On Period Pay and Period Leave.
I wrote this piece before. Twice.
Both times, I wrote (what I thought was) a very beautiful, emotional piece that emerged not only from the heart but also from the troubles of our wombs.
Both times, the page ‘refreshed' and all was gone before anybody else saw it. As if it wasn’t ever worth the effort. How ironical I thought.
But much like a recurring period, this written piece is back.
This time round, the piece retains the same tenderness and rage with which it was first written. But it also weighs heavy with exhaustion.
The message is still stands intact:
Menstruators* need to be compensated for their period. And we simply cannot welcome another generation where individuals are disadvantaged from the start for the sole reason that they menstruate.
*I say menstruators because I am aware of the diversity of the period and I’m already sure that I underrepresent in this piece.
Regardless, let me try and help you see what the period is like on the body. Perhaps for some individuals, this might be “graphic”. But I promise you, this will be nothing short of educational and is very real for some of us.
The morning of the period, it’s quite common to experience “period poo”- a case of short-lived diarrhoea. Your hormones are sending prostaglandin to the intestine that makes poo soft. A few hours to a day before it’s also quite common to experience being a little constipated. Its finicky like that.
The period itself. Is bloody uncomfortable.
While your uterus is generally shedding itself, it makes it known to the rest of the body that it’s dealing with some thing quite consequential. The rest of the body-stomach, breasts, thighs, shoulders, (I’ve also heard of knees) ache for a time period that is again unknown.
Hell if you’re in your menopause, even your skin, the largest organ of your body changes!
The brain/mind might be at the opposite pole of the body to the uterus - Oh, but you’d be fooled to think it’s left alone!
Periods can make you quite nauseus. I spend many a period with my head stuck in a toilet bowl and I respect my period enough to never dare discount this. I also know of people who completely blackout on their periods.
Your body’s thermoregulator seems to be in overdrive, giving you the sweats and shivers as it wills.Emotions. Well emotions. One can be quite touchy and tender, depressed and hysterical and god knows what else the other kind of emotions are called.
This is by no means is an exhaustive list. I’m sure there’s more variations.
But see it with a sense of urgency, like researchers finally do these days- Periods are like cardiac arrests. The pain and emotion can be quite different for different people.
But it is a consequential occurrence. One that is consequential not just to the individual but humankind.
One that demands (not expects) kindness.
Hence,
The case for 12 days paid period leave and period compensation.
12 days paid period leave
Look, if you’re on your period, you do not need to be white-knuckling your way into work. I know for a fact people do. Because millions of women and other menstruators show up at work every day, every month, every year without having access to necessity that is paid period leave or compensation.
At the moment, they show up to working pain and discomfort to earn money. And then spend money in the hundreds that their counterparts would probably invest in their growth or upgrades annually. The trough of inequity deepens.
You might gather the opinion that those who menstruate might be “feeling sick” and therefore need to be encouraged to avail sick leave.
To that I want to remind us all- Menstrual leave is not sick leave!
Menstruation is not an illness. Sick leave is for when we fall ill.
If you are taking a day off from your sick leave for your period. Stop. Drop. Roll . You can and should ask for more.
Period compensation
Periods are political and the giants- institutions that hold society together with rules and policies (which I have no problem with) should shoulder the change.
Let me spell out an example:
Imagine a family with 3 female kids and one breadwinner (male or female).
An average female spends approximately 10,000AUD over a lifetime for her periods. If you care about the planet, and want to have a sustainable menstruation, costs add up. You can see how the burden of the period becomes very palpable.
If one can’t avail paid period leave in the workplace, there needs to be compensation/full rebate for period costs.
If you want your nation to grow…
Cover the damn cost. Free the period.
Dotted circles look like boobs.
I operate at the assumption that I am a whole lot of darkness, capable of light (sometimes).. and that characters when mapped across time are just a great deal of crests and troughs.
And so this, most people might argue, is my “dark writing” and I am possibly at a ‘dip’ …….I’m okay with that.
Re: Boob jokes 👀
A boob joke or vagina joke will almost always generate a laugh amongst the women in the room, so long as you are unconscious (sorry.. that’s sad), or unaware that you are making it.
And the earliest at which you will know that a good boob joke has been made in good taste is only a micro-second after other women in the room acknowledge the joke and have a communal-laugh about it.
Only then, do you have permission to laugh at it (terms and conditions still apply)
Then there is also this…..What if a penis joke is made?
I’ll be honest..I don’t know. You tell me.
How should women respond to penis jokes? and should they make them?
For now, let’s address the boob joke incident(s).
Boobs are fragile and funny. Each of them, like a weird shaped glass-blown trophy.
And women have to be careful about it all the time. From start to finish. Don’t believe me. Here.
The ‘bahoobies’ nourish the newborn…. but could be bitten off by them sweet little monsters
A “nip slip”… and could you could be chastised or projected to fame.
That can very often become the highlight or downfall of one’s career at times.You could be ‘a bit too booby or flat-chested’ your entire life.
Even your clothes could be ‘a bit too booby or prude’ your entire life.“Watch your necklines and cleavage.”- a yardstick of modesty
Boobs, and Busts….. got to get them right in art…otherwise they are “exotic” art.
We watch out for the lumps and orange-skinned boobs because they’re cancerous and “YOU COULD DIE!!”.
On your period? …Got tender boobs?
Are you cold?…. Got hard nipples?
Breastfeeding?…. Got leaky boobs?
Hold your girls. Wear a bra… (and a singlet if you’re cold)
“What kind of bra?”…. don’t even get me started…
Don’t wear a bra?…… You’ll get asymmetrical saggy boobs.
We watch out for “peeping boyfriends”….(heard that one before ladies? )….. i.e. not to be seen bra straps.
Boobs are groped and grouped. Harassed and carressed….
The list goes on….
And as you can see, a lot happens from the ears to ribs.
So when people, (and more often than not, men), walk right past it (figuratively and literally), eyes-wide open, without acknowledging them….that sets the stage for laughter. Almost always..
And that laugh could be either a quite chuckle or an uproar….
But I can almost guarantee you.. that laugh is innocent. And nothing more than a noisy or muffled sigh of relief.
Girls will know, I am not letting out girl talk or girl secrets. This is very much open knowledge.
I write this with the absolute surety that unless a man studies this piece of writing everyday, he will forget the open secrets in this. And he will continue to draw a circle with a dot inside completely unaware.
That too is okay…because hell, even as women we have no idea what other things are out there that are boob-lookalikes.
But we will continue to laugh at these gendered open secrets. That’s just the way it is.
B(oo)bs will be B(oo)bs.