Speaking as a retired woman who has experienced all the phases of female life, I would like to share a few thoughts and experiences both to the men here and the younger women. First of all, not all young women experience significant menstrual symptoms, on the other hand most have some slight effects during each month. However, I’m with Patsy Mink of Hawaii who said something like, “I would rather have ‘raging hormones’ one week a month than for 365 days a year.” This in response to a male insult.
My personal experience was to suffer 1 day a month in bed with severe cramps and nausea. Then I discovered therapeutic nutrition which included Vitamin C, Calcium/Magnesium and Vitamin E and never lost another day of work from that cause again. I once spoke with a male crack addict whose dealer was a woman who used crack only for her period pain. I wish I could have told her how to fix it with nutrients. I also realized that my husband and I were having one fight a month a few days before each period. We talked about it and when I would say, “Let’s not argue about this now, let’s wait until after my period”, usually he would restrain himself, cutting the fights to one about every 4 months. Later he told me that he figured out when each of his female coworkers had her period so he would know when and who to ask for a favor like cutting a stencil for him or running one off. This made his work life a lot easier he said.
Then I had children. I nursed one for 9 months and another for two years, so I have some thoughts on the incident of the lactating lawyer. I read that story with care. It seems she had said in advance that she would need a place to go pump her breast. The session was running long, but Trump refused to break for lunch, and also refused her request to be excused for a medical reason, thus her pumping in the same room. Believe me, when the breast gets full, it will empty itself leaving great stains down one’s clothes. I remember reading once a mans argument that women couldn’t have the psychic strength of a man because they didn’t have an ejaculating organ. Obviously he never saw a woman experiencing the let-down response to a baby’s cry when milk can spurt out several feet in 5 or 6 different directions. Anyway the question here is whether Trump just didn’t appreciate the nature of the problem, he thought she was pulling something, or he knew exactly what he was doing to this woman. I also remember my mother who grew up in northern New Jersey near the Hudson river, as I did, remarking on how the poor women would sit on the front steps or porches in the slums feeding their babies by chewing food and then putting it into their babies’ mouths. Presumably also nursing them as well. So who knows what early memories of “disgusting” female behavior Trump might have from his childhood in Brooklyn.
I could say a few things about menopause, but I won’t. I can say that I am very glad to be past all that with plenty of vim, vigor and vitality ahead of me. Ladies, women, girls, learn all you can and keep up the good fight. So far as Trump and women in general, 30 years ago I read his, “Art of the Deal”, it has helped me make money, and in it he describes how he put an ex wife in charge of a major Atlantic City project because he trusted her intelligence and good sense. Lots of comments at the link below.
As someone who has a wonderful husband, father, father in law, 5 wonderful brothers, and 9 great brothers in law. I am totally tired of the way men in this country are treated by women. This post with tweeting about periods is a good example. I am treated way more fairly by men, than I have ever been treated by women, because I don’t tow the womens victim line.
I doubt I am alone in this position.
Also, I was a supervisor for over 30 years. I would have fired you if you called in sick or seriously under performed one day a month.
If anybody wants to be taken seriously, they need to stop being a victim. Same goes for that silly lawyer. Why should Trump have to pay his lawyer while she is out pumping her breast milk? Stay home until you can come back to work and keep up with the big boys, don’t cry victim.