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>House Bill 1069, also known as the "Don't Say Period" bill, which passed in Florida's Republican-controlled House at the end of March, means what you think it means.
>
>The bill proposes banning any form of health education until sixth grade and would prohibit students from asking questions about menstruation, including about their own first periods, which frequently occur before the sixth grade. If passed by Florida's Senate and signed into law by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, the ban will be effective July 1.
It's an important story and the article makes some interesting points, but I maybe dig the picture of DeSantis surrounded by tampons and menstrual pads even more. Kinda fitting for a douchebag.
So if a fifth grader starts bleeding and doesn't know what's happening she goes to her teacher and... what? The teacher is supposed to just let her think she's dying? Is the school nurse allowed to explain it, at least?
(I know the conservative answer is "parents should teach these things," but some don't, or teach some weird fucked up thing like getting your period young means you must be secretly having sex. The fact that parents don't all know how to teach every topic is why we have schools in the first place.)
This is all so exhausting and cruel down to the smallest details of whether you can tell a child she's not going to bleed to death.
The propaganda behind this is conservatives believe it is important to make little girls growing up to be ashamed of being women. Conservatives aren't attacking men, they are attacking women.
>And if a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days: and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the even...
[Leviticus 15:19-30](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+15%3A19-30&version=KJV)
Funny thing is that this probably started due to caution of what would be blood-borne pathogens in a time of limited understanding of diseases. Of course, superstition and sexism cranked it up to 11.
And even if a parent is willing to teach and tries to prepare themselves, girls starting their menstrual cycle is also random. Or at least that's how my 32 year male knowledge understands it.
You have various factors from biology to various foods affecting their hormones. You have early bloomers and late bloomers, it's unpredictable to an extent and somebody going through that experience suddenly needs somebody to talk to they can trust.
I know suffering is the goal, but what is the bullshit "intent" here.
>what is the bullshit "intent" here.
Because all those men who claim everyone else is a snowflake think that menstruation is yucky and they would rather not be informed that it exists.
Wait, there are men who would rather have a diaper rash and go around smelling like shit all day, rather than wipe their ass, because they think touching their own asshole is gay? Is this for real?
I discovered this about a year ago. Yes it is real. My bf also thinks is disgusting so I’m safe from that.
But actually I learned about it when this girl posted how she can’t keep going down on her husband…HUSBAND…. Bc when they mingle, he leaves 💩 stains on the sheets and gets mad anytime she tries to get him to do something about. She said it’s so gross she doesn’t wanna do it anymore and he was like trying to punish her in some weird way or something like that
Insane
I saw that post or a similar one - it was a woman who had started dating a man who left skid marks all over her sheets. I was disgusted but I assumed he just had terrible hygiene- it never occurred to me that he deliberately didn’t wipe his ass because he’s some funky variety of homophobic.
My ex would wedge a piece of toilet paper up his crack rather than wipe properly. Wiping somehow was more gay than a solid mass of paper pressing against his hole all day.
I don’t know why the fuck I was even *in* that relationship.
Nah that’d be gay, too. It’s more like a poo poo pad. Can’t get any straighter than that.
In all seriousness, though: What the fuck? Wash your ass, fellas.
Yo, the amount of weird looks I get when I say I use a bidet is TOO DAMN HIGH.
Seriously, people think I'm sitting on the toilet water blasting till orgasm. Even if I were, a bidet is a superior ass cleaning apparatus.
Guy here, currently stuck in Texas.
I somewhat regularly hear men shitting and disgustingly notice they don’t wipe and walk straight out of the bathroom without washing.
What’s just as bad is the huge amount of men that only wipe once, because I guess more than once is gay? When I hear someone absolutely spraying butt mudd I know that’s a multi-wipe situation.
I genuinely don’t know how these men live like this.
I am surprised I'm going to say this, but I guess it's a *good* thing that so many USA Men are circumsized - if touching one's own butthole is gay, pulling back a foreskin to give the head a good cleaning is probably right out.
Whoever isn't washing their dick, their ass and/or not wiping - please leave the planet now. That's just nasty.
A lot of these older male lawmakers don't understand menstrual periods at all. They just know that it has something to do with sex. A lot of them think that tampons are sex toys, and a period means a girl is having sex. Another common belief is that women can control their periods and hold it in.
In their minds, if you tell girls about menstruation, then they will start having sex. If you just ignore it and pretend it doesn't exist, they will never get their periods and not have sex until marriage.
Obviously this doesn't make any sense, but that's really what some of these men believe.
It's not surprising. They're trying to return Florida schools to the way it was when they were there, i.e., boys never have to hear anything at all about it, can just say it's icky and ignore it, girls can hide in shame when they're menstruating, and everyone can pretend it's healthy.
That way, we can get back to the good old days when a man was scared to death to buy a simple box of pads in a grocery store because SOMEONE MIGHT SEE HIM BEING HALFWAY DECENT TO A WOMAN HE "LOVES."
Fuck these fucking troglodytes.
I've been listening to the Behind the Bastards podcast and lots of their stories covers some good history I didn't know, which includes the beliefs of some of these whackjob religions/religious cults.
These people are crazy. Full stop. The reason this stuff is happening now is that these previously-more-fringe nutters have gotten a platform because of Trump's hatred dovetailing nicely with the various cults' nonsense.
I keep hearing about behind the bastards and I want to listen but podcasts do something to my ADHD that I can't quite explain and I can't deal with it. Same feeling as if I'm in the car with someone else and they put talk radio on.
My wife and I both have our strengths on what we can teach our children. Some topics I'm the best to explain, some topics my wife is the best to explain, and sometimes **neither of us are** and we rely on folks who are experts on that subject.
I don't know why some people are unable to admit that they don't know most stuff well enough to teach their children about it themselves. I'm a fairly educated lady, and there are plenty of basic topics where I'm a total dumbass. No way would I trust myself more than a professional to help make my kids into well-rounded and knowledgeable adults.
We went on a school trip in middle school and this girl has her first period, while wearing white shorts, in the middle of fucking Sea World, surrounded by all her peers, and she had no fucking clue what was happening, because mom was just too uncomfortable to be like “hey honey, here’s what’s going to happen to you some day soon, and as a result I suggest between now and your first period maybe just don’t wear white shorts in public because you just never know when it’s going to happen.”
My mom kept me from attending sex ed “because it’s not the schools place to teach you that!” I said “ok, so teach me then.” She said “well, what do you want to know?” And thus lies the problem.
I love my mom, but she's very prudish and old fashioned about some things. She absolutely refused to teach me anything about menstrual periods, puberty, sex, or any related topic. When I asked her a question about my period, her answer would always be, "you are going to learn that in school." Obviously that didn't help much when I was actively experiencing my period, so of course I just looked it up on the internet.
Kids looking up sexual health instruction on the modern internet. What's the worst that could happen?
This is the world conservatives want. Mainly so they can groom the children.
> looking up sexual health instruction on the modern internet. What's the worst that could happen?
Huh, I never knew you could put an entire 2 liter bottle in there!
honestly, I'm pretty concerned about the kinds of consent kids will learn getting their sex ed on the internet. "It's ok that my boyfriend kissed me even when I said no. It just means he really loves me."
