Yay, the time has come once again when we get to witness celebrities talking about periods. A TMZ reporter asked Macy Gray about her opinions on a Monthly Menstruation Day, which she seemed to be a fan of, saying, "Yeah, it's a little painful, it's not a good day at work." Now, in all fairness, the reporter did bring up menstruation, but videos like this really raise the question: Is there anything that is off limits when it comes to celebrities? Maybe I'm a prude, or maybe society's institutionalized and inherent disgust with the functions of a woman's body have been burned into my soul, but if I never have to hear or see a single mention of a celebrity's periods or thoughts on periods ever again, I would not be the least bit sad.
See here's the thing: it would be super cool if there was one day a month when employees could opt to work at home due to extenuating health circumstances. However, to call it something like "Monthly Menstruation Day" or to limit it to only women is implicitly sexist and kind of gross. It is true that only women menstruate, but any rule about time off that only applies to women is guaranteed to imply a sexist double standard, one in which women are inferior and incapable of working through pain in the same way that men do.
Additionally, people of any gender can experience health issues that prevent them from going in to work, so perhaps instead of making women call it in with their boss when Auntie Flo comes to town, it would be more worthwhile to institute workplace initiatives that destigmatize working from home or taking a day off for all employees. Besides, even if you had a day off explicitly for menstrual problems, how many of us would ever actually use it, just based on the embarrassment alone? I don't want to clue my boss into my menstrual cycle any more than I'd want my parents to read through all the drunk texts I sent in my freshman year of college. It would be a violation of my privacy to have to disclose that information to anyone other than a doctor. Regardless, celebrities like to share (or perhaps over share) about that time of the month. A notable perpetrator of period talk is Shailene Woodley, known to share gems like this:
My point is this: having a day off for periods pains is not the way to show women in the workplace that they are equal, and furthermore, talking about periods as part of a public persona is straight up oversharing. Save it for your doctors or your closest friends y'all, ain't nobody got time for the cramps and horror stories of other people's periods.
