Reference no: EM133660167 , Length: Words Count:500
Discussion
250 words
What were your own experiences like regarding menstruation (for example, did it change the way you view yourself, your body, your relationships?)
Were you educated about this process? (Who talked to you? Where did you get your information?)
(2) Follow up response (250 words)
Posted on a different day than your initial response, your follow up response is a response to a peer's post. Please attempt to challenge your peer and present unique ideas and perspective, bringing in ideas from the textbook as well as other sources. "I agree" or " I disagree" is simply not enough to constitute a valid and comprehensive follow up response. (250 words)
Avi Morancy (They/Them/He/Him/His)
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As a person assigned female at birth and living with immigrant parents and raised in a strictly religious household whilst also going to a religious school, the topic of menstruation was not a common thing. The school taught us the bare minimum, and my mother merely said that this was what every female went through in their lives. I remember being panicked that I kept having dirty underwear and just resorted to shoving it into the laundry hamper where no one could see it.
As I grew older, and my identity fluctuated, I began to resent myself whenever a new month came along and Mother Nature reared its ugly head. I'm not ashamed to admit that I am a queer non-binary/genderfluid person with masculine preference. I'm not ashamed to admit that I rather be a male than a female because I feel much more comfortable being masculine than I do being perceived as female. No, that doesn't mean I won't wear skirts or feminine things, but it does mean that I don't use female pronouns, and that I don't wear dresses (unless I want to) and that I look as masculine as possible. Take that, and put menstruation into the mix and you get someone who really, really hates their body.
It didn't damage my relationships. It didn't damage my self esteem (that was already damaged way before this), but it did make me angry. Pissed off. Funnily enough, I'm menstruating right now (hence why I am quite emotional here, oops). I remember getting my period one day and just...forgetting I was born female. I screamed. I cried. For some reason, I thought I was dying. For the two times I didn't get my period, I was over the moon. The one time I forgot I was female and that people like me GOT periods in the first place was possibly the moment that I realized I mentally do not see myself as a female. How can I when I freak out over something I've been having since I was nine years old? It's normal for me. It's supposed to be. But it's not, because I'm not a girl but I'm in the body of one, so I have to be treated like one. It truly is frustrating because I'm not a girl, but there's this thing that only happens to girls happening to me.