Menstruation Quotes

“We knew we shouldn’t be ashamed. We weren’t ashamed. We were grown-ass women—which is obviously why we paraded to the restrooms with tampons secretly stuffed into our cardigan sleeves as though we were spies delivering encrypted information.
....We pretended that all of this was a myth. That we had neither fallopian tubes, nor menstrual cycles, nor breasts, nor moods, nor children. And then we took it as a compliment when one of the men in the office told us we had balls. So, tell us again how this wasn’t a man’s world.”
― Chandler Baker, Whisper Network

“Some called it Eve's curse but she thought that was stupid, and the real curse of Eve was having to put up with the nonsense of Adam, who as soon as there was any trouble, blamed it all on her.”
― Margaret Atwood, Alias Grace

“The shedding of blood has historically been seen as a male act of heroism: from right-of-passage fistfights, to contact sports and combat. Infrequent, random events seen as standalone milestones; stories to tell once the pain - and enough time - has passed. Female bleeding is more mundane, more frequent, more getonwithit, despite its existence being the reason that every single life begins”
― Sinéad Gleeson, Constellations: Reflections From Life

“It is quite a big deal. It's so extraordinary that we female humans should be linked to the moon and the tides. It'd sound like science fiction if you made it up – mysterious planetary forces making us bleed.”
― Sofka Zinovieff, Putney

“...she did remember one time when she got her period, sliding open the cupboard under the bathroom sink to get a sanitary napkin; she remembered looking at the box of Stayfree pads and thinking that the box looked almost smug, seemed almost to be saying: Hello, Patty! We are your children. We are the only children you will ever have, and we are hungry. Nurse us. Nurse us on blood.”
― Stephen King, It

“Cal had told her all girls had it, it was natural as breathing, it was a sign they were growing up, and they had it until they were in their fifties. At the time, Jean Louise was so overcome with despair at the prospect of being too old to enjoy anything when it would finally be over, she refrained from pursuing the subject.”
― Harper Lee, Go Set a Watchman

“Each twinge, each murmur of slight pain, ripples of sloughed-off matter, swellings and diminishings of tissue, the droolings of the flesh, these are signs, these are the things I need to know about. Each month I watch for blood, fearfully, for when it comes it means failure. I have failed once again to fulfill the expectations of others, which have become my own.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale

“In order to reclaim our full selves, to integrate each of these aspects through which we pass over the course of our lives, we must first learn to embrace them though our cycles.”
― Lucy H. Pearce, Moon Time: Harness the Ever-Changing Energy of Your Menstrual Cycle

“Menstruation annoys the most females who lack the desire to someday fall pregnant.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Stop mansplaining menstrution, we’ve got this.”
― Silvia Young, My FemTruth: Scandalous Survival Stories

“Nothing else in the world makes a man like that more afraid than five girls on their periods.”
― Anna-Marie McLemore, Wild Beauty

“Ladies haven't the luxury of being squeamish about blood.”
― Mackenzi Lee

“Mary me dijo: ahora ya eres una mujer, y eso me hizo llorar. Entonces ella me abrazó y me consoló mejor de lo que hubiera podido hacerlo mi madre, que siempre estaba demasiado ocupada, cansada o enferma. Después me prestó su enagua de franela roja hasta que yo tuviera una y me enseñó cómo doblar y sujetar los paños y me dijo que algunos lo llamaban «la maldición de Eva», cosa que a ella le parecía una estupidez, ya que la verdadera maldición de Eva era tener que aguantar las idioteces de Adán que, en cuanto surgió un problema, le echó toda la culpa a ella.”
― Margaret Atwood, Alias Grace

“Never mess with a woman in PMS and a man on Testosterone.”
― Abhijit Naskar

“The hardest thing about being a woman isn’t menstruation or giving birth. It’s resisting the pressure to love handbags, makeup, high heels … and men.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, F for Philosopher: A Collection of Funny Yet Profound Aphorisms

“The hormonal interplay inside a woman’s head creates her reality. Her hormones tell her day to day what’s important. They mold her desires and values.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Neurosutra: The Abhijit Naskar Collection

“Attitudes towards menstrual blood in contemporary Western culture still circle around the subject with a mixture of denial and horror, advertisements for sanitary products typically use blue liquid in an attempt to sanitize the reality of blood, weary old jokes circulate about not trusting anything that bleeds for seven days and does not die. Menstrual blood is constructed either as something that requires a hygienic makeover or as something unnatural and obscene, a further indication of the horrors of sexual difference and the threatening ‘secrets’ of the female body.”
― Ruth McPhee, Female Masochism in Film: Sexuality, Ethics and Aesthetics

“So I was forced to go to school wearing a menstrual pad belt that had been in our first aid drawer since approximately 1961. If you've never seen one of these things, because you haven't been to the antiquities museum, it is a literal belt that goes around your waist, with two straps that dangle down in your front and back cracks, ice cold metal clips holding a small throw pillow in place over your shame canyon.”
― Lindy West, Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman

“If it were not for advertising, only a negligible fraction of prepubescent boys who do would know what a pantyliner or a tampon is.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“That time of the month for a woman with a good lover is an unwelcome vacation.”
― A.K. Kuykendall

“Leaders bleed.”
― Silvia Young, My FemTruth: Scandalous Survival Stories

“Menstruation is not a problem, poor menstrual hygiene is”
― Anurag Chauhan

“Get to know your cycle.”
― Adrienne Posey

“If only people communicated with each other, women won't have to come up with lame excuses when what we want to say is, "Our body feels like shit today. Can we please take a day off and catch up tomorrow?”
― Binati Sheth, ShhhARK WEEK

“Talking about the ooze that leaks out of our orifices is uncomfortable for everyone involved.”
― Binati Sheth, ShhhARK WEEK

“If only people didn't build this air of mystery around menstruating women, you would have caught a few of us smack dab in the middle of our excuses.”
― Binati Sheth, ShhhARK WEEK

“There is no relationship between brain size and intelligence. There is however a strong correlation between the size of the brain and the tendency to monthly episodes of irrational moodiness.”
― Andre the BFG, Andre's Adventures in MySpace

“Jeg kunne ikke leve opp til Flo Kennedys mor som var rengjøringshjelp og av gammel slaveslekt. En dag ble hun beskyldt for å ha stjålet, med det resultat at hun tok det våte bindet fram fra skrittet og slengte det i ansiktet på Fruen.”
― Suzanne Brøgger, Creme fraiche

“Poor menstrual hygiene is a problem, as big as polio”
― Anurag Chauhan

“You see, to us, having a period was humiliating or exhilarating, instead of something that normally happened to every woman.”
― Binati Sheth, ShhhARK WEEK