Free The Bleed!

I don’t know about you all, but I am sick and tired of being discriminated against because I bleed once a month.

It has always been crazy to me that the routine, normal and natural cleansing of my system is treated as a liability, a problem, something to control and/or something to hide.       

At any given moment, on any random day, 800 million people across the world are bleeding out of their vaginas. The red moon is as predictable as the sun rising, as normal as blinking, and essential to the overall health of people with uteruses. It is unacceptable, then, that people who experience this every month are relegated to second-class citizenship in the majority of so-called “societies” around the world.

Discrimination against bleeding people brings the entirety of humanity down. It is completely illogical and one of, if not the main, foundational ideologies of dumpster fire failure of a system called patriarchy. Some people refer to this systemic violence as “period poverty,” but I feel like that term does not go far enough for me. I also think it absolves Men™ and capitalists of their responsibility in upholding and perpetuating this system of exclusion and ostracization. 

I write discrimination against bleeding people because people who bleed are persecuted in the public and private sphere. It is not just being unable to afford hygienic supplies. Discrimination against bleeding people looks like majority male governmental bodies that were voted in using a system that denies bleeding people an equitable opportunity to vote attempting to make decisions about abortion access, trying to ban young students in Florida from learning accurate information about their bodies, and sexualizing natural bodies all of the time.  

Discrimination against bleeding people looks like the gender wage gap: where people who bleed are viewed as untrustworthy or not as “strong” as Men™ and get shortchanged out of their value due to an idea, not a fact. They are oftentimes then forced to use that half-assed paycheck to buy menstrual supplies that are a) bleached with chemicals and wrapped in unbreathable plastic b) expensive (again, we are already not paid our full value) and/or c) wasteful to the environment. Bleeding peoples’ livelihoods are threatened every month and everyday if they cannot “perform” at the same pace as people who literally do not bleed uncontrollably. You have to be completely brain-dead to hold people to a certain standard of labor while they are dealing with hormonal fluctuations, bleeding, sweating in all the wrong places, constipation and diarrhea. 

And that brings me to the private costs of discrimination against bleeding people (that also still affects the world as a whole). When bleeding people are not able to operate in their fullest humanity and are treated as second-class citizens, it manifests as the global pandemic of PCOS, Endometriosis, Maternal and Infant Mortality, fibroids, cysts, and pre-term births. Too many bleeding people are kept from the truth of their bodies, so they do not know how to care for their bodies. They overwork themselves, they do not or are unable to eat nutritious food (hello, food desserts and world hunger), and they are ostracized from public spaces. Girls and bleeding people around the world miss school every month because they are bullied for bleeding and/or cannot afford menstrual products. Most (not all) people who bleed have had at least one ignorant and unnecessary comment about their moon goo. It is 8.5 times out of 10 presented in a negative light in the media, if they even choose to acknowledge this regular occurrence at all which is a violence in and of itself. Discrimination against bleeding people has fatal consequences, with the health issues stated above and young girls around the world choosing to take their own lives because we are living in a world that does make space for natural bodily processes. It is unacceptable and it cannot stand.

It's not like it has to be this way. Discrimination against bleeding people/ period poverty is a social construct which means that there are other ways to live. Countless Indigenous and African societies throughout history and in this time prepare for the inevitable. They worship vitality and health. They respect and honor creativity and creation. I dream of a world where no one expects me or my bleeding friends to do anything but sleep eat and laugh. I dream of free wellness centers and clean running water for everyone and space for people to truly experience this extraordinary process. People who bleed have the human right to be fully human. This work will only be done when every bleeding person around the world is able to operate as their highest and most empowered bloody self.

Tap in regularly for more bi-weekly blog posts about feminism, history, Blackness, and music brought to you by Break the Seal Press, a womanist press dedicated to transforming the world through quality literature and grassroots activism founded by Spelman grad, local herstorian, and writer, Jacqueline H. Brown-Gaines. If you can’t wait until the next blog post, check out my debut short story, Adventures with the Funk Haus Band, available now for only $5 plus shipping on this same website!! Proceeds from the sale of each book support Black college History programs and HBCU marching bands in need. You can also purchase copies to donate to under-resourced teens! It is the hottest short story of the year, don’t miss the band bus!!!

Back to blog

Leave a comment