“So if little girls experience their menstrual cycle in 5th grade or 4th grade, will that prohibit conversations from them since they are in the grade lower than sixth grade?” asked state Rep. Ashley Gantt, a Democrat who taught in public schools and noted that girls as young as 10 can begin having periods.
The first ever suicide prevention hotline was created in 1935 bevause a man conducted a funeral for a 14 year old girl who ended her life because she got her period. She didn’t know what it was and assumed it was a STD. Learning about periods and sexual health is life saving. Republicans are unapologetically just evil.
You know, here’s a thing: I went to Catholic school from age 5 to age 16. (My family’s not Christian, but the local public schools weren’t great, so – )
In 4th grade, girls were given a clear, scientific, extremely bland pamphlet about menstruation. It was Boring and Educational. There wasn’t any class about it or anything – just the pamphlet, provided in a plain manila envelope for you to take home.
Starting in 5th grade, the school provided a small pack of pads to girls. This was probably so that anyone who unexpectedly started her period at school would have an emergency supply, but the thing was: this boring pamphlet, this pack of pads handed to you by a nun, made menstruation…so normal. It’s so normal that a nun hands you a pack of pads. It’s so normal that there’s a boring pamphlet. It’s just a thing your body does. (It’s so normal that you realize, oh, nuns have periods, huh.)
It kills me, KILLS ME, that this totally boring and bland form of education about human bodies is somehow Too Much, Too Scary, Too Sexy, for some people.
