On the Rag

Let me make it clear: I really, really, really, dislike Country music. I use the word dislike because it seems a lot nicer, when really I hate it. I find it completely patriarchal, homophobic, and sexist. For some reason in the eyes of country music being a man merely means cheating on your women and/or having sex with her. Oh and of course hunting and voting republican. Ya ya I know this is pretty bias. Not all country music is this way and there are many examples of strong female artists (Dixie Chicks being one of them). So what’s the point of this post, you ask…other then blasting country music. Well last night I was driving with my friend who loves country music. She played me this song by Dolly Patron called PMS Blues.

I’ll give you a moment.

PMS Blues…

God this woman is ballsy. No one really has the guts to talk about this.
Which got me thinking about menstruation in general.

In our culture menstruation is seen as something you keep to yourself.
Girls are taught to be embarrassed of a natural thing their body goes through.
Tampons are made smaller and smaller to hide in ones purse.
They even sell ones that won’t make noise in their wrapper.
As we learned in class, female hygiene products are even dyed white.
There is an obsession with purity that has filters its way through our society.
Even worse girls and women are told that this process is a bad thing.
Called the “curse”, your period is something private, painful and gross.
We are given pills to cover up the pain.
We view menstruation as something dirty, and smelly.
We are told to cover it up, the best we can.
All girls have it, but no one must speak of it.
Better yet never talk about it with men.
We are mad fun of for our emotions and our response brought on by hormones.
Who hasn’t heard a joke about PMS?
Some people even say that women are unfit to be in the army frontline because it’s “unsanitary” and can cause bacteria to breed.
Not only this is completely insane but also it’s sexist.
These prevalent beliefs beginning with religious fears have taken hold of our culture and only serve to oppress women and their sexuality even further.

p.s.

heres the lyrics:

http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/parton-dolly/pms-blues-7622.html

and the song itself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F14FLQi4h7U