Media Myths: All the Girls Go Together
Believe it or not, there are certain cavernous depths of bad taste that even we hesitate to spelunk. Such things have their attractions though, just in terms of finding out why an idiotic and/or offensive storyline keeps getting passed around the water cooler. One such chestnut concerns everyone's favorite topic: menstruation. Yes, we're going there.
Given that media organizations are often female-heavy in terms of workplace constituency, whiney males sometimes cite the old husband's tale of women in close proximity having synchronized menstrual cycles. This convenient excuse allows men to explain any number of troubles with the fairer sex, from bitchy supervisors to sudden breakdowns to frequent potty breaks. While synchronous menstruation in groups of close women may have some basis in scientific fact, most women really don't feel like contemplating the effects of simultaneous bloodletting.
And who can blame them? Clots are nasty. A quick survey of female Gawker associates found understandably negative reactions to linking period cycles to workplace cycles, for all the misogynistic reasons one might expect. Sure, it's easy for a man to make the connection, but for a woman, contemplating such things brings up all sorts of ugly mental imagery from last month's ordeal.
Nevertheless, certain ovary-challenged members of our upper management find this topic fascinating, returning to it again and again. (We should note that these certain males are also limited in their experience with the ladyflower.) They are of the belief that one could actually construct an institutional menses calendar for certain organizations, and that this sort of service journalism would be useful.
We're torn. Is this a project we pursue? Is it even feasible, based solely on input from ladies on the inside? If creating a calendar is in fact possible, would doing so represent an egregiously lowbrow and disgusting exploitation of men's fascination with a biological process that, if they experienced it themselves just once in their cramp-free lives, they would never want anything to do with again? And is this sort of project really necessary, or are certain ovary-challenged members of our upper management simply paste-eating women-haters?
You be the judge:
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