Male Periods? How to Stay Sane in a Mad World
Menstruation, it seems, isn't just for women these days. That's the message that "transgender artist" Cass Clemmer is trying to get across1 in a recent Facebook post, in which "they" (that's the pronoun that Clemmer prefers) share a photo of "themselves" freebleeding, accompanied by a poem. In the photo, Clemmer, who identifies as a "transgender, non-binary person," is sitting on a park bench, staring mournfully into a camera. Her hair is cropped, and she is wearing masculine clothes. She holds a sign that reads, "Periods Are Not Just For Women, #BleedingWhileTrans."
Clemmer's post has been celebrated by the media. The London Evening Standard called her statement "powerful." The Independent labeled it "bold." People magazine declared, "Transgender activist freebleeds to show men can menstruate too," and the Huffington Post announced, "Powerful photo shows that women aren't the only one who get periods."
The world has clearly gone mad.
Three Sane Reactions
There are three ways that any rational human being would have responded to this, even ten years ago.
The first reaction—It's wrong. Men don't menstruate. Sorry. It's biologically impossible, because men don't have uteruses. And if you want to get personal, it's actually rather offensive to women to try to take away the uniqueness of their specific reproductive processes and claim them for both sexes. That's a point that more than one strident feminist has actually made, and validly so.
The second reaction—It's perturbing. Clemmer's own words should make us feel great pity for her. "Getting your period while not identifying as a woman can feel like a monthly battle both with your own body and with a world that continuously tells you that your identity isn't real," Clemmer says. She tells of the intense hatred she felt and still feels for a body that regularly betrays her by clearly marking her as female to the world.
Usually, when a woman confesses that she hates her body, that she finds herself at war with her own physical being, we hasten to reassure her that all bodies are beautiful. No, you don't need to lose weight! You are gorgeous just the way you are! And yet, if a woman calling herself transgender tells us she is at war with her body, and if she in fact mutilates her body in the name of presenting herself as someone she is not, far from reassuring her about her femaleness, we applaud her "boldness" in undermining it.
In reality, those who identify as transgender have a severe mental disorder, which needs treatment by people willing to call it what it is. (One study, cited by Lawrence Mayer and Paul McHugh in their vast review of the literature surrounding sexuality and gender, found that, "compared to controls, sex-reassigned individuals were about 5 times more likely to attempt suicide and about 19 times more likely to die by suicide."2 Women like Clemmer deserve our compassion, and they need help, not affirmation of their disorder.
The third reaction—It's gross. Women do have periods, yes. And you know what? They're a little unpleasant, aesthetically and physically. They're a necessary part of being female, and they indicate a good thing—that your reproductive system is working—but menstruation is something we used to have the respect for ourselves to veil, because, you know, certain things used to be considered private. But these days, it has become acceptable for women (as well as for men who make the bizarre claim that they are women) to post pictures of themselves bleeding on social media, in order to make some kind of weird political statement about feminism, the patriarchy, oppression—whatever it may be. There was a time, not that long ago, when biological functions were taken simply for what they were—signs of our bodies' proper, natural functioning. They weren't used as political statements. Alas, those days appear to be gone.
Countering the Madness
Apparently Clemmer isn't the only one addressing this issue, by the way. There's actually a line of period-friendly boxer shorts. But it's high time for all of us to feel free to call a spade a spade—or a woman a woman, or a horrible violation and mutilation of the human body a horrible violation and mutilation of the human body. It is a grave irony that in this day and age, when we worship the human body—when we shout "body positivity" from the rooftops and scream down those guilty of "body shaming"—we yet see fit to mutilate our bodies by denying their purpose and trying to make them conform to what our twisted mental states tell us they should be. Moreover, we do ourselves a disservice in making our bodies' functions public, instead of keeping private things private and keeping our bodies modestly covered, as befits them as vessels of the Holy Spirit.
We can begin to counter the madness by refusing to use the terms the mainstream media are trying to foist on us. We can use the proper pronouns, and we can staunchly continue to insist on the biological reality that women, and only women, are the ones who have periods.
Period.
Nicole M. Kingis the managing editor of The Natural Family, the quarterly publication of the International Organization for the Family.
Get Salvo in your inbox! This article originally appeared in Salvo, Issue #43, Winter 2017 Copyright © 2026 Salvo | www.salvomag.com https://salvomag.com/article/salvo43/boys-dont-bleed
