Period Names Around The World & Why They Are Obsolete

August 28, 2020 | st-blog-admin

Periods all over the world are still addressed by secret code names. It’s 2020 and this is the time to start talking about menstruation directly and call them what they are. It’s normal, it’s natural and it is nothing to be ashamed about. It’s a biological function none of us would be here without. Let’s see what different nations have named menstruation:

Brazil: “I’m on my days.”
China: “Big aunt is visiting!”
France: “Thinga-ma-jig.”
Germany: “I have my days.”
India: “Chums.”, “Jam and bread”
Japan: “Little strawberry”
Mexico: “Andres has arrived.”
Russia: “Little Red Riding Hood is coming”
United Kingdom: “Riding the crimson wave.”
United States of America: “Aunt Flo is visiting.”
Canada: “The painters are in”
Turkey: “The motherland is bleeding”

Avoiding the word ‘period’ suggests there’s something to be ashamed of. So some of us tuck tampons up our sleeves, hide our borrowed sanitary napkins in notebooks, are scared of leaking and think it is something we should hide at all costs. If it were 1825, it would be understandable to call periods by these outdated phrases because the feminist movement hadn’t been kick started yet. But with everything women have worked hard to achieve over the years, we’re still not very comfortable addressing something as universal as menstruation.

The contradicting notion that people believe in about menstruation is that it can be is both verification of womanhood and fertility, and also a source of shame and inconvenience. Through the years, women’s lives have improved economically, politically and socially. But even though we’re now more comfortable physically during menstruation, we’re still embarrassed to talk about this normal part of our lives. It is time we start a conversation, the one that begins by calling them periods, period.