Menstrual Menace: Difference between revisions

This trope is for supernatural horrors only; for trouble caused by mundane periods, see [[No Periods, Period]]. Compare [[Women's Mysteries]]. See also [[Hysterical Woman]] and [[All Women Are Lustful]], two beliefs brought on by this very trope.

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== [[Advertising]] ==

* Reversed in almost any commercial for sanitary towels, which have the magical power to make women happy and somehow erase the colour red from the world.

** Although, inexplicably, their effectiveness is usually demonstrated by absorbing ''blue'' colored liquid. As though the human body were [http://www.cracked.com/article_18496_the-6-most-baffling-things-every-tv-ad-assumes-are-true_p2.html full of windshield wiper fluid].

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* In the first season of ''[[Slayers]]'', Lina Inverse has her powers of magic reduced by 99.9999999% for a few days due to her "Time of the Month", and this happens to ''all'' female magic wielders. It is never mentioned again. (The show turned out to have a larger female audience than expected, and the writers didn't want to offend them).

* In [[Karin]], the eponymous character has a monthly release of blood...from her nose (unless, of course, she injects it into a human). The similarity to a menstrual cycle is frequently lampshaded, especially in the beginning.

== [[Comics]] ==

* Back in the 80's there was a black and white comic called 'MS. PSM'. A woman is infected by an alien device that locks her into a permanent state of PMS; frazzled hair, bad attitude, super-human strength. The aliens were present too, wearing their environmental armor called P.A.N.T.I.E shields. This comic lasted about two issues. Yeah.

* [[Alan Moore]]'s [[Swamp Thing]] story, "The Curse," draws parallels between menstruation and the traditional lunar-cycle-based activity of werewolves.

* In the 1993 remake of ''[[Attack of the 50 Foot Woman]]'', a doctor speculates that Nancy's condition is caused by a hormonal imbalance. Her husband's response is "Congratulations, doctor. You've just discovered a new form of PMS."

== [[Literature]] ==

* Justine Larabestier's ''Liar'' also connects menstrual cycles and {{spoiler|lycanthropy. There is a excellent scene in the book when the reader is certain that the parents are locking up their daughter for having her period.}}

* The title character of Stephen King's ''[[Carrie]]'' theretofore mild telekinetic powers become much stronger after her first period starts.

== [[Live Action Television]] ==

* Parodied in the second episode of ''[[Garth Marenghi's Darkplace]].'' The sole female character has a psychotic break, then goes on a telekinetic rampage that kills several people. In the end, all is forgiven because she couldn't help herself—it was her inevitable female foolishness and hormones (as Thornton Reed puts it, "I think it's her time."). The point, of course, is that Marenghi is a sexist hack who thinks nothing of stealing the plot of ''Carrie'' and making it about how women's issues lead to death.

* In ''[[Star Trek]]'', pon farr in Vulcans can be compared to this, with the added drama of having to [[Mate or Die]]. Notable in that both males and females are affected.

* Played for laughs in ''[[The IT Crowd]]'', where Jen's very angry period sees her literally turn into some kind of hell-demon at some points. This results in the image of a red-and-white skinned woman in a business suit screaming things like '''''"I CAN NEVER FIND A BLOODY PEN AROUND HERE!"'''''

* In the ''[[Married... with Children]]'' episode "The Camping Show" Al's worst nightmare comes to pass when Peg, Marcy and Kelly accompany him on a [[Horrible Camping Trip|camping trip]] to a small cabin where they all get their periods at the same time. This compels them to act like PMS-crazed mini-[[Godzilla]]s until just before the trip ''ends'', when they become serene and calm once more.

== [[Myth and Legend]] ==

** Though in later versions, it's not menstrual blood, but [[Squick|urine]]. In both versions, however, Thor stops the torrent by throwing a rock at her and plugging up... well, yes.

* In many interpretations of The Book of Genesis in [[The Bible]], Eve is the cause of menstruation along with the pain of childbirth. Both are curses brought upon her for eating the fruit from "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil". (Genesis, Chapter 3, verse 16: Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.) While this specifically refers to childbirth, most interpretatinos extend it to menstruation as well. See the Carrie listing in Literature, above.

== [[Music]] ==

== [[Video Games]] ==

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* In ''[[SSDD]],'' Anna's period is enough to scare even the 7-foot-tall, gorilla-muscled anarchist thug Norman Gates witless. Her boyfriend, of course, was smart enough to make sure he was somewhere far away before it happened. It's explained that, since she's a fox, she's only 'in heat' once a year - and as a result, only has one period per year. Making her mind-state basically what you'd get if you took every case of PMS a human woman would experience over the course of a year, and stacked them all together in one day.

* In ''[[Unicorn Jelly]]'', the native creatures of Tryslmaistan can smell and are attracted to the minerals in human blood. Female monster hunters use this to their advantage a few days every month.

* ''[[Punintended]]'''s Rah character looks quite frightening ([http://punintended.thecomicseries.com/comics/21 see for yourself]) in the comic PMS, in which it is pointed out that the P could stand for pre, post, present, or perpetual.

== [[Web Original]] ==

** For bonus points, all the magical fun ''also'' triggers menstrual discharge in every other girl in the dorm. Including the ones who had just finished with this month's visitor.

* Inverted in a couple of instances in the ''[[Paradise]]'' setting, in which humans are being changed into [[Funny Animal]]s. Men who are Changed into forms that have a mating season in the fall, such as moose, elk, etc., display extreme irritability and possessiveness during that time of the year, and are prone to losing their temper over the slightest provocation (especially regarding [[Not What It Looks Like|what appear to be advances]] toward their Significant Other).

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* And let's not forget Katie Ka-Boom from ''[[Animaniacs]]'', who, even though they couldn't say it, was pretty obviously having some major PMS.

* Half-demon Callie in ''[[Ugly Americans]]'' undergoes "Painful Mortal Shedding", a process in which a female demon periodically molts her toxic flesh. The agony can only be minimized by near-constant sex with her boyfriend/human sex slave Mark. In the background of another episode, a calendar in Mark's apartment has two weeks marked as "Callie's Period", so apparently that's a bit different for demons, as well.

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