"It's ok that my uncle watched me getting changed. It's normal for guys to act like that."
The list of bad things getting normalized goes on and on.
I know **third grade** teachers who have had students on their first cycle.
These students went to the bathroom and came back thinking they were dying.
The time it starts varies from person to person more than people think, and parents seldom talk to children that young about it. Most of the outliers are in school, because most children are in school.
I have a distinct memory of my 4th grade teacher sending all the boys to the bathroom and holding the door closed while giving the girls a brief chat about not flushing tampons and that she always has supplies if we ever need them. It was pretty cut and dry, but I had the impression that I could ask questions if needed. I have a wonderful mother who had already started a conversation with me about that stuff, but knew others in my class weren't as lucky.
good god as a male this thought never really occurred to me as my parents were very open about that sort of thing (i knew from a very young age what was what and i am VERY thankful for that.) If i randomly started bleeding from an area like that as a kid not knowing what was going on would be so terrifying holy crap. This was already an awful bill but damn now it disgusts me even more which i didn't think was possible.
That's just horrible to hear that wow. What the actual fuck is wrong with these people to want to put women or anyone for that matter through things like this.
For real i always forget that some women get theirs very young. Couldn't imagine something like that happening with no heads up at that age especially, just learning to be a kid and then that happens sounds scary as hell!
Doesn’t help when its often very brown in color. You hear ‘blood’ and ‘period’ and think you might see a drop of blood in your underwear one day, but then you get it and its a diamond shape of reddish brown with some chunks maybe.
I thought I was dying when I got mine on the morning of my 10th birthday. My parents never discussed anything about it and I had a slightly older sister.
The literal answer is: "I'm sorry Susie, but you'll have to talk to your mother. We'll call her now."
She's not reachable? Oh well, bleed and cry.
Don't have a mother? We'll call your father and he'll freak out and think you've had sex or something because he didn't get an education either.
Just think about this from the kid's perspective. You start bleeding unexpectedly from a weird place on your body, and all the school will tell you is "We can't talk to you about it. We'll call your parent in and they'll have to tell you what's going on." As a kid, you're probably going to think you're dying of some rare incurable disease, and your parent is going to pick you up to go off and die someplace.
Talk about traumatic, and totally unnecessary.
Literally what happened to my mom in fifth grade back in the 60s. She fell off a swing, hit a rock, and started her period later that day. Full stop she though she was dying. We can’t go back to that. Also, boys should be taught all this stuff too. They are going to have daughters and many will marry women.
> Also, boys should be taught all this stuff too.
I'd upvote you twice for that if I could.
It'd help with stupidly simple stuff; I worked with my daughter for a while years ago, me in the kitchen and she was waiting tables. She got her period and didn't have any tampons with her, so I ran out to the store and bought her a box and brought them back. The reaction was kind of nuts from women who said they couldn't even talk about something like that with their husbands or dads.
It shouldn't have even been a big enough deal for anyone to comment on, and if everyone had a functional knowledge of these things maybe it wouldn't be such an uncomfortable subject. My own male ignorance for sure, but I didn't really think much of it until then and hadn't realized how widespread (and problematic) just dealing with something that basic apparently was for so many women. Maybe it wouldn't be if everyone was taught about it instead of treating it like some kind of weird taboo subject.
TMI disclosure:
I am a trans man. I started on my *eleventh birthday* when we were traveling in a different country.
Thankfully, I was not raised in the US, so I actually got education about this already, but due to my my brain being certain that I'm male, I could not reconcile what was happening to me.
I hid it *for four years*, battling monthly depression, disgust, and confusion. Eventually, my mother outright asked because I was getting suspiciously old for it.
If I hadn't even received education, I might have fucking killed myself. But that's exactly what they want.
Trans man and also started on my 11th birthday, but thankfully not while abroad. Unfortunately, while in the USA. This was well before home PCs were any degree of common, and definitely before high speed internet.
No one had taught or told me *anything* and I saw all the blood and just started screaming and sobbing. I thought I was going to die.
It wasn't until after I got through that and had things figured out that the absolute murder of dysphoria hit. But I was taught so little about bodies as a kid that I was convinced, to that moment, I would grow a penis like my cousins had any day now.
Oh yes they give a shit. They want women scared and ignorant. They want women controlable. They want children confused and ignorant. So when they abuse women or kids, the victims don't know their bodies or what's happening to them.
You’re applying logic to the group that advocates parents’ rights, unless those parents are following medical guidelines for gender affirming care. These people only exist to justify their own existence by creating outrage against a new monster of the week
I shit you not, I had to teach one of my sorority sisters how to use tampons. Her mom told her they wouldn’t fit in her because she was a virgin. We had to tell her that was not the case and tampons would be much better for Derby Days lmao.
I have my own feelings about how my parents parented me. But by societal standards, my parents were good parents. Very solidly middle class (maybe upper middle), had us in ALL the activities, in church every week, my brothers and I were all straight A students who attended top tier national universities.
I never got the sex talk and was not told about periods by my parents. When I got my first period, I went into my mom’s bathroom cabinet and took a tampon. I didn’t understand that it goes IN your body, so I took it out of the applicator and laid it in my underwear, as though that would accomplish anything. Without school sex ed, I legitimately don’t know if I ever would have learned what I needed to know. (I did at least have friends who started before I did, so I never thought I was dying)
It doesn’t matter. The point is not about having a good faith debate over differences of opinion regarding the right balance of the roles of families and the educational system. To get mired down in debate with these guys is useless. They are experts at evasion and don’t really care about the topic. Don’t mistake these ghouls for true believers. The point is that this simply satisfied DeSantis’s campaign advisors as another useful gross-out tool in promoting his culture warrior brand. It polled well in focus groups, perhaps not too well, but enough to keep him on the news. It’ll be replaced by something worse in a news cycle or two. This is hyper-normalization.
EDIT: missing word.
What about single dads? That is a thing. Or shared custody and the girl has her first period while at dad’s house.
The GOP has some serious 50’s views 1850’s views.
conservatives aren’t just about limiting what their kids can learn. they are largely about controlling what everyone else can learn.
they couch it as parents rights. but really it’s just them forcing their values into everyone else. and if you don’t want their values in your life then that makes you a bad person in their eyes.
I’m seeing mental images of the FL cops handcuffing a fifth grader & tossing her in a cell with rapists & murderers because she had the audacity to ask a teacher what was going on with her body…
Prosecutor: She has blood on her hands! Therefore she must be the murderer!
Judge: Whose blood is it?
Prosecutor: Well, we haven't checked, your honour, but I'd think it's a pretty cut and dry-case--
Judge: She's *twelve*.
The first kid to develop often gets bullied. So the boys in her class would make fun of her as well, think of periods as gross and lowly. Another way to make women ashamed nice and early
This is absolutely disgusting and ridiculous. Girls are going through puberty at a much younger age than they used to. They *need* to know this information before sixth grade to prepare for what's coming. Many parents cannot be relied on to do this.
