Menstrual Menace: Difference between revisions

Here's a riddle for you.

 

 

If you guessed "an [[Eldritch Abomination]] from beyond the stars", <s>correct</s> wrong. The correct answer, as you know if you cheated and checked the potholed links or just ''read the title of this article'', is...menstruation.

In most fiction, [[No Periods Period|periods are rarely mentioned]]. [[Speculative Fiction]] does likewise. But on the rare occasions that [[Speculative Fiction]] does mention menstrual periods, the characters should tremble. SF periods serve as the trigger for every supernatural menace you can think of. Gruesome [[Body Horror]] is the favorite, but a period can also serve as a source of great power (and [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|great insanity]]), a magnet for [[The Fair Folk]], a gateway to a hell dimension, or even a semi-sentient [[Reality Warper]]. Periods cause all sorts of supernatural evil, and never cause supernatural good (aside from the occasional [[Puberty Superpower]], or [[Un Equal Rites|attunement to magic]]).

 

 

Menstruation in [[Speculative Fiction]] also causes mundane misery and angst, which tend to lead to stupid mistakes that create all of the previous supernatural problems.

The belief systems of some cultures have often incorporated a strong positive or negative supernatural significance to the phenomenon of menstruation.

 

== [[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.

 

== [[Live Action Television]] ==

* Parodied in the second episode of ''[[Garth Marenghi's Darkplace (TV)|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.

** Angua is both the first woman and the first werewolf in the [[Discworld|Ankh-Morpork Watch]], which leads to a misunderstanding early on ("Is it because I'm a w...") Boyfriend Carrot mentions that he tends to stay out of the way around full moon.

** "Wolf" backwards is "flow".

** 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.

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[[Category:Horror Tropes]]

[[Category:Menstrual Menace]]