One thing that I've learnt - very slowly - over the past two years or so is that scientific knowledge has its boundaries. Its strengths and limitations stem from the fact the it depends on verifiable and reproducible evidence to make sense / come to conclusions. I've started paying more attention and respect to things that I would've brushed off and trampled on as superstition mostly because I'm developing a better awareness of science's boundaries. Today I came across an article about 'mensuration and the taboos associated with it' that brought back this lesson to me.
While I don't agree with everything in the article, I appreciate the fact that the author's is trying to be sensitive to young girls, their self esteem, and their religious beliefs. The part that hit me the most though was where she talks about Pre-Mestrual Syndrome.
"The
crankiness, impatience or annoyance so infamously called Premenstrual Syndrome,
that we may experience in the last two weeks of our cycle, is really more about
the feelings you have because you are not flowing with what you body really
wants you to do – that is slow down, withdraw from the busyness of the outside
world and look after yourself, not everybody else."
Source http://www.moonsong.com.au/spiritualmenstruation.html
I'm guilty of the same - even though I was miserable, I've told myself "Its nothing, you're just PMSing" and tried to move on the best I could. To think that something that happens to every woman every month, as a matter of fact, is called a "syndrome" is a testament of how insensitive we are as a society and how ingrained it is in us to privilege one form of knowledge above the other.