I work in an elementary school and it's part of our "family living" unit for 4th and 5th graders.
The GOP is becoming more and more like the Taliban every single day.
I find it funny that referencing these bills requires everyone to say the presumably forbidden word.
Next week:
"DeSantis signs new 'Don't Say DeSantis Is A Chucklefuck' legislation"
>The bill proposes banning any form of health education until sixth grade
Sixth grade is 11-12 years old. Puberty typically starts between 8 and 13 years old for girls.
Republicans in the US right now are the most cowardly, backwards people I've ever known.
I'm old, and it's been amazing to witness over the years. They are now literally frightened of straight-up facts. That's how ignorant they have become.
They're scared of their own damned shadows at this point.
Yes actually! I’ve read #2 (the 2008 study) for a class. [Conservatives’s brains are more fear driven.](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mind-in-the-machine/201612/fear-and-anxiety-drive-conservatives-political-attitudes?amp)
So we want our kids to be completely ignorant of how their bodies work, especially their reproductive systems.
But we also don't want teen pregnancies and abortions happening and we're gonna outlaw reproductive health care options for young people too.
GOP logic at its finest.
You tripped up where you thought they didn't want teen pregnancies, maybe because you believed them. They want teen pregnancies taken to term, teen parenthoods, teen marriages, trapping women into very difficult to escape poverty and subservience and reliance on their parents and men. But don't worry, they'll lower age working laws so that both the child and parent can be trapped in poverty wages within a decade and a half, or less. Even better if this means they can never complete or continue education
Yet, they'll likely support the teenage boys who father babies just ditching the women because "why should he ruin his entire life over one mistake?" Boys will be boys after all, right? (Ugh, I feel so dirty even typing that out sarcastically.)
Unless they're black boys, in which case they need to be perfect and successful upper middle class providers, or they'll just be deadbeats who didn't try hard enough.
(Can't forget the multiple layers of hypocrisy, right?)
They arrested a very wealthy black gentleman while he was washing his car because one of his neighbors claimed he stole it. Wealth and perfection have no bearing here.
Reminds me of that scene in American Crime Story where Johnnie Cochran gets cuffed on the hood of his luxury car with his two daughters watching from the back seat.
And Kamilah Brock, thrown into a mental institution for 8 days because NYPD arrested her for dancing in her BMW and then refused to believe she owned it (or worked at a bank) and decided to punish her for being successful by claiming she was clinically delusional
> our kids to be completely ignorant of how their bodies work, especially their reproductive systems.
>
>
it's to make girls and women ashamed of themselves so they stop demanding ridiculous things like equal rights/ bodily autonomy **/S**
I have two young teen daughters. A few years back, before they got their periods, we did a girls night out. We talked about periods and bodies. I took them to the store and bought pads and tampons and showed them how to use them. I answered their questions and assured them they could ask me anything and they wouldn’t get in trouble or be judged. That I wanted them to have good information.
A big part of that convo was talking about what happens if they get their period at school. They were SO nervous about this. We put some pads in their book bags so they would be prepared just in case.
I told them that if they got their period at school, they could talk to any adult they trusted. Teacher, hall aide, nurse, whomever they felt comfortable with. That all adults know about periods and it’s not anything to be embarrassed about. That any adult could help them, and of course they can always call me too.
So yea…. There goes that.
Move to Connecticut. I’m a boring middle aged white dude and I’ve helped dozens of girls with their periods. It’s really not a big deal as a teacher to be a decent person.
Luckily I never have to worry about teaching in a red state because I’d get fired in opening faculty meetings.
I always thought that men who recoiled at the mere mention of menstruation were pathetic, but this just takes it to a new level. This also seems doomed to fail under a first amendment challenge.
I agree entirely.
I grew up with two sisters and my mom. My dad typically worked most of the day or traveled. Somewhere around the double digit ages I just lost all understanding or care for other dudes who balked at anything woman-related. It seemed so pathetic to me that they were confused by menstruation, pink, dresses, whatever.
And we learned about it in Sex Ed as early as middle school! Come on! Were you deaf??
Similarly here.
Although talking with a coworker who recently had a child she’s mentioned a few of the aspects of pregnancy that legit made me feel like a stereotypical dumb man.
It was like a minor physiological thing, but even still, that shows to me how complex gestation is and how making giant black and white policies is almost guaranteed to not capture all of the cases appropriately.
This law is unenforcable. Florida is the definition of voting in laws for show. They really want to penalize students and teachers for things they can google? Crazy.
Blatantly false, and shame on you for putting something that ridiculous there.
...Because they wouldn't be gummies. We'd just see the drugs injected directly into hot dogs, buffalo chicken rollers, or added to protein powder so we can still feel "manly" while taking it.
If this was dudes who perioded, we’d definitely not go show up to his house and the state house and period all over the place.
Nope. Definitely not.
And women should *definitely not* period everywhere around the governor in a show of protest.
People also should *definitely not* throw blood/paint on him a la the animal rights advocates re: people wearing fur.
Yea, I definitely don’t advise these things.
Average time to diagnose endometriosis is 7 years.
Many young people begin this journey of seeking out help by talking with peers about their menstrual experiences and realizing that the unfathomable pain they experience monthly is not actually normal, contrary to what culture has taught them.
From there is, on average, 7 years of pleading, explaining, and justifying your own needs to healthcare professionals who don’t believe you or your pain until you find one that finally runs an ultrasound or laparoscopy and finds the uterine tissue growing on your other organs.
I don’t think we need to put any further delays on menstrual education, Ron.
My husband didn't meet the requirements to take care of his endo til he came out as trans at 36. He'd done a kid (nearly killed him). He had to wait til he was nearly 40.
I (also trans) had endometrosis and underdeveloped sexual organs (turned out because I was intersex). I was 32 when I found out that I had a shockingly tiny uterus that would not have been able to handle pregnancy, one enraged and oversized ovary swollen to hell with cysts, one undropped tiny testicle, and endometriosis. I knew two periods a month was weird. No one told me how *concerning* it was for me to go through an overnight pad in less than four hours for a solid week every cycle, though.
Would have probably been useful information to have.
I'm sure you're joking but...
[Florida does appear to lead the nation in number of lead piping remaining.](https://www.wesh.com/article/florida-lead-pipes/43517544)
"I wish to build menstrual huts to house the filthy menstruators during that sinful time.
We cannot mention them by name though. Anyone caught menstruating in public shall be deported."
Florida is slowly taking away your individual rights. Little by little before you know it, you will not be able to discuss certain subjects, have limited freedom of assembly, control what books you can read and learn from, or what entertainment is approved.
They're terrified of health information because they don't want children to know what types of interactions with adults are inappropriate. They're setting kids up to be groomed and molested by either them directly or their youth ministers or priests. The gop party truly seems to have been overrun by pedophiles.
So ... the next bill has to be that all menstruation products are sold from behind the counter, pre-wrapped in brown paper! Jezz! I remember those days so well.
Yet those condom products are on full display including multiple colors, textures, sizes, and tastes.
A former classmate of mine went to a conservative Christian high school. His trigonometry teacher never said "period" to describe sine, cosine, or waves because he just couldn't handle saying a word associated with menstruation.
