Watch out, ladies! And feminism! Because guys are totally onto you and your dirty periods. According to a study cited on the blog What Men Think of Women, men can tell when women are on their periods – just by listening to them talk! Well, some of the time, anyway. From a writeup of the research in the Times of India:
Men can actually tell from a woman’s voice when she is having her period, a new study has claimed.
For the study, conducted by Nathan Pipitone at Adams State College and Gordon Gallup from SUNY-Albany, the researchers asked three groups of men to listen to voice recordings of ten women who counted from one to five at four different points over their menstrual cycle.
According to Popular Science, all four recordings were played in a random order and then the first group of men were asked to guess which were made while the women were on their period. The tests revealed that the men were correct 35 per cent of the time, which was described as a ‘significant’ result.
That’s right, ladies! Men can tell whether or not you’re are on the rag – a third of the time!
I myself have developed a technique that can bring this success rate to well over 50 percent – just by listening to women talk!
All you have to do is to pay attention to subtle audio clues, like her saying:
“I just started my period.”
“My period came early this month.”
“Crap. I’ve got awful craps – because of my period.”
“Aunt Flo is paying her monthly visit.” (Note: this works only if she does not actually have an Aunt Flo.)
“It’s shark week! “ (Note: This works only if it is not actually Shark Week on the Discovery Channel.)
“It’s that time of month again. The time when I use tampons, in my vagina.”
“I have reached that point in my menstrual cycle during which blood leaks from my hoo-ha.”
So what does all this mean? According to Christian J at What Men Are Saying About Women, it means the jig is up, feminists! In a post titled How Men can Decode “Women’s” Menstrual Cycle.. , he writes:
This information is what feminist have been trying to hide, delete and deny for many a decade. They are of the opinion that the menstrual cycle is irrelevant and superfluous to their cause and one can understand why when one looks at the studies on how women are affected by it.
In the worst case scenarios, their behaviour are effected to such a degree as to make them totally dysfunctional and even bedridden for the period(intended) of the cycle. The other side of the argument is ofcourse that it is swept under the carpet and not discussed or taken seriously..
Just some added benefits from feminism, as they live in ignorant, self induced silence..
You might as well pack it in, ladies and manginas – because men know!
A third of the time.
NOTE: I have no idea why Christian J. put the word “women” in quotes in the title of his blog post. Like his now-legendary two-dot ellipses, this is a mystery that may forever remain unsolved. Or you could ask him, I guess.
EDITED TO ADD: This post has now inspired a completely disingenuous “Yahoo Answers” query from an antifeminist concern troll who seems to be pretending that this post was not DRIPPING IN SARCASM. Add your answers, if you want!
That’s the point. I think we’re often really afraid that we’re going to be viewed as bad people, especially in communities like this where there is a high level of knowledge about anti-oppression issues, and with all the fighting with MRAs and stuff, there’s this fear that if you aren’t totally in agreement with people (and sometimes maybe even a fear that if you aren’t totally in agreement with CERTAIN people) then therefore you are “bad” and everybody now just casts you down with NWOslave. : I understand that… I worry that all the time, not just with anti-oppression stuff. I worry about saying the wrong thing, about revealing that I’m not as smart as people thought I was, not as cute, not as perfect, or awesome, or nice, or compassionate, that now people will realize “OMG Ami’s not who we thought she was, she’s awful, she’s terrible!” But that isn’t true. The problem becomes when you start assuming what it means that people find something problematic, what they think about you, and therefore that you must now defend yourself, that you must convince them that it’s not problematic or therefore you’re tainted forever, that now you’re A Bad Person™. And nobody thinks you’re a bad person. You’ve already acknowledged that you agree there have been a historical issue with the word, you don’t think the context was problematic though, and that there was no intent. I think people get that too. Now if you start saying that there’s NO historical issue with the word, it might get problematic, but I don’t think anybody will think less of you that it doesn’t offend you, as long as you don’t start trying to convince people it shouldn’t offend them either. AND, it’s also your choice if you want to say, keep using it.
Like Kavette doesn’t find what she said to be problematic, but many people here do, and to many it’s also really personal, it dismisses our identities and it assumes things based on our identities and it plays into historical stereotypes. It’s her choice if she wants to keep doing this, in which case people MIGHT start thinking things about her from that, or if she continues to think it’s okay but simply doesn’t use it around us because she doesn’t want to hurt people. 🙂 It’s like a lot of things. I’ve known people who insist on fighting even over geek stuff, really really picky, and sometimes they’re like “okay let’s just avoid that topic” and sometimes they choose to keep going, and then other people choose not to hang around them.
My point though is, I think a big problem is treating this as if it’s not just a difference in opinion but that other people because they are offended by something you aren’t, must then necessarily assume YOU are a bad person, which isn’t necessarily true (unless they tell you you’re a bad person). It’s when you assume that, and react to it, and get worried this has poisoned the well, that you’re now as good as NWOslave to everybody, that it ends up blowing up :
What she said was problematic, for the reasons that zhinxy and Bostonian outlined, and more (for one the problematic implication of a white person asking a strange black person to dance for them as if that’s not demeaning). There’s no reason to think she had any intention of being racist, but what she did DID have racist implications and so people spoke out against it so that it is understood that this is problematic for these reasons, and people who didn’t get that would now understand and not do it. I get why you, and presumably she, didn’t know why it’s problematic, and have no reason to consider you or her especially racist, it’s casual, systematic racism.
