- 11 Mar, 2021
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- 1 Min Read
If Men Could Menstruate
And how would women be trained to react? One can imagine traditional women agreeing to all
arguments with a staunch and smiling masochism. (“The ERA would force housewives to wound
themselves every month”: Phyllis Schlafly. “Your husband’s blood is as sacred as that of Jesus – and so
sexy, too!” Marabel Morgan.) Reformers and Queen Bees would try to imitate men, and pretend to have
a monthly cycle. All feminists would explain endlessly that men, too, needed to be liberated from the
false idea of Martian aggressiveness, just as women needed to escape the bonds of menses envy.
Radical feminists would add that the oppression of the nonmenstrual was the pattern for all other
oppressions (“Vampires were our first freedom fighters!”) Cultural feminists would develop a bloodless
imagery in art and literature. Socialist feminists would insist that only under capitalism would men be
able to monopolize menstrual blood . . . .
In fact, if men could menstruate, the power justifications could probably go on forever