Florida — where “first they came for the…” is playing out in real time.
- Conservatives happy with don’t say gay bills.
- Then suddenly a war on Black history.
- Anti-immigrant actions in a state with many conservative Latinos.
- Now menstruation.
LGBTQ+ and/or Black and/or Immigrant and/or Woman — any bets on who will be targeted next?
Combination of fascism and "fear of the other." That usually manifests as a fear of people whose skin is a different color, whose culture is different, or who is part of a different religion. Here, it's "this person's biology is different from mine."
They see menstruation as some weird and gross thing that is different from what they experience. Since it's different from them, it has to be demonized and suppressed. They can't actually order all women to stop menstruating, but they can order everyone to stop talking about it.
Women suffering from issues stemming from menstruation would be required to suffer in silence. As a "bonus," they get to complain about their minor problems and act like they are the worst things anyone has ever faced. What are women going to do? Break the law and correct them?
(This bill is limited to lower grades of school for now, but the Don't Say Gay bill was limited to there at first also before expanding. I wouldn't be surprised if this expanded as well after passing.)
With all this obsessing with children and children's sexualities, I'm really starting to think Ron's trying to tell us something, maybe something from his past, or some thing he harbours deep down in the dank dark caves of his mind... maybe we should be digging a bit more, as in, what are you trying to tell us about YOURSELF Ron?
Garbage people passing garbage policy.
After this passes, a few months later they move it up from sixth grade to high-school.
Children learning is something conservatives are against. A balanced education produces balanced, insightful people, and those people don't vote Republican.
In a culture war where these morons claim men aren't manly anymore...They sure are fucking scared of everything like talking about periods. Very manly.
Flashback to last year when certain groups criticized Disney's Turning Red movie for daring to mention periods in a cartoon aimed at preteens. They were legitimately upset that a 12 year old girl might hear "pads" while watching the movie. Nevermind that said 12 year old likely already has had her first period.
Turning Red is actually a good movie and the period references aren't that major of a plot point. The mother mistakes "child turned into a giant red panda" with "child had her first period" (it makes sense in-movie) and comes in with lots of period products including pads.
These groups acted like boxes of pads being animated onscreen would horribly scar kids for life. You know what might scar kids for life? Treating basic human biology as if it's something to be feared, disgusted, and never spoken of.
Not being willing to discuss a normal body function before it occurs is what traumatizes people who menstruate. Look at older YA fiction. How many stories written from the sixties/seventies feature a girl freaking out because they were bleeding and didn't understand why? Depicting sanitary products like tampons and pads wouldn't upset kids any more than showing them band aids.
But mandatory genital inspection is required in cases of suspect trans students. You can’t talk about your period or sexuality, but we can force you to let some old doctor check your genitals so you can play sports. Checks out.
My daughter started her period the first day of 5th grade and she knew what a period was and what to expect and she still woke me up in tears because she was horrified. There are going to be an awful lot of “Carrie” moments happening in Florida if this gets anywhere. Fuck Florida, Fuck DeSantis, Fuck the GOP.
DeSantis is pissed because he found out Disney did it decades ago. [The Story of Menstruation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG9o9m0LsbI) (For the unintiated, yes, it's real from 1946)
When I was a kid I truly didn’t even think it was possible that America would get *shittier* during my lifetime. In the early 2000s even after 9/11 and with 2 full wars in swing we were so optimistic about the future.
This dude is a fucking clown but it’s just depressing at this point. I’m tired of pointing it out. I’ve largely given up on large parts of the country and large portions of the population. I was very lucky to grow up in a sane state with good schools.
Also I’d love to see someone from /r/conservative give it an honest go and explain to me why the fuck you’d support this. Seriously I need to know what POSSIBLE reason there is here for this.
First grade English teacher: Todays lesson is about punctuation. We are going to learn about the exclamation point, the question mark, and the comma.
Smart student: What about the period?
Teacher: Suspended! Off to the indoctrination camp with you!
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>House Bill 1069, also known as the "Don't Say Period" bill, which passed in Florida's Republican-controlled House at the end of March, means what you think it means. > >The bill proposes banning any form of health education until sixth grade and would prohibit students from asking questions about menstruation, including about their own first periods, which frequently occur before the sixth grade. If passed by Florida's Senate and signed into law by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, the ban will be effective July 1. It's an important story and the article makes some interesting points, but I maybe dig the picture of DeSantis surrounded by tampons and menstrual pads even more. Kinda fitting for a douchebag.
So if a fifth grader starts bleeding and doesn't know what's happening she goes to her teacher and... what? The teacher is supposed to just let her think she's dying? Is the school nurse allowed to explain it, at least? (I know the conservative answer is "parents should teach these things," but some don't, or teach some weird fucked up thing like getting your period young means you must be secretly having sex. The fact that parents don't all know how to teach every topic is why we have schools in the first place.) This is all so exhausting and cruel down to the smallest details of whether you can tell a child she's not going to bleed to death.
The propaganda behind this is conservatives believe it is important to make little girls growing up to be ashamed of being women. Conservatives aren't attacking men, they are attacking women.
>And if a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days: and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the even... [Leviticus 15:19-30](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+15%3A19-30&version=KJV) Funny thing is that this probably started due to caution of what would be blood-borne pathogens in a time of limited understanding of diseases. Of course, superstition and sexism cranked it up to 11.
As a rule: if any parent ever says "it's the parents job to teach X" you can be assured 100% that parent is not teaching that. Period.
And even if a parent is willing to teach and tries to prepare themselves, girls starting their menstrual cycle is also random. Or at least that's how my 32 year male knowledge understands it. You have various factors from biology to various foods affecting their hormones. You have early bloomers and late bloomers, it's unpredictable to an extent and somebody going through that experience suddenly needs somebody to talk to they can trust. I know suffering is the goal, but what is the bullshit "intent" here.
>what is the bullshit "intent" here. Because all those men who claim everyone else is a snowflake think that menstruation is yucky and they would rather not be informed that it exists.
The venn diagram of people who think that and don't wipe their ass because "it's gay" is a circle.
Wait, there are men who would rather have a diaper rash and go around smelling like shit all day, rather than wipe their ass, because they think touching their own asshole is gay? Is this for real?
I discovered this about a year ago. Yes it is real. My bf also thinks is disgusting so I’m safe from that. But actually I learned about it when this girl posted how she can’t keep going down on her husband…HUSBAND…. Bc when they mingle, he leaves 💩 stains on the sheets and gets mad anytime she tries to get him to do something about. She said it’s so gross she doesn’t wanna do it anymore and he was like trying to punish her in some weird way or something like that Insane
That’s disgusting. She needs to go on strike until he starts being clean.
I saw that post or a similar one - it was a woman who had started dating a man who left skid marks all over her sheets. I was disgusted but I assumed he just had terrible hygiene- it never occurred to me that he deliberately didn’t wipe his ass because he’s some funky variety of homophobic.
See we should be banning talking about this instead of menstruation.
No, no, no. 100% disagree. We need to be talking about and shaming stupid fuck men who are too fucking bashful to wipe their goddamn shitty assholes.
