Consternation
Libby Brooks at the Guardian raises an eyebrow at the hiring of a man to be period wrangler:
The appointment of a man to a new regional role promoting period dignity has provoked criticism and consternation.
Why? Perhaps I can explain. It’s because men don’t know, do they. They don’t know what it’s like to have a period. They don’t know what it’s like to be mocked or shunned or banished for having a period. They don’t know what it’s like to be a young girl and have this thing happen to you. They don’t know what it’s like to wonder if you’re smelly that day. They don’t know anything about it from the inside. With half of humanity to choose from, why would you shrug your shoulders and choose someone who doesn’t know to do the job? Women understand periods from the inside, and men don’t, so why on earth hire a man?
That’s why.
Jason Grant, who has previously worked in tobacco sales and as a personal trainer, was announced as the period dignity regional lead officer for the Tay region earlier this week, in what is believed to be the first role of its kind in the country and prompted by groundbreaking women’s health legislation.
Yay groundbreaking women’s health legislation!!! Now let’s hire men to run it all!!
In a press release announcing his appointment, Grant said: “I think being a man will help me to break down barriers, reduce stigma and encourage more open discussions. Although affecting women directly, periods are an issue for everyone. We’ll also raise awareness of the menopause, which, although a natural process for women, has wider repercussions in the world of work and family.
“It’s time to normalise these topics and get real around the subject. I believe I can make progress by proving this isn’t just a female topic, encouraging conversations across all genders and educating and engaging new audiences.”
No. No no no no no. In a world where men are still hired and promoted more readily than women are, no, we don’t need men to bounce up to “prove this isn’t just a female topic,” especially since yes it damn well is.
He shouldn’t have applied in the first place.
The whole thing is a giant calculated insult.
Just how many ‘genders’, as distinct from sexes, are there? Perhaps, as he is a man appointed to a job much better suited by its very nature to be filled by a woman, he is looking for refuge to the trans-world. There, though the number of individuals identifying as trans-whatevers is small, the number of combinations and permutations is much higher. Men who wish they had been born as women; women who wish they had been born as men; men who pose as women in order to gain entry to women’s dunnies in order to perve on them or rape them; women who pose as men in order to gain entry to men’s dunnies in order to perve on them or proposition them and perhaps even sexually assault them (though I have never heard of any of the latter).
Some men who wish they had been born as women might seek the help of a period wrangler over some issue or other.
Usually in co-educational high schools there is a woman staff member for young pubescent girls to seek help from if they have period problems of any kind. That role could never be carried out by a man, for fairly obvious reasons.
As for menopause having wider implications across work and family…WTF? Yeah, sometimes, because some women have a difficult time. Most of the time, no, unless MEN think women going through menopause are going to have problems. Most women come through menopause fine; those that do not would probably prefer someone skilled in dealing with menopausal issues than this young male personal trainer.
I work with quite a number of post menopausal women (including myself, though I’m not sure it can be said that I actually work with myself; I just work). Somehow we all manage to keep going in spite of the societal perceptions that women go crazy out of their heads from menopause. Weird, no?
He used to fucking work in tobacco sales?! How much worse can this nightmare get?
Bashful young girls just starting their periods as well as reserved women of all ages are unlikely to feel comfortable getting this sort of information from a man — but what can they do except avoid him (and his information?) They don’t want to look like prudes, do they?
This appointment seems to come from the same source as the All Genders TWAW in the showers, restrooms, changing rooms, etc. The goal seems to be to encourage or reward the Cool, Tough Girl who doesn’t care who sees her, interprets all modesty in the worst possible light, and thinks any girl who balks at any of it is both ridiculous and disgusting, a holdover from Victorian times.
The movie version of this, starring Aaron Eckhart, will be called Thank You for Bleeding.
Sastra, I hope I will be construed as agreeing with you in spirit if I note that your comment prompted the question Which man? in that it made me recall one of the most touching passages in Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy. It is that in which Lata recalls how abjectly her mother had failed to prepare her for her first period. In a beautifully understated way, Seth has foreshadowed that with a conversation between Lata and her elder sister, Savita, who obviously was prepared. The reader is left to infer that their late father, Raghubir, recognised his wife’s incapacity for the responsibility and quietly did all that was necessary to prepare Savita, but died before the appropriate time arrived for Lata.
What “groundbreaking women’s health legislation” would that be?
Maybe they think he can be like Dave Foley from this Kids in the Hall sketch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm4FdyWaOCo