I know some people who absolutely detest boxing, and they think it should be banned to protect the fighters. I like boxing. I think there are things that need to be changed, but I don’t believe it should be banned and I’ll still watch boxing, despite knowing all the issues with it and acknowledging them. I don’t automatically assume my friends therefore think I’m this terrible person even if they have strong feelings about it. Now, maybe to some friends, this is the breaking point, and it’s not a big deal to me, but maybe it is to them. Maybe somebody they know got seriously injured in the ring, or maybe it’s just their breaking point when it comes to what people tolerate. And… I understand that. I won’t talk about how great boxing is around them, but if that’s not enough, then… look we all make these decisions all the time… we all (except like, NWO) strive to be good people, and we do right by what we believe to be true (which might change too over ouor lifetimes), sometimes we feel something is persuasive and we change our minds, sometimes it’s not, but we want to be good friends, so we’ll make compromises, or change our behaviour around our friends, and sometimes we decide “this is really fine with me, and I think I’m being okay with believing/doing this even if you don’t” and that’s fine too, and it’s also up to them if they want to judge you, decide what this means about you, etc… but it happens. The important part is that you have an open mind, you listen to what other people are saying, and you keep your own biases in mind, but ultimately, what you believe, and what you do has to be something that you can live with, and it’s still ultimately your life, and if it doesn’t make sense to you, then it doesn’t make sense to you. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re a bad person, or that they have to be over-sensitive in order for you to not be a bad person. And honestly, as I said, people disagree on stuff. If you constantly fundamentally disagree on all sorts of things, then yeah, but a lot of the time, nobody thinks less of you if it’s just a simple difference of opinion like the above 🙂
Dude, that isn’t actually better, in this context.
[quote]but you disagree on one example and suddenly everyone turns on you for not agreeing[/quote]
I said that wasn’t really good evidence of your claim. I’m trying to figure out what I could possibly have said to be less mean.
[quote]ither you see something as racist or you don’t and that means you’re ignorant and racist for not seeing it.[/quote]
Well, whether or not someone says you are or recognizes it, you are. You didn’t grow up in an equal society and you have racist shit to work through. I don’t think any of us is ever going to totally get through it. I think you’re less so than your culture. However, I also think this whole “Eeek PC gone too far” is stupid.
Crumbelievable – Either you see something as racist or you don’t and that means you’re ignorant and racist for not seeing it.
“Nobody said this about you though.”
Exactly. I was just putting forth that there WAS more to it than “it’s a word for a dance!” It’s a word for a dance associated with negative stereotypes, which gave a name to a slur. Intent is one thing, what you think about its racism is another, but there’s a lot more to it than just “innocent word for a dance that happens to sound like the unrelated slur Jigaboo” – People have a reason for going there, it’s not just the land mines of oversensitivity.
and if it doesn’t make sense to you, then it doesn’t make sense to you. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re a bad person, or that they have to be over-sensitive in order for you to not be a bad person.
I just realized this might come off as if I’m saying “it’s okay that you’re wrong”… I’m not saying that… nor am I saying “there is no right or wrong!” I’m just saying that it doesn’t have to be either/or. That because it doesn’t make sense to you, therefore you are a bad person if you don’t convince others that they’re over-sensitive, or that people are going to assume that because it doesn’t make sense to you, you don’t care, you’re evil, you’re bad, there’s an innate problem with the way you see the world, etc etc…
there are so many anti-oppression people out there who don’t see eye-to-eye on various anti-oppression subjects, sometimes it’s a breaking point, and sometimes it’s not… so far nobody here has called you a racist, said you are a racist, or nething else…
Okay, Rutee posted before I posted that >_>
I said everyone is racist, and that I don’t think anyone is going to fully work through it. I don’t even think MRAL is really worse than society. The best I expect of anybody is to work to be less racist than the rest of society and hopefully help everyone else be a little less racist. What the woman in the example said was ignorant, but I don’t think it comes from malice and don’t really think anything negative about her.
Just a little note:
My OP here has now inspired a completely disingenuous “Yahoo Answers” query from an antifeminist concern troll who seems to be pretending that my post was not DRIPPING IN SARCASM. Add your answers, if you want!
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120201164454AA2zE1F
How is 35% significant? If the thesis of this wasn’t true, and men could only guess when women had their periods, they would have a 50% shot at being right. Therefore, the results would be somewhere around 50%, maybe slightly more or slightly less. If men could really tell whether a woman was menstruating by her voice, the results would be significantly higher than 50%. A success rate of 35% suggests that men have a LESS than 50% chance of guessing right- they’re actually worse than “just guessing” at this.