Wishful thinking...

After reading the article "If Men Could Menstruate", it got me thinking just how big of a deal men would really make out of it. I have always said that men have it so easy because they don't have to worry about their looks, give birth, or have a period! I think if men were to have a period, it would be a whole different story. It wouldn't be an on going joke to say "it's that time of the month", which I hear from plenty of men that are a part of my life today. If I'm in a bad mood or don't seem happy, the first remark out of their mouth involves either being on my period or wondering if I'm just "pms-ing". When I was younger my brother would pick fights with me and bug me until I yelled at him and his fighting words always consisted of "Gosh are you on your period?" or "When are you gonna start?". My mom was always on my side because she could empathize. My dad on the other hand, still thinks it's funny to joke about till this day he teases me. I always wished that men could be able to menstruate and give birth and feel what it's like to be a women and have these things happening to them. In the article when Steinem asks, "What would happen for instance, if suddenly, magically, men could menstruate and women could not?" Her answer, "-Menstruation would become an enviable, boast-worthy, masculine event:Men would brag about how long and how much." I think that she couldn't have said it better, anything that men go through typically is transformed and expected to be enviable. I definitely think the on going jokes and humor about menstruating would stop, and we wouldn't be able to joke about "that time of the month", because we aren't going through it. Even though women are going through it now, if men went through it, it would be seen as a triumphant thing that takes a "real man" to survive and come out alive. It's interesting how things quickly change when a man experiences it compared to woman.