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UPDATE: Oops. Turns out this dude’s post was satire, posted to a Facebook group mocking mansplainers.
By David Futrelle
More misogynatomy for your misogynatomy files! I don’t quite know how the British tabloids (The Sun, The Mirror, Metro UK) got to this story before I did but STOP THE PRESSES, there’s a weird angry dude on Facebook who thinks cis women get periods because cavewomen didn’t eat meat. No, really.
I was going to try to summarize his, er, logic here but I honestly can’t, so let’s just let him explain.
You got that, vagina-havers? You get periods because WE HUNTED THE MAMMOTH BUT APPARENTLY DIDN’T SHARE ANY WITH YOU.
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H/T — r/BadWomensAnatomy
When I was younger, my menstrual cycle was so erratic and my hormones so imbalanced that it would make my depression (that was mostly under control) suddenly swan dive into a deep dark pit. Most of my self harm would happen on my period and after like two suicide attempts that were also during it, my doctor decided to look into that finally. Getting those hormones balanced again made my depression so much more manageable. So your menstration can actually effect your mood a lot. Even with birth control keeping everything balanced, my period is still the time I probably think about hurting myself or killing myself the most. Minus the winter, but I think that might just be seasonal depression because of the less sunlight.
Don’t worry though, I wouldn’t act on these thoughts when they do show up. I’m in a good place right now so my depression is losing the battle against me.
@Lainy That is so good to hear. 🙂
@Hambeast:
He used to tell people that he was allergic to soy. When we moved in together, I told him that he was not allergic to soy which made him a bit salty. So I gathered all of his favorite snack foods and pointed out that each and every one of them contained Lecithin. When he said “So?” I told him that Lecithin IS* soy; one of the packages even said ‘soy lecithin.’ He quit going on about his food “allergies” after that. We even eat a lot of soyrizo (soy based chorizo sausage) nowadays.
On the TV show Ugly Delicious, an exploration of the appeal of trashy comfort foods, Korean-American chef David Chang conducted an experiment with a panel of white Americans who claimed to be sensitive to the MSG* in Asian restaurant food, inviting them to discuss their experiences. During the conversation, he congenially served them Doritos–which are, of course, laden with guess what: http://qz.com/quartzy/1477172/the-persistent-racist-myth-of-chinese-restaurant-syndrome-just-wont-die/
*Which is a flavorant occurring naturally in any number of Western as well as traditional Asian foods–meat, aged cheese, and tomatoes come to mind; the Chinese have been extracting it from wheat gluten (hence the name “glutamate” and the Japanese from seaweed at least long enough to pass the “would someone in 1900 recognize this as food” test.
@Fishy Goat
Thanks, people were talking about how it effects mood so I thought I just share my kind of extreme case on that. I don’t think people realize that your hormones being unbalanced can cause more then just being a little weepy. I also was having two periods a month before I went onto birth control with about a week in between where I wasn’t just constant menstruating. Of course no one wants to listen to a 16, 17 year old girl when she says her period makes her want to kill herself.
Weasel-rah
Per usual, people (especially those who like to boast that THEY hunted the mammoth!) think that gatherers only gathered plant foods. Actually hunters went after game that needed to be tracked or stalked, while gatherers collected a variety of “stationary” foods such as plants, eggs, birds, fish, shellfish, reptiles and insects – animal foods that could be trapped, snared or netted.
Gatherers had to be pretty damn smart to learn the natural and seasonal characteristics of all these foods, which were safe to eat, and how to collect and prepare them.
Except that hunting and food gathering were not skills that every caveperson had, because we have archaeological evidence of disabled members of prehistoric tribes/family groups, and while they might have been able to do some hunting/gathering or had other skills, it’s equally likely that their community just fed and took care of them because…they loved and valued them and the resources it took were worth it.
Also for the record, not that I think people are owed an explanation why you do or don’t eat some things, but I don’t see why claiming to have an allergy to a thing if you don’t is a problem. Sometimes it’s the only way people will listen to you. People really need to stop trying to get other people to eat stuff they don’t want to eat.