The ridiculous assault on women and womanhood has no signs of stopping anytime soon.

The state that brought us the Don’t Say Gay Bill is now going after menarche and women’s periods. Last month, the GOP-controlled Florida House passed House Bill 1069, also known as the “Don’t Say Period” bill. The bill is expected to pass the Senate and go into effect on July 1, 2023. 

The bill proposes banning any form of health education until the sixth grade. It would prohibit students from asking questions about their periods, menarche, and menstruation (which often occur before 6th grade).

From the erosion of Roe v. Wade, and the epidemic of anti-abortion bills that are sweeping red states, Florida HB 1069 is just another example of right-wing America’s assault on women. 

24 states have stripped a woman of the right to choose, Idaho enacted a law making it a felony to leave the state for an abortion, 12 states have banned gender-affirming care for transgender minors, and a Missouri lawmaker proposed a law allowing girls as young as 12 to marry with parental permission.

Let’s face it: The far-right, and conservative groups in the US and across the globe are commonly misogynist, anti-LGBTQ+, and racist, and we are witnessing a new resurgence of these groups stoking a culture war against “gender ideology.”

Bills such as HB 1069, attacks on abortion rights, drag queens, and transgender youth are intended to promote a moral panic among Americans regarding gender, reproduction, and sexuality (including discussing a woman’s period). The alt-right sees the subject of gender as a dangerous idea that will result in the sexualization of children, the break up of the nuclear family and social morals, as well as the encouragement of homosexuality and the destruction of the “traditional” male.

For example, in an unfortunate interview on 60 Minutes, Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) called President Biden and Democrats “pedophiles.” A total of 28 GOP lawmakers, including MTG and Lauren Boebert (R-CO), have labeled gays as child sex “groomers,” and last year, 195 Republicans in Congress voted against the Right to Contraception Act which would have protected access to contraceptives

As far as menarche and menstruation go, Florida’s Don’t Say Period Bill is just another aspect of the rising tide of the right-wing’s attack on women and the view that anything having to do with a woman’s biology is lewd, lascivious, and sex-crazed. 

Of course, if men had periods, perhaps things might be different.

In Gloria Steinem’s classic satirical piece about menstruation, she hits the nail on the head. She writes:

So what would happen if suddenly, magically, men could menstruate and women could not?

Clearly, menstruation would become an enviable, boast-worthy, masculine event: Men would brag about how long and how much.

Young boys would talk about it as the envied beginning of manhood. Gifts, religious ceremonies, family dinners, and stag parties would mark the day.

To prevent monthly work loss among the powerful, Congress would fund a National Institute of Dysmenorrhea. Doctors would research little about heart attacks, from which men were hormonally protected, but everything about cramps.

Regardless if you agree with Gloria or not, we do need to talk about menstruation in schools, and before 6th grade. Children do need to know about biology, and they deserve to get the facts about sex, their bodies, and yes, gender.