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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   2443 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 9, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

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Now that references to periods are considered acceptable in children's media, why weren't they before? Everything Disney has done so far on this subject has been pretty tactful. (Turning Red, the Baymax short, the Molly McGee episode)

My best guess is that it's because periods are associated with sexual maturity, making it a casualty of the larger taboo of references to sex in children's media (which is a perfectly understandable taboo). But my mental models of how other people think are usually wrong, especially in regards to Culture War topics, so I figured I'd ask you guys.

There are often strong period taboos in other cultures. For instance see period huts.

Menstruation blood is thought to be impure as Jewish Ethiopians believe the failure to give birth is manifested in the blood. If anyone were to come into contact with the woman during their menstruation, they would too have to stay in the hut.[3] Therefore to avoid contact, the family of the women in the margam gojos will leave food outside the door. If her blood is to touch food or drink, it would be thrown out. This is why women wear leather belts under their shirts with fabric tied to them to prevent any dripping. The same idea is conveyed in that a Jewish woman cannot go to or cross rivers during menstruation lest she drip and contaminate the river

The use of menstrual huts continues to be a cause of death, from exposure, dehydration, snake bite, smoke inhalation, and so on

The relationship to womens' sexual maturity, and the blood (ew) coming out of the vagina (taboo!), means it makes sense as a taboo i guess. I don't think 'not mentioning it in media' has any particular value

and the blood (ew) coming out of the vagina (taboo!)

It's also just inherently difficult to make jokes about it- vaginas aren't universal, periods less so, and also have a "this isn't funny, this is kind of a curse and sucks ass" effect to them. So women don't really like to talk about them.

A portrayal of someone shitting, on the other hand, is both universal (as in, everyone has done this) in feeling, body movement, and otherwise; it's also temporary (instances of digestive or urinary distress are also universal) and failing to deal with it in time won't break you for a week (though it certainly will make you stink and require a wash and a change of clothes).

That isn't to say that you can't make period jokes; I seem to remember at least one comic about high-pressure period blood spraying everywhere, but they're just comparatively rare and harder to pull off.

Therefore to avoid contact, the family of the women in the margam gojos will leave food outside the door.

Otherwise known as "standard operating procedure for women in the age before Midol"; it was probably the women that insisted on some of this in the first place. A week with far less expectation of making house when you're cramped up sounds like a decent ritual for a society to have... provided your culture is not being stupid about it in other ways, that is (i.e. failing to deliver food to the hut).

I seem to remember at least one comic about high-pressure period blood spraying everywhere,

Women need live performers of the caliber Till and Rammstein. Spraying down a screaming crowd is the way forward.

https://old.reddit.com/r/Rammstein/comments/tchvq3/i_love_this_video/

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