If Men Could Menstruate Analysis

1.) I believe that Steinem‘s main message in her article If Men Could Menstruate is to show us that how we understand what is normal and acceptable about our bodies is very much culturally dictated. Steinem proposes that “the characteristics of the powerful, whatever they may be, are thought to be better than the characteristics of the powerless”(pg.209). Menstruating would no longer be connected to impurity or weakness if it were a male trait. It is only connected to these things because it is associated to the less powerful sex. The author claims that if men where to menstruate it “would become an enviable, boast-worthy, masculine event”(pg. 209) I have to agree with her when she says this. Power has NO real connection to menstruation. A …show more content…
From a very young age we are taught the “sexual scripts” (pg. 313) that we are expected to follow and this largely dictates how we feel we should conduct our intimate relationships. Sexual scripts in many societies are largely “heteropatriarcical” meaning they are based on a system of heterosexual male dominance (pg. 354). Tight control over what is sexually acceptable can be harmful for the development of healthy intimate relationships especially for those who do not fall within the traditional heterosexual gender binary. A young American female receives mixed messages about her sexuality every day. In her article The Cult of Virginity author Jessica Valenti says that, “present-day American society- whether through pop culture, religion, or institutions –conflates sexuality and morality constantly” (pg. 336). This association is dangerous because it teaches women there only value is there virginity and that it is ok for a girl to be sexualized but not ok for a girl to actually like sex. This belief is on that will almost certainly shape her future intimate relationships. When we contrast this to how author Leila J. Rupp describes the prevalence and acceptance of same sex relationships among African schoolgirls, in her article A World of Difference we can clearly see that our ideas of what makes an acceptable intimate relationship are entirely …show more content…
This is a fundamentally intersectional problem, many different facts of a woman’s life all weave together to determine how easily she is able determine her own health and sexuality. While talking about reproductive justice in chapter 7 the authors say that to “freely choose is difficult in a racist, class basses, and sexist society” (pg.374). As we discussed in class a woman may not be able to make the reproductive choices she feels are best for her for any number of reasons. For example if I became pregnant I may not be able to find the funds to have an abortion despite working two jobs. I also certainly couldn’t afford to provide for a child the way I’d like to. Talk about a rock and a hard place and in the realm of intersectional barriers, as a white, middleish class, educated individual, of no strict religious background, living in a state with pretty lenient laws surrounding my right to choose, my rock and a hard place is comparatively quite comfortable. In Zakiya Luna’s article From Rights to Justice:Women of Color Changing the Face of US Reproductive Rights Organizing it says the “women’s rights should be treated as human rights” it also argues that too often women’s health issues are placed into the private sphere and by doing this the aren’t taken as seriously. A women’s reproductive system is part of her overall health