When we talk of the myths associated with menstuation or the problems that are still persistent with the issue, we generally think of females and that we must educate females about it. But ever wondered what about the half of the population, the males? Don’t they need any awareness or they lack curiosity?
When males are kept out of the discussions on menstruation and efforts are made that they should not know that there even exists any such thing, there lies a road which is to be crossed.
Similar is my story as to how i got fascinated towards working on the issue of MHM
I was in class 8th and then one day, that chapter came, the mysterious chapter, the one on reproduction and for that chapter, my teacher tried her best to skip it and she taught two chapters within one hour which normally would have taken around two weeks. This made me curious as what was in this chapter that she was in such a hurry and also, being the class parrot, i understood nothing in that chapter and asked the teacher to teach the chapter again. At first, she was quite surprised as a boy was asking this thing. Which she did teach again but still not in the manner in which we, at least me, could understand.
What i at that time understood was that there is something called menstruation and its definition needs to be mughed up for exam purposes.
May be everyone believes that males need not be educated on SRHR or on menstruation as they know everything by themselves.
Then again that mysterious chapter on reproduction came when in was in class 10th and fortunately, mine was one of the sections of our batch which was taught the mysterious chapter like any other chapter and it was in 10th that i understood what actually menstruation is, though not that seriously or that diversely but at least i became familiar with the process.
Then as the time passed, i began observing people and things. It was not much before that i recalled that my own family tried their best to avoud any kind of discussion with a male on Menstruation.
As it’s said, forbidden fruit tastes sweet, i got inclined as to what is it that males are not “supposed” to talk or know of Menstruation or why there is so much silence on such a normal, biological and important process.
With the passing time, i am getting more familiar to the concepts and the myths that are associated. But what i feel is that until and unless males are made the part of the discussions on Menstruation, things would not be treated as normal as far as Menstruation is concerned.
Because males are curious too and when it is normal then why to hide it. Tell everyone what actually is there and there would automatically be no shame or stigmas.