Carolyn Cooper | Female unmentionables out in the open

Proverbial wisdom confirms that when trouble tek man, pikni shirt fit him. Now, when coronavirus frighten man, female underwear fit him. Male cross-dressers already know the pleasures of sporting female garments. These days, men of all persuasions are wearing panties and bras as masks to block transmission of the virus.

‘Unmentionables’ appeared in the English language in the 19th century during the reign of prim and proper Queen Victoria. The word referred to trousers. By 1910, it became even more unmentionable, meaning underwear. Why were undergarments so vulgar that they couldn’t be mentioned in polite society?

It’s part of a whole culture of Victorian repression that turned the human body into a shameful object, especially the sex organs. ‘Pudenda’, the fancy word for genitals, especially a woman’s, comes from Latin. It means to be ashamed of’. Undergarments covering the genitals would, obviously, also be shameful. Not to mention the sanitary pads used during menstruation!

ORAL SEX

At the height of the coronavirus epidemic in China, both men and women resorted to sanitary pads as makeshift face masks. Unlike Chinese men, the average Jamaican man would not be caught dead wearing a sanitary pad on his face. Even if it could save his life! The cloth designed for the b*mb* would be a dread reminder of the body part it usually covers. And since most Jamaican men pretend that they don’t practise oral sex, the upgraded sanitary pad on the face would still be too close to the pubic bone for comfort.

The very thought of a sanitary pad over the nose and mouth, even without a trace of blood, would release a stream of bad words like a heavy menstrual flow. Ironically, our vintage Jamaican bad words often refer to menstruation and, more generally, female body parts. Men use them all the time. But the word and the actual sanitary pad are quite distinct matters. Bloody cloths and various holes, particularly of the feline kind, seem to provoke a complex response from men. Both attraction and disgust!

Bloody bad words are usually seen as signs of disrespect for women. But women use these bad words as well. We don’t seem to mind that they refer to our natural bodily functions. I speculate that these words actually reinforce the power of women and our vital role in the process of reproduction. And these so-called bad words are not only used for cursing. We brandish them in circumstances of great pleasure and excitement.

OUTDATED BIBLICAL LAWS

So why is menstruation so insanitary? And even the words associated with it? Patriarchy, plain and simple! Men fabricate ridiculous rules to control women’s behaviour. Taboos about menstruation are long established in many religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. Some taboos are more extreme than others. The Old Testament is the source of rather outdated laws about menstruation, as well as adultery and homosexuality.

Leviticus 15:19-24, Contemporary English Version (CEV) declares:

“19 When a woman has her monthly period, she remains unclean for seven days, and if you touch her, you must take a bath, but you remain unclean until evening. 20-23 Anything that she rests on or sits on is also unclean, and if you touch either of these, you must wash your clothes and take a bath, but you still remain unclean until evening. 24 Any man who has sex with her during this time becomes unclean for seven days, and anything he rests on is also unclean”.

Why is the man cleansed by bathing, but not the woman? And what’s the significance of the cut-off time of “evening”? Is the man cleansed of menstrual infection the same day but the woman remains unclean overnight? It’s just absurd. Fortunately, this whole business of women being unclean during menstruation is usually disregarded in modern times, with some notable exceptions.

Rastafari are notorious for upholding biblical regulations about menstruation. Unclean women are not allowed to prepare food. But the intended punishment is actually a blessing. Sensible women recognise that this restrictive law actually frees them from domestic duties for an entire week each month.

VIRAL HOARDING

It’s not only toilet paper that’s in short supply in this crazy time of viral hoarding. Menstrual products have also disappeared from shelves in the US. It’s not because sanitary pads are being used as face masks. Wealthy women have stocked up. Women who live on the edge can’t afford to buy anything in bulk.

The coronavirus pandemic eclipsed the celebration of March as International Women’s Month. This year’s theme was, ‘I am Generation Equality: Realising Women’s Rights’. It marked the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. It was a call to sisterly solidarity.

One of the female unmentionables we must face frontally is the class differences between women. It takes more than a slogan to ensure that the poorest women in the world are acknowledged as equal to men; and their privileged sisters! An entirely appropriate response to systemic inequality is a blood-red bad word. That’s only the start. Women must collaborate to end gender and class discrimination.

- Carolyn Cooper, PhD, is a specialist on culture and development. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.