I am writing a fantasy/action/adventure novel and in it my MC is on her period. Should I add in details about her dealing with it or not? I don't like the stigma attached to periods, and I want them to be more normalized in society. Talking about periods and labias/vaginas etc would be age appropriate. Thanks! Context: The MC is heavily injured and dealing with her period. This scene happens after a lot of action and drama. How would you as the reader react to descriptions of periods and do you think it would feel like extra padding?
That moment when padding sounds like a pun. Mainly commenting to watch the thread and see future responses
If this came up in a book I was reading, I would immediately be annoyed by your decision to insert your agenda. It wouldn't feel like padding so much as pandering. Like, padding is how I'd describe the way the Redwall series dealt with food. This would be more like the boob shots in the director's cut of DOOM.
How much detail did you have in mind? Unless it has a plot purpose (Like, she's posing as a man and where is that blood coming from?) I'm not immediately seeing how it would earn its keep, though I may just be missing the possibilities. I assume that you're not saying that this is her first period? Also, having her period regularly would tend to indicate, I believe, that she's reasonably well fed. Not that that's necessarily an issue.
Frankly, when I was having my periods (and I had some heavy ones, thank you), the only part of my anatomy I was thinking about was my midsection with the cramps. As far as the flow, the important part isn't where it's coming from, but where it's landing. And how soon it's gonna need changed. So "age appropriate" or no, the anatomically-correct language might come off as stuck in there simply to make an external point. Which will bounce a whole lotta readers right out of your story. Anyway, keep in mind that if your FMC is badly injured and is on her period, it's going to take a long time for her wounds to stop bleeding. And if she's somewhere where there's wild animals or some sentient creature/enemy with olfactory tracking abilities, she's going to have to make damn sure the used rags/pads/tampons get thoroughly burned or buried. If she's that hurt, that will require a good friend or nurse to take care of it. So yeah, you could make something out of this in the way of increasing your character's inconvenience and danger. But plugging it in (sorry) just to deal with a perceived stigma would be an annoyance to the reader.
I personally think talking about it in this situation is fine. But then again I am working with you. So I know more of the context. I feel the context is getting muddled. So let me reply to add some context. The situation about the injured character is decently explained but I think the writing perspective is not being told exactly right. Essentially. Since the previous part was action packed. This part is slowed down, a breathe for the reader. Dealing with her injuries reflecting on how they effect her and so on. So it is a chance to tend to her period. Like, her on her period is a plot point or rather stated previously already. The trick is how much detail should be used? Like just go for "And she tended to her period." Or have her walk to the bathroom and talk about it? How much detail? Going too slow is obviously a problem making the material feel like padding. But if the scene is a regrouping moment given her a chance to reflect on herself, then a scene of her tending to her period is almost like a scene of her digging a bullet out of her arm isn't it? No one would argue against showing that I imagine! So why not show the period? Yet Period seems taboo as a few replies may have already hinted to being turned off by it being shown in too much detail. Which is fair too. I mean, we don't need to read how many times she whipped her ass after pooping. But I think that is why the discussion was opened! How much detail? Hope that helps.
One of my manuscripts has a whole chapter revolving around the character's period pains. Nobody who read it had any issues with that chapter, including the men. There was one mention of blood but nothing about her genitals, since that wasn't relevant - it was the pains, as @Catrin Lewis said. Like most things in writing, don't put it in just for the sake of it - if it has a reason to be there, then it's earned its place. If not, then leave it out.
Only as much detail as the character reasonably would be expected to notice in the situation. So she's ambulatory after being heavily injured? Hmm. And has a bathroom she can to get to? (Sorry, I don't imagine modern bathrooms in a fantasy. My bad.) So. She's either got cramps, or she doesn't. She either says, "O crap, on top of everything else, it's my frigging time of month!" or she sucks it up and takes it in stride. Either she's got the supplies she needs to change, or she doesn't. Her flow in this scene is heavy, medium, or light, and that makes a difference. Does her period put her in a crappy mood (thus maybe alienating the person taking care of her), or does her mood lift once the flow starts? Whatever. Point is, what does it need to be for this character at this point of the story?
Oh yeah. Modern bathroom lol. In a sense the point seems to be the slowness of it. Like. The draft has no fat. Needs some fat. Too bare bones. But then again. I think Nicole is better to reply to this.
I'm with Tenderiser and Catrin. If you want to mention cramps, headaches, etc. and how they're affecting her, that's fine. I've read books that contain it, and a series of books I love mention it multiple times in every book. They have a reason though - the books are about Native Americans and the first book starts about 12000 years ago or something (there are mammoths) and follows history all the way up to modern day Native Americans (there are a lot of books). The reason it's mentioned so often is because it's critical to the women in the story. Women were 'dirty', and had to be segregated during their period. They had things called 'menstrual huts' and had to have their body and spirit cleansed before they could rejoin the tribe. They were nomadic, so travelling presented problems. Animals presented problems. Finding absorbent materials so they didn't look like a fresh kill presented problems. Not having enough food presented problems like Chicken said, and caused the tribes to fade because when you're starving you don't menstruate anymore and it's really hard to keep the population up when you can't make babies (or feed them). The point is, it was an integral part of the society - yes, in a bad way most of the time - but it needed to be mentioned. If you don't have good reasons for it, I wouldn't go beyond cramps. Even as a woman I don't really want to hear about it unless it's integral. I have enough annoyance dealing with my own, I don't want to hear about hers unless it's important.
What stigma? People get them -- same as I don't want to hear lots of detail about men's health issues, I'm not all that interested in making men hear about my period hassles. If your book is to be for guys and girls I'd keep it simple. I.e. Crap, just what I need more blood!
There is a definite stigma surrounding periods - especially teenage girls. Women being ashamed to be seen carrying a tampon/pad to the bathroom, or girls in school refusing to tell anyone they started their period. The well known nervousness of opening a pad/tampon wrapper in a public bathroom stall for fear of being heard. Men not knowing anything about periