{"id":2080,"date":"2016-05-07T01:40:25","date_gmt":"2016-05-06T20:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/nothing-gross-about-period-sex-padman-menstruation\/"},"modified":"2016-05-07T01:40:25","modified_gmt":"2016-05-06T20:10:25","slug":"nothing-gross-about-period-sex-padman-menstruation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=2080","title":{"rendered":"There\u2019s Nothing Gross About Period Sex"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“P<\/span><\/p><\/div>

eriod sex is exactly like loving to eat shit,\u201d a woman recently told me on <\/span>Tinder<\/span><\/a>. She was a biology graduate who went on to give me a life lesson on how menstrual blood is a body fluid that needs to be expelled from the body, and not played around with. <\/span>\n\nI probably should have unmatched with her that instant. Not because I enjoy being with menstruating women, but because her biology classes seemed to have made no dent in the prejudices she probably grew up with. \u00a0<\/span>\n\nI\u2019ve loved having sex with women on <\/span>their periods<\/span><\/a> ever since my first girlfriend and I tried it five years ago, although none of my partners since has been as keen on it. And I\u2019m reminded often that I\u2019m a bit of an outlier. I\u2019m intrigued when women tell me that they worry I\u2019ll feel their vaginas are gross when it\u2019s that time of the month. It isn\u2019t just men \u2013 there\u2019s plenty of self-loathing from women; all of us who have been socialised to believe that menstruation isn\u2019t just a routine bodily function. It is a stigma. <\/span>\n\nOf course, it pales in comparison to reactions from my guy friends. A few weeks ago at a Colaba bar, a friend\u2019s girlfriend arrived late, looking flustered, and announced she\u2019d been buying tampons to deal with her <\/span>heavy flow<\/span><\/a> that day. She didn\u2019t mumble. There was a chorus of \u201cGrosss!\u201d and \u201cTMI!\u201d before another guy made a \u201cjoke\u201d about how some people weren\u2019t getting any that night. Everyone laughed, including the girl who hadn\u2019t mumbled.<\/span>\n\n

It isn\u2019t just men \u2013 there\u2019s plenty of self-loathing from women; all of us who have been socialised to believe that menstruation isn\u2019t just a routine bodily function. It is a stigma. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nThese are the same guys who used to terrorise girls in school when the back of their skirts <\/span>got stained<\/span><\/a>. In all likelihood, they\u2019d probably cut me off if they knew I happen to actually enjoy period sex. These are men who think women should look like those in <\/span>American Pie, <\/span><\/i>and who stay strictly off-limits from below their girlfriends\u2019 belt during that time of the month. Sometimes I wonder if our aversion to menstruation and period sex is just the sad inheritance of <\/span>pop culture<\/span><\/a> that glorifies the \u201crepulsive\u201d period, and is responsible for our twisted psyches? <\/span>\n\nWhich is why, I feel a film like <\/span>PadMan<\/span><\/i><\/a>, whatever problems you might have with it, will strike some distance in normalising the conversation around periods. Women will not begin singing about their bodies overnight, but at least they won\u2019t live in complete disgust of a routine bodily function. <\/span>\n\nRecently, I found my flatmates, Ayesha and Shreya, watching <\/span>Broad City <\/span><\/i>and laughing about Ilana\u2019s \u201cperiod pants\u201d \u2013 bloodstained pants that help her sneak weed through an airport. They were both on board with the idea of how this kind of thing is a step toward normalising what women <\/span>encounter every month<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>\n\nHowever, it might take a few episodes of the show to help them overcome the idea of period sex. Especially when so many of their flings have always been disgusted by the idea. Even though, women\u2019s bodies might actually be ready for sex during menstruation (put it down to the pesky progesterone), like many other creatures from the animal kingdom. And when they\u2019ve done it anyway, it\u2019s always been bad. <\/span>\n\nAnd what about those who might enjoy it (and there\u2019s plenty <\/span>research<\/span><\/a> to back that up) but are constantly worried about the \u201cmess\u201d factor? In my wholly unscientific research, it often turns out that it\u2019s not the women who find the blood gross, but the fear that the guy will find it so. My friend Vinita still winces when she tells me about the time she had period sex with a British expat, who initially claimed he was absolutely cool with it. Apparently, he still reminds her that she left bloodstains on his mattress. Sometimes it\u2019s flirtatious, like a twisted Edward Cullen moment, and other times it\u2019s not, especially when he uses words like \u201crank\u201d to describe the offending stain. Either way, she isn\u2019t planning on doing it again anytime soon, not even with towels around. And I don\u2019t blame her. <\/span>\n\nAt the other end of the spectrum are the \u201cbloodhounds\u201d \u2013 <\/span>guys<\/span><\/a> like me who love period sex, and who\u2019ve been featured in recent times in a <\/span>spate<\/span><\/a> of <\/span>articles<\/span><\/a>. These pieces sometimes run wild, and frame us dudes as some sort of primal, animalistic beasts \u2013 a bit like eating raw meat. <\/span>\n\nThis is also garbage, of course. Is it that hard to believe that someone can like period sex without being psychopathic or macho about it, that not all of us are on the verge of buying used tampons and underwear off the Internet? Is it such a radical idea to think that I like it because it just makes me feel closer to my partner? <\/span>\n\nI wonder if there will ever be a middle ground between bloodhounds and those who think any blood during sex is disgusting. <\/span>\n\nMaybe it\u2019ll happen if I talk more about it, to women and men. I think I\u2019ll start with my Colaba gang and talk to them in the only language they understand: Period sex is better than warm <\/span>American Pie<\/span><\/i>. <\/span>\n\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost everyone I know, thinks period sex is gross. Which is why, I feel a film like PadMan will help normalise periods. Women will not begin singing about their bodies overnight, but at least they won\u2019t live in complete disgust of a routine bodily function.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":206,"featured_media":2081,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[4169,4170,4147,2736,4171,4172,4173,4174,408,4175],"class_list":["post-2080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-love-and-sex","tag-blood","tag-bloodhound","tag-menstruation","tag-padman","tag-pads","tag-period","tag-period-sex","tag-sanitary-napkins","tag-sex","tag-tampons"],"yoast_head":"\nThere\u2019s Nothing Gross About Period Sex<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Almost everyone I know, thinks period sex is gross. 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