Decolonizing Menstruation through Ancestral Knowledge

I grew up in Lubbock, I did not have sex ed, and periods were extremely stigmatized. I remember in youth group our pastor teaching the boys they should never open a woman's purse or backpack because he might see a menstrual product, which would shame the young woman. I knew (know) very little about periods and for quite some time have just seen it as a part of life. However, I recently read the book, "The Red Tent." It was an amazing read which I highly recommend to each of you. It is placed around 1500 B.C. and follows a young girl into womanhood. It focuses on women and the importance of menstruation at the time. She is jealous as all the women enter the red tent each month and wonders what they do. She is finally able to join them and it is a celebration. They give her blood back to the earth and they spend the week talking and enjoying one another's company exchanging knowledge, secrets, and ideas with one another. As I read this, I found myself wondering why I hated my period so much, why did I believe it was gross, and why was my menstruating experience so vastly different from the women in my book.

Then I listened to Marisa Cummings's zoom that was posted on BlackBoard and it got me thinking even more about periods. She shared about her tribe's rituals surrounding periods and how her daughter gave back her first blood to the earth and the importance of this moment. I started to realize that I had allowed my ideas and perceptions around periods and menstruating to come from the colonizers and the colonizers only. Then, weirdly enough, this TikTok appeared on my for you page. 

https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPdjTYSAb/

I watched it and wondered what my reactions would have been 2 months ago, prior to the book and prior to the zoom call. I showed it to my girlfriend and she coiled in horror. I looked at the comments and mostly found ones that looked like this.

I didn't blame these women and men, we have grown up in a society that teaches us that it is shameful and gross and should be secret. I remember the first time I decided to switch over to a cup from tampons and I was telling my family (I have 4 sisters) about this. 3 of the 4 and my mother all asked why I was sharing this with them and then proceeded to ask if it was so gross having to deal with it. I realized that as women we are taught to hate our bodies and to not know our bodies. I kept scrolling through the comments and found some that made me think and made me hopeful.

Women were realizing that society had taught them one thing and were beginning to consider unlearning a few things. Women were sharing their culture and native beliefs unashamedly. I did a little more digging and found two great websites that go through the history of taboo behind periods and then the history of sacredness behind periods, I hope y'all will check both of these out. I learned a lot from ancestral knowledge today. I can't promise that on my next period I will use it as a facial or give it back to the earth, but I also cannot promise that I won't... I'd love to know what y'all's attitudes about periods were in your culture and growing up, have any of these changed?

 https://www.medicaldaily.com/menstrual-period-time-month-history-387252

https://www.hinduamerican.org/blog/menstrual-taboos-and-ancient-wisdom