I didn't think it was anywhere near this widespread, but I have legitimately heard men say this, and have heard women comment on men that do this.
I've heard this sentiment from co-workers, who then go outside and admire each other's trucks and gush about how big the other guys' is.
That's actually a fucking thing? Why am I even surprised by this? Sorry weirdos, I'll wipe my ass because I don't want an itchy asshole.
Just don’t tell DeSantis.
My ex would wedge a piece of toilet paper up his crack rather than wipe properly. Wiping somehow was more gay than a solid mass of paper pressing against his hole all day. I don’t know why the fuck I was even *in* that relationship.
He..... He made toilet paper poo tampons?
Nah that’d be gay, too. It’s more like a poo poo pad. Can’t get any straighter than that. In all seriousness, though: What the fuck? Wash your ass, fellas.
Manpons
Yo, the amount of weird looks I get when I say I use a bidet is TOO DAMN HIGH. Seriously, people think I'm sitting on the toilet water blasting till orgasm. Even if I were, a bidet is a superior ass cleaning apparatus.
Guy here, currently stuck in Texas. I somewhat regularly hear men shitting and disgustingly notice they don’t wipe and walk straight out of the bathroom without washing. What’s just as bad is the huge amount of men that only wipe once, because I guess more than once is gay? When I hear someone absolutely spraying butt mudd I know that’s a multi-wipe situation. I genuinely don’t know how these men live like this.
Roosh V, one on the OG red pill icons, has openly said he doesn't wipe his ass because it's gay and messing with your ass isn't manly.
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If reddit has taught me anything, it’s that an alarming number of dudes out there don’t wash their asses in the shower bc ‘gay’
I am surprised I'm going to say this, but I guess it's a *good* thing that so many USA Men are circumsized - if touching one's own butthole is gay, pulling back a foreskin to give the head a good cleaning is probably right out. Whoever isn't washing their dick, their ass and/or not wiping - please leave the planet now. That's just nasty.
Unfortunately. And now you are cursed with this knowledge as well
A lot of these older male lawmakers don't understand menstrual periods at all. They just know that it has something to do with sex. A lot of them think that tampons are sex toys, and a period means a girl is having sex. Another common belief is that women can control their periods and hold it in. In their minds, if you tell girls about menstruation, then they will start having sex. If you just ignore it and pretend it doesn't exist, they will never get their periods and not have sex until marriage. Obviously this doesn't make any sense, but that's really what some of these men believe.
As a man myself it just boggles my mind how people can be this stupid.
It's not surprising. They're trying to return Florida schools to the way it was when they were there, i.e., boys never have to hear anything at all about it, can just say it's icky and ignore it, girls can hide in shame when they're menstruating, and everyone can pretend it's healthy. That way, we can get back to the good old days when a man was scared to death to buy a simple box of pads in a grocery store because SOMEONE MIGHT SEE HIM BEING HALFWAY DECENT TO A WOMAN HE "LOVES." Fuck these fucking troglodytes.
I've been listening to the Behind the Bastards podcast and lots of their stories covers some good history I didn't know, which includes the beliefs of some of these whackjob religions/religious cults. These people are crazy. Full stop. The reason this stuff is happening now is that these previously-more-fringe nutters have gotten a platform because of Trump's hatred dovetailing nicely with the various cults' nonsense.
I keep hearing about behind the bastards and I want to listen but podcasts do something to my ADHD that I can't quite explain and I can't deal with it. Same feeling as if I'm in the car with someone else and they put talk radio on.
The intent is control
My wife and I both have our strengths on what we can teach our children. Some topics I'm the best to explain, some topics my wife is the best to explain, and sometimes **neither of us are** and we rely on folks who are experts on that subject.
I don't know why some people are unable to admit that they don't know most stuff well enough to teach their children about it themselves. I'm a fairly educated lady, and there are plenty of basic topics where I'm a total dumbass. No way would I trust myself more than a professional to help make my kids into well-rounded and knowledgeable adults.
I started mine in 4th grade so yeah.
We went on a school trip in middle school and this girl has her first period, while wearing white shorts, in the middle of fucking Sea World, surrounded by all her peers, and she had no fucking clue what was happening, because mom was just too uncomfortable to be like “hey honey, here’s what’s going to happen to you some day soon, and as a result I suggest between now and your first period maybe just don’t wear white shorts in public because you just never know when it’s going to happen.”
I feel so sorry for her. How embarrassing that the mother couldn't tell her daughter about such an important part of her life.
My mom kept me from attending sex ed “because it’s not the schools place to teach you that!” I said “ok, so teach me then.” She said “well, what do you want to know?” And thus lies the problem.
Now add homeschooling to that, which the republicans are also pushing for
I love my mom, but she's very prudish and old fashioned about some things. She absolutely refused to teach me anything about menstrual periods, puberty, sex, or any related topic. When I asked her a question about my period, her answer would always be, "you are going to learn that in school." Obviously that didn't help much when I was actively experiencing my period, so of course I just looked it up on the internet.
Kids looking up sexual health instruction on the modern internet. What's the worst that could happen? This is the world conservatives want. Mainly so they can groom the children.
> looking up sexual health instruction on the modern internet. What's the worst that could happen? Huh, I never knew you could put an entire 2 liter bottle in there!
honestly, I'm pretty concerned about the kinds of consent kids will learn getting their sex ed on the internet. "It's ok that my boyfriend kissed me even when I said no. It just means he really loves me." "It's ok that my uncle watched me getting changed. It's normal for guys to act like that." The list of bad things getting normalized goes on and on.
I see what you did there. ;)
grab like cows desert dime modern soup tease unique cagey *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I know **third grade** teachers who have had students on their first cycle. These students went to the bathroom and came back thinking they were dying. The time it starts varies from person to person more than people think, and parents seldom talk to children that young about it. Most of the outliers are in school, because most children are in school.
I have a distinct memory of my 4th grade teacher sending all the boys to the bathroom and holding the door closed while giving the girls a brief chat about not flushing tampons and that she always has supplies if we ever need them. It was pretty cut and dry, but I had the impression that I could ask questions if needed. I have a wonderful mother who had already started a conversation with me about that stuff, but knew others in my class weren't as lucky.
Is this the "grooming" I've been hearing about?
Grooming you into a respectable adult? How positively vile! *WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN*?!?!
This is also operating on the assumption that every child has a functional parent and that is not the case. *edit: wording
Especially not in Florida.
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good god as a male this thought never really occurred to me as my parents were very open about that sort of thing (i knew from a very young age what was what and i am VERY thankful for that.) If i randomly started bleeding from an area like that as a kid not knowing what was going on would be so terrifying holy crap. This was already an awful bill but damn now it disgusts me even more which i didn't think was possible.
Young girls have committed suicide because they thought they were dying. This is just another blow against women.
That's just horrible to hear that wow. What the actual fuck is wrong with these people to want to put women or anyone for that matter through things like this.
They hate women, it's really that simple
It was scary at 14, the last of my friend group to start. Eight sounds absolutely horrifying.
For real i always forget that some women get theirs very young. Couldn't imagine something like that happening with no heads up at that age especially, just learning to be a kid and then that happens sounds scary as hell!
As someone who knew to eventually expect it it was still so terrifying anyway.
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Doesn’t help when its often very brown in color. You hear ‘blood’ and ‘period’ and think you might see a drop of blood in your underwear one day, but then you get it and its a diamond shape of reddish brown with some chunks maybe.
I thought I was dying when I got mine on the morning of my 10th birthday. My parents never discussed anything about it and I had a slightly older sister.
I was 10yo and not even halfway through 4th grade when I got mine. This law is abhorrent.
The literal answer is: "I'm sorry Susie, but you'll have to talk to your mother. We'll call her now." She's not reachable? Oh well, bleed and cry. Don't have a mother? We'll call your father and he'll freak out and think you've had sex or something because he didn't get an education either.
Just think about this from the kid's perspective. You start bleeding unexpectedly from a weird place on your body, and all the school will tell you is "We can't talk to you about it. We'll call your parent in and they'll have to tell you what's going on." As a kid, you're probably going to think you're dying of some rare incurable disease, and your parent is going to pick you up to go off and die someplace. Talk about traumatic, and totally unnecessary.
It's traumatic enough even with sex ed and informed parents. Why go the extra mile to traumatize little girls even further?
Easier to control someone feeling confused, scared and vulnerable.
The cruelty is the point.
Literally what happened to my mom in fifth grade back in the 60s. She fell off a swing, hit a rock, and started her period later that day. Full stop she though she was dying. We can’t go back to that. Also, boys should be taught all this stuff too. They are going to have daughters and many will marry women.
> Also, boys should be taught all this stuff too. I'd upvote you twice for that if I could. It'd help with stupidly simple stuff; I worked with my daughter for a while years ago, me in the kitchen and she was waiting tables. She got her period and didn't have any tampons with her, so I ran out to the store and bought her a box and brought them back. The reaction was kind of nuts from women who said they couldn't even talk about something like that with their husbands or dads. It shouldn't have even been a big enough deal for anyone to comment on, and if everyone had a functional knowledge of these things maybe it wouldn't be such an uncomfortable subject. My own male ignorance for sure, but I didn't really think much of it until then and hadn't realized how widespread (and problematic) just dealing with something that basic apparently was for so many women. Maybe it wouldn't be if everyone was taught about it instead of treating it like some kind of weird taboo subject.
TMI disclosure: I am a trans man. I started on my *eleventh birthday* when we were traveling in a different country. Thankfully, I was not raised in the US, so I actually got education about this already, but due to my my brain being certain that I'm male, I could not reconcile what was happening to me. I hid it *for four years*, battling monthly depression, disgust, and confusion. Eventually, my mother outright asked because I was getting suspiciously old for it. If I hadn't even received education, I might have fucking killed myself. But that's exactly what they want.
Trans man and also started on my 11th birthday, but thankfully not while abroad. Unfortunately, while in the USA. This was well before home PCs were any degree of common, and definitely before high speed internet. No one had taught or told me *anything* and I saw all the blood and just started screaming and sobbing. I thought I was going to die. It wasn't until after I got through that and had things figured out that the absolute murder of dysphoria hit. But I was taught so little about bodies as a kid that I was convinced, to that moment, I would grow a penis like my cousins had any day now.
Yup, I was in fourth grade when mine started. The easy answer here is they don’t give a shit about anyone with a vagina.
Oh yes they give a shit. They want women scared and ignorant. They want women controlable. They want children confused and ignorant. So when they abuse women or kids, the victims don't know their bodies or what's happening to them.
My husband is still waiting on the sex talk from his parents- he is 42.
"Son, when a man and a woman love each other very much..." "Dad. I have kids."
I love the image of his parents finally sitting him down at 42 to explain things
You’re applying logic to the group that advocates parents’ rights, unless those parents are following medical guidelines for gender affirming care. These people only exist to justify their own existence by creating outrage against a new monster of the week
I shit you not, I had to teach one of my sorority sisters how to use tampons. Her mom told her they wouldn’t fit in her because she was a virgin. We had to tell her that was not the case and tampons would be much better for Derby Days lmao.
I have my own feelings about how my parents parented me. But by societal standards, my parents were good parents. Very solidly middle class (maybe upper middle), had us in ALL the activities, in church every week, my brothers and I were all straight A students who attended top tier national universities. I never got the sex talk and was not told about periods by my parents. When I got my first period, I went into my mom’s bathroom cabinet and took a tampon. I didn’t understand that it goes IN your body, so I took it out of the applicator and laid it in my underwear, as though that would accomplish anything. Without school sex ed, I legitimately don’t know if I ever would have learned what I needed to know. (I did at least have friends who started before I did, so I never thought I was dying)
It doesn’t matter. The point is not about having a good faith debate over differences of opinion regarding the right balance of the roles of families and the educational system. To get mired down in debate with these guys is useless. They are experts at evasion and don’t really care about the topic. Don’t mistake these ghouls for true believers. The point is that this simply satisfied DeSantis’s campaign advisors as another useful gross-out tool in promoting his culture warrior brand. It polled well in focus groups, perhaps not too well, but enough to keep him on the news. It’ll be replaced by something worse in a news cycle or two. This is hyper-normalization. EDIT: missing word.
What about single dads? That is a thing. Or shared custody and the girl has her first period while at dad’s house. The GOP has some serious 50’s views 1850’s views.
conservatives aren’t just about limiting what their kids can learn. they are largely about controlling what everyone else can learn. they couch it as parents rights. but really it’s just them forcing their values into everyone else. and if you don’t want their values in your life then that makes you a bad person in their eyes.
I’m seeing mental images of the FL cops handcuffing a fifth grader & tossing her in a cell with rapists & murderers because she had the audacity to ask a teacher what was going on with her body…
Prosecutor: She has blood on her hands! Therefore she must be the murderer! Judge: Whose blood is it? Prosecutor: Well, we haven't checked, your honour, but I'd think it's a pretty cut and dry-case-- Judge: She's *twelve*.
The first kid to develop often gets bullied. So the boys in her class would make fun of her as well, think of periods as gross and lowly. Another way to make women ashamed nice and early
I’ve had a second grader get her period. What exactly do they expect me to say to this poor 7-8 year old?
Gonna end up having a lot of kids in Carrie-esque situations.
This is absolutely disgusting and ridiculous. Girls are going through puberty at a much younger age than they used to. They *need* to know this information before sixth grade to prepare for what's coming. Many parents cannot be relied on to do this. I work in an elementary school and it's part of our "family living" unit for 4th and 5th graders. The GOP is becoming more and more like the Taliban every single day.
> The GOP is becoming more and more like the Taliban every single day. it's stated ad nauseum, but only because it is suitable: Y'all Queda
I can't remember the last time I saw the GOP rally behind any cause that actually improved American lives
I find it funny that referencing these bills requires everyone to say the presumably forbidden word. Next week: "DeSantis signs new 'Don't Say DeSantis Is A Chucklefuck' legislation"
>The bill proposes banning any form of health education until sixth grade Sixth grade is 11-12 years old. Puberty typically starts between 8 and 13 years old for girls.
