Welcome to 2018, where the internet is widely available. It seems like everyone and their dog has a Twitter account, and social media has become yet another platform on which men can express their
ignorance and/or aggression towards women. Don't get me wrong: not
all guys do it, obviously - but there are enough of them out there to make any casual scroll through Facebook or Twitter a figural minefield for any woman who just wants to go about her day without being verbally attacked.
Take, for instance, an incident that happened last year, in which a guy who posted a seemingly innocent tweet asking, "What's worse than a broken heart?" ended up starting a
Twitter-wide argument over whether or not menstrual pain is actually real.
Before you read on, though, here's a quick spoiler: it definitely is.
Anyway, the discussion started with the question posted by user @goldenconceptng, who quickly received this reply:
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/RAFIAT_BELLO/status/883754114630471680]]
And I think most would agree that homelessness and hunger are definitely worse than a broken heart when you consider it on a much wider scale. And so is menstrual pain, if you're someone who gets it bad.
But, seeing as the man who posted it has never experienced the pain for himself, he assumed it must be a myth.
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/goldenconceptng/status/883760538655891456]]
Quality logic there. I've never been kicked in the balls but I've heard enough people describe the agony of it to believe that it's real. Oh, and I also have a pretty basic understanding of biology, so I could figure out for myself that causing damage to such a sensitive area would indeed be horrifically painful.
As you can probably guess, though, the internet wasn't going to take
this kind of comment lying down.
There were people who pointed out that he clearly had no clue about the subject:
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/Chidaluuu_/status/885488287556743168]]
Some users encouraged him to educate himself on exactly what causes menstrual pain:
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/inclosing/status/886942129016242176]]
And someone else pointed out the obvious fact that if you bled from anywhere else in your body for the best part of a week, you'd probably be in a significant amount of discomfort - so why is it so hard to believe when a woman says it?
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/Real001/status/886531631728734208]]
But then this guy joined in:
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/Idriss_Ide/status/885562563102220288]]
Is he for real? This is something that a lot of women have to go through
every month. Some people get cramps so bad they can't even stand up. Others have such severe symptoms that they cause migraines. If anything, it's amazing that we don't talk about it more often.
People who suffer from menstrual pains still go on and do their jobs every day. They raise families, run companies, lead countries. But this random dude on the internet is so sure it can't be that bad.
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/RAFIAT_BELLO/status/885567523000909826]]
But there's a counterpoint to every argument.
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/merlsweetness/status/885871419900534784]]
If these guys really do believe that menstrual pain isn't all that, perhaps they'd like to sign up to being kicked in the balls all day for five days a month. No takers? Didn't think so.
