Illustration of the rules.

At the Vagina Museum in London, in 2019 -

Isabel INFANTES / AFP

  • Lack of knowledge, prejudices ... The taboo around rules persists and crystallizes inequalities.

  • This is what emerged from a debate organized Tuesday evening by the Loire-Atlantique departmental council in the presence of several experts.

They are called the ragnagnas, the moons, or more simply the rules.

But often the words stop there when it comes to the subject of menstruation.

"Yet it is a normal phenomenon, and not a disease", recalls Martin Winckler, writer and doctor, who participated Tuesday evening in a webinar on "the taboo of the rules", organized by the departmental council of Loire-Atlantique which wishes to put "The subject in the public space".

“It is a symptom of the functioning of the female reproductive system.

The concern is that female physiology is heavier than that of men.

Doctors are not well enough trained to treat women, which creates inequality from the start.

"

Lack of knowledge, this is a first track that would explain why the question of rules is still very confidential.

Add to that the prejudices that persist.

“The first rules are a dizzying moment but are still associated with something shameful, observes Elise Thiébaut, author of

The rules, what an adventure

.

It is seen as dirty, as negative, associated with a bad mood.

However, in some societies, such as the Moso in China, this stage is celebrated in a very joyful way ”.

A perception that would have consequences for all of society.

"All this conditions women themselves to perceive them badly," continues Elise Thiébaut.

It is the matrix of other inequalities: we reduce their capacity to act and we condition them to accept other sexist behaviors.

"And sometimes also tolerate pain for three to five days a month, which is" not normal "for Martin Winckler.

“Some are due to the contraction of the uterus.

All pain must be relieved, taken into account.

We must also explore further, for example towards endometriosis, when they persist after the bleeding.

But there is a lack of information. ”

"Not a matter of good women"

This taboo also accentuates inequalities in access to intimate protection.

"Some women who do not have the means do not dare to ask and expose themselves to considerable risks, physical but also mental", explains Tara Heuzé-Sarmini, president of the Elementary Rules association.

While the government recently announced that the protections will be free for students, she is one of those actors who campaign for this distribution to be organized in as many public places as possible, schools, prisons, restaurants, but also in homes.

According to her, the budget that a woman would devote in her life to her period would be around 8,000 euros.

In the meantime, raising awareness among young people seems a serious avenue for the issue to advance, or at least become commonplace.

By talking to young girls, but also to boys.

"I explain to them that the first rules have an equivalent in them, namely the moment when they start to produce spermatozoa," says Elise Thiébaut, who regularly intervenes in colleges.

It establishes a form of equivalence, and the sarcasm turns into curiosity.

They then understand that it is no longer a good woman's affair, but rather a matter linked to humanity.

"

Society

Scotland votes for free period protection for menstruation, a world first

Society

The government will distribute free hygienic protections for precarious women

  • Inequality

  • Women

  • Rules

  • Nantes

  • Society