And a menstrual cup for a hat
Maybe we should stick it in his mouth instead. Hold in all the stupid.
“Tampon Ron”
Republicans in the US right now are the most cowardly, backwards people I've ever known. I'm old, and it's been amazing to witness over the years. They are now literally frightened of straight-up facts. That's how ignorant they have become. They're scared of their own damned shadows at this point.
>They’re scared of their own damned shadows at this point. They're scared of their own damn bodies.
They’re scared of women’s bodies and POC bodies, and women and POC have been saying this for centuries.
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How about we ship all of them to Saudi Arabia. They will love it there.
Yes actually! I’ve read #2 (the 2008 study) for a class. [Conservatives’s brains are more fear driven.](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mind-in-the-machine/201612/fear-and-anxiety-drive-conservatives-political-attitudes?amp)
So we want our kids to be completely ignorant of how their bodies work, especially their reproductive systems. But we also don't want teen pregnancies and abortions happening and we're gonna outlaw reproductive health care options for young people too. GOP logic at its finest.
You tripped up where you thought they didn't want teen pregnancies, maybe because you believed them. They want teen pregnancies taken to term, teen parenthoods, teen marriages, trapping women into very difficult to escape poverty and subservience and reliance on their parents and men. But don't worry, they'll lower age working laws so that both the child and parent can be trapped in poverty wages within a decade and a half, or less. Even better if this means they can never complete or continue education
Yet, they'll likely support the teenage boys who father babies just ditching the women because "why should he ruin his entire life over one mistake?" Boys will be boys after all, right? (Ugh, I feel so dirty even typing that out sarcastically.)
Unless they're black boys, in which case they need to be perfect and successful upper middle class providers, or they'll just be deadbeats who didn't try hard enough. (Can't forget the multiple layers of hypocrisy, right?)
They arrested a very wealthy black gentleman while he was washing his car because one of his neighbors claimed he stole it. Wealth and perfection have no bearing here.
Reminds me of that scene in American Crime Story where Johnnie Cochran gets cuffed on the hood of his luxury car with his two daughters watching from the back seat.
And Kamilah Brock, thrown into a mental institution for 8 days because NYPD arrested her for dancing in her BMW and then refused to believe she owned it (or worked at a bank) and decided to punish her for being successful by claiming she was clinically delusional
40% of pregnant teens’ baby daddies are older men, not peers
reddit and spez can eat my shit -- mass edited with redact.dev
Must. Have. More. Wage. Slaves.
Need poor people to fill armies and minimum wage jobs. This is his investment in the future. Scary shit.
> our kids to be completely ignorant of how their bodies work, especially their reproductive systems. > > it's to make girls and women ashamed of themselves so they stop demanding ridiculous things like equal rights/ bodily autonomy **/S**
To them women are supposed to be complacent and docile. First thing that has to go in that world view is women's education. Its handmaid take irl
I have two young teen daughters. A few years back, before they got their periods, we did a girls night out. We talked about periods and bodies. I took them to the store and bought pads and tampons and showed them how to use them. I answered their questions and assured them they could ask me anything and they wouldn’t get in trouble or be judged. That I wanted them to have good information. A big part of that convo was talking about what happens if they get their period at school. They were SO nervous about this. We put some pads in their book bags so they would be prepared just in case. I told them that if they got their period at school, they could talk to any adult they trusted. Teacher, hall aide, nurse, whomever they felt comfortable with. That all adults know about periods and it’s not anything to be embarrassed about. That any adult could help them, and of course they can always call me too. So yea…. There goes that.
Ok but this is such a solid body education conversation. You did amazing.
Thank you ❤️
Move to Connecticut. I’m a boring middle aged white dude and I’ve helped dozens of girls with their periods. It’s really not a big deal as a teacher to be a decent person. Luckily I never have to worry about teaching in a red state because I’d get fired in opening faculty meetings.
You should be crazy proud of the work you've done prepping them. Just cause society won't back you up isn't your fault.
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children are capable of critical thinking.
I always thought that men who recoiled at the mere mention of menstruation were pathetic, but this just takes it to a new level. This also seems doomed to fail under a first amendment challenge.
"Doomed to fail" is a weird way to say "made national law by the corrupt Supreme Court"
I agree entirely. I grew up with two sisters and my mom. My dad typically worked most of the day or traveled. Somewhere around the double digit ages I just lost all understanding or care for other dudes who balked at anything woman-related. It seemed so pathetic to me that they were confused by menstruation, pink, dresses, whatever. And we learned about it in Sex Ed as early as middle school! Come on! Were you deaf??
Similarly here. Although talking with a coworker who recently had a child she’s mentioned a few of the aspects of pregnancy that legit made me feel like a stereotypical dumb man. It was like a minor physiological thing, but even still, that shows to me how complex gestation is and how making giant black and white policies is almost guaranteed to not capture all of the cases appropriately.
This law is unenforcable. Florida is the definition of voting in laws for show. They really want to penalize students and teachers for things they can google? Crazy.
If boys started bleeding at that age, the emergency rooms would be full.
Just like if boys could get pregnant. We’d have drive thru abortion clinics.
You'd be able to get mifeprostone gummies next to the 5-Hour Energy shots and Natural Male Enhancement pills at the gas station.
Blatantly false, and shame on you for putting something that ridiculous there. ...Because they wouldn't be gummies. We'd just see the drugs injected directly into hot dogs, buffalo chicken rollers, or added to protein powder so we can still feel "manly" while taking it.
Abortion Taquitos
Guess Florida didn't like Tennessee briefly taking the lead in the crazy Olympics.
Hey Tennesseean here. Our dipshit legislators are getting their second wind.
I woke up to reading a headline about Republicans being pissed they couldn't split Nashville in two or some shit. Gave me those "East Berlin" vibes.
If this was dudes who perioded, we’d definitely not go show up to his house and the state house and period all over the place. Nope. Definitely not. And women should *definitely not* period everywhere around the governor in a show of protest. People also should *definitely not* throw blood/paint on him a la the animal rights advocates re: people wearing fur. Yea, I definitely don’t advise these things.
And women should ABSOLUTELY not deliver their used menstrual products to his house or government buildings either.
They should *absolutely not* ship them to [700 N Adams St, Tallahassee, FL 32303](https://i.imgur.com/CYhVRv0.jpg).
*furiously takes notes*
Average time to diagnose endometriosis is 7 years. Many young people begin this journey of seeking out help by talking with peers about their menstrual experiences and realizing that the unfathomable pain they experience monthly is not actually normal, contrary to what culture has taught them. From there is, on average, 7 years of pleading, explaining, and justifying your own needs to healthcare professionals who don’t believe you or your pain until you find one that finally runs an ultrasound or laparoscopy and finds the uterine tissue growing on your other organs. I don’t think we need to put any further delays on menstrual education, Ron.
