Men who have passed the headline test, it is I, your brethren. In the last couple of days, we have again been brought to the cusp between our privilege and women getting treated fairly in professional environments.
And once again, due to the virtue of having a penis, we have entitled ourselves to believe our opinion about a woman’s body matters.
Recently, Zomato introduced ‘period leave’ of up to 10 days in a year. Which is good news! But…
Unpopular opinion: Giving period-leaves is a terrible idea and will lead to further discrimination against women.
— Gabbbar (@GabbbarSingh) August 9, 2020
Looks like @ZomatoIN influenced by JNU, wanted to be more of activist than a business. #PeriodLeave.
— Kanimozhi (@kanimozhi) August 8, 2020
Sickening to see woke ideas being implemented without much thought.
— Ravi kapoor (@raviskapoor) August 9, 2020
Clearly seeing #periodleave doing more harm than good if it becomes a trend.
Period leave for women may be dressed up as progressive, but it actually trivializes the feminist agenda for equal opportunity, especially in male-dominated corporate world #Zomato #periodleave
— Rahul Sharma (@Biorahul) August 9, 2020
Men having a MELTDOWN in my mentions because ONE company decided to allow women period leave. 🤦🏾♀️ pic.twitter.com/t1YIMf3w6p
— Rituparna Chatterjee (@MasalaBai) August 10, 2020
Men explaining periods to menstruators, men outraged at women asking for a break while in excruciating pain is my favourite Twitter. I’m tired of explaining. pic.twitter.com/NfWxflDiSx
— Rituparna Chatterjee (@MasalaBai) August 9, 2020
Ah, men! See, this is where we’re wrong. In situations that we cannot possibly relate to, especially ones that patriarchy has made so much worse, it is wise to follow Rachel Green from FRIENDS.
Now look, we know nothing about periods. I am even prepared for the possibility that most men think it’s blue liquid like they show on TV. Nobody talked to us about it. We saw our mothers and sisters miserable growing up and still working and thought that was normal.
It wasn’t normal. We just want to cover up our own failure a society when we say- ‘oh, my mother used to…’ Yeah, well, she shouldn’t have to, you knobhead!
Blood and tissues keep coming out of their vaginas for days. That has to suck. And then there are the cramps.
#periodleave
— Tagore Anita (@anitatagore) August 10, 2020
Maternity and child care leaves are
not holidays. So also period leave.
You take away my period, I will most happily donate you my leave for it.
You can take the pain, the discomfort and the mood swings as free gifts.
If you’re against the concept of a “period leave”, I feel like you’ve been lucky enough to not get a bad period issue. I’m someone who has varied reactions every month, some months it’s nothing and some months it’s a whole day of cramps so bad I can’t get off my bed! #periodleave
— Bee 🐝 (@thesofapotato) August 10, 2020
Just because your experience is great / not extremely painful with your menstrual cycle, doesn’t mean everyone else has it the same way! It’s horrible to tell someone that it’s wrong/ stupid to take a valid day off because they NEED it & their body demands it. #periodleave
— Bee 🐝 (@thesofapotato) August 10, 2020
Now, we have been on the receiving end of cramps, haven’t we? Imagine that pain that goes on for hours on an end. How is anyone supposed to work with that?
And please don’t say that you know women who would tell you that it doesn’t hurt as much. Well, firstly, you don’t actually know any women who have ever said that! Secondly, it’s different for every individual.
I mean, come on guys. If men had periods, we would have had built festivals around how brave we are for going through this. We would have parades, built statues in honour of those who bled the most, – ‘Oh, my God, the balls on Steve! See you on the other side!’
It would have hurt so much that we would have found some medical way to help us through it. But it doesn’t happen to us.
Ah, men. As a gender, we have had a long fucking run. And look where the world is right now. So, just believe the women for a change. Periods happen. Periods hurt. Some women want to work during periods. Their call. Others might think they need some days off. Also their call!
Which BTW, is something a lot of women already do – take sick leaves for period and cramps. So why is a 10-day-leave a year so bad? It’s not a lot of days. And it’s not our fucking place to decide either!
