressed his love for me in his own way, and I love it. However, sometimes I see the evidence of the era he grew up in when he talks about women and women’s issues, especially a woman’s menstrual cycle. In his eyes, if you are sticking up for yourself, or objecting to something he says, then you must be “on the rag”.
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When I think back to where most of my ideas about menstruation come from, it’s from him and my older sister. Neither of them have a fondness for a woman’s cycle. Instead it is usually blamed for whatever crap is currently going on in the home.
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Yesterday, my Dad sent me an email that was insulting, it hurt my feelings and I responded to him saying that. The response I got was not the apology I had hoped for (but I knew wasn’t going to come), instead it was “Is it that time of the month or something?”. What?! Why would you automatically think I am on my period because I stood up to you when you were demeaning me?
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I had to control myself so I didn’t say something I didn’t mean or scream my lungs out. I simply responded, “Nope, I guess I am just naturally a bitch”. That’s all I could say.
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I have little patience for men and women that constantly blame their cycle for their personality. If you act bitchy 90% of the time, chances are, you are a bitch, plain and simple. That’s not your cycles fault. Yes, I totally agree that our moods change during our cycle, no doubt about it. However we can’t always fall back on that when we say or do something that others don’t like. Your monthly hormonal changes can cause you to be a little more or less of what you already are. So, if you are a strong, confident woman, at certain parts of your cycle this will be accentuated and other times it will be a little muted. Your cycle does not change who you really are though. It will just tone up or tone down the true you.
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Ladies, let’s stop blaming our cycles for our behavior and let’s not allow men to do it to us either. We can honor and respect our ever changing emotions without acting like a victim to them. If you are at the time in your cycle where you are usually a bit more tired and run down, then choose to take control of it, not just blame it for inconveniencing you so greatly. Chart your monthly behaviors and know when you usually have your ups and downs, be ready for them. You have control over yourself, so don’t act like you just couldn’t help being a massive bitch, because your period made you do it. Your hormones may have made you more aggressive, but you have control over who you allow yourself to be around during that time and how you act around them. You are not a victim.