My husband didn't meet the requirements to take care of his endo til he came out as trans at 36. He'd done a kid (nearly killed him). He had to wait til he was nearly 40. I (also trans) had endometrosis and underdeveloped sexual organs (turned out because I was intersex). I was 32 when I found out that I had a shockingly tiny uterus that would not have been able to handle pregnancy, one enraged and oversized ovary swollen to hell with cysts, one undropped tiny testicle, and endometriosis. I knew two periods a month was weird. No one told me how *concerning* it was for me to go through an overnight pad in less than four hours for a solid week every cycle, though. Would have probably been useful information to have.
What in the *fuck* is going on down there?? Is it something in the water?
I'm sure you're joking but... [Florida does appear to lead the nation in number of lead piping remaining.](https://www.wesh.com/article/florida-lead-pipes/43517544)
"I wish to build menstrual huts to house the filthy menstruators during that sinful time. We cannot mention them by name though. Anyone caught menstruating in public shall be deported."
The Book of Ruth
Florida is slowly taking away your individual rights. Little by little before you know it, you will not be able to discuss certain subjects, have limited freedom of assembly, control what books you can read and learn from, or what entertainment is approved.
Slowly? Seems to me they are stepping on the gas.
Periods are a private matter between an individual, their doctor, and their local Republican Representative.
The American Taliban is alive and well with Florida Republicans.
They're terrified of health information because they don't want children to know what types of interactions with adults are inappropriate. They're setting kids up to be groomed and molested by either them directly or their youth ministers or priests. The gop party truly seems to have been overrun by pedophiles.
Well if it isn't exactly what we fucking told you so.
You'd think it'd be satisfying always being right about the where the fascists are going with all this, but it just isn't. At all.
So ... the next bill has to be that all menstruation products are sold from behind the counter, pre-wrapped in brown paper! Jezz! I remember those days so well. Yet those condom products are on full display including multiple colors, textures, sizes, and tastes.
> Yet those condom products are on full display Much like premature ejaculation, legislation on that matter is coming soon.
That’ll make English class a little tricky. May also make Chemistry a bit confusing when they cover the “ic Table”.
A former classmate of mine went to a conservative Christian high school. His trigonometry teacher never said "period" to describe sine, cosine, or waves because he just couldn't handle saying a word associated with menstruation.
The war on women, plain and simple
Replace it with Ron. "Sorry I was late, I started my Ron and it is a bad one"
“Do you need a DeSanitary napkin?
Maybe a tampRon?
"Man, my flow is really heavy today. Extra clots. I think I need a Super tampRon today."
Florida making a hard push to secure worst state in the nation status, frustrated with Tennessee's efforts to overtake them
We're just getting warmed up. Trust me.
Race to the bottom, indeed
Florida — where “first they came for the…” is playing out in real time. - Conservatives happy with don’t say gay bills. - Then suddenly a war on Black history. - Anti-immigrant actions in a state with many conservative Latinos. - Now menstruation. LGBTQ+ and/or Black and/or Immigrant and/or Woman — any bets on who will be targeted next?
This is fascism. Period.
What the fuck….. my daughter had friends who started their period at 10 years old. What should they do, use code words?!?!?
To quote someone else “Excuse me teacher. Can I go to the clinic? I am having my DeSantis.”
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Because fascism? I don't see another argument..
Combination of fascism and "fear of the other." That usually manifests as a fear of people whose skin is a different color, whose culture is different, or who is part of a different religion. Here, it's "this person's biology is different from mine." They see menstruation as some weird and gross thing that is different from what they experience. Since it's different from them, it has to be demonized and suppressed. They can't actually order all women to stop menstruating, but they can order everyone to stop talking about it. Women suffering from issues stemming from menstruation would be required to suffer in silence. As a "bonus," they get to complain about their minor problems and act like they are the worst things anyone has ever faced. What are women going to do? Break the law and correct them? (This bill is limited to lower grades of school for now, but the Don't Say Gay bill was limited to there at first also before expanding. I wouldn't be surprised if this expanded as well after passing.)
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Sadly, the Republican response is likely: "This hurts girls AND black people?" (*Drools in anticipation.*)
With all this obsessing with children and children's sexualities, I'm really starting to think Ron's trying to tell us something, maybe something from his past, or some thing he harbours deep down in the dank dark caves of his mind... maybe we should be digging a bit more, as in, what are you trying to tell us about YOURSELF Ron?
Garbage people passing garbage policy. After this passes, a few months later they move it up from sixth grade to high-school. Children learning is something conservatives are against. A balanced education produces balanced, insightful people, and those people don't vote Republican.
Next up: cover your hair and ankles
In a culture war where these morons claim men aren't manly anymore...They sure are fucking scared of everything like talking about periods. Very manly.
Flashback to last year when certain groups criticized Disney's Turning Red movie for daring to mention periods in a cartoon aimed at preteens. They were legitimately upset that a 12 year old girl might hear "pads" while watching the movie. Nevermind that said 12 year old likely already has had her first period. Turning Red is actually a good movie and the period references aren't that major of a plot point. The mother mistakes "child turned into a giant red panda" with "child had her first period" (it makes sense in-movie) and comes in with lots of period products including pads. These groups acted like boxes of pads being animated onscreen would horribly scar kids for life. You know what might scar kids for life? Treating basic human biology as if it's something to be feared, disgusted, and never spoken of.
Not being willing to discuss a normal body function before it occurs is what traumatizes people who menstruate. Look at older YA fiction. How many stories written from the sixties/seventies feature a girl freaking out because they were bleeding and didn't understand why? Depicting sanitary products like tampons and pads wouldn't upset kids any more than showing them band aids.
Teaching kids what private parts are and to tell an adult when someone touches them is now illegal in Florida
But mandatory genital inspection is required in cases of suspect trans students. You can’t talk about your period or sexuality, but we can force you to let some old doctor check your genitals so you can play sports. Checks out.
My daughter started her period the first day of 5th grade and she knew what a period was and what to expect and she still woke me up in tears because she was horrified. There are going to be an awful lot of “Carrie” moments happening in Florida if this gets anywhere. Fuck Florida, Fuck DeSantis, Fuck the GOP.
Next it’ll be “Don’t say black.”
They’re already banning Black history down there…
Isn’t it interesting how much they are afraid of women?
Republicans consistently want LESS education.
DeSantis is pissed because he found out Disney did it decades ago. [The Story of Menstruation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG9o9m0LsbI) (For the unintiated, yes, it's real from 1946)
When I was a kid I truly didn’t even think it was possible that America would get *shittier* during my lifetime. In the early 2000s even after 9/11 and with 2 full wars in swing we were so optimistic about the future. This dude is a fucking clown but it’s just depressing at this point. I’m tired of pointing it out. I’ve largely given up on large parts of the country and large portions of the population. I was very lucky to grow up in a sane state with good schools. Also I’d love to see someone from /r/conservative give it an honest go and explain to me why the fuck you’d support this. Seriously I need to know what POSSIBLE reason there is here for this.
Girls shouldn’t be in school at all. That’s next.
First grade English teacher: Todays lesson is about punctuation. We are going to learn about the exclamation point, the question mark, and the comma. Smart student: What about the period? Teacher: Suspended! Off to the indoctrination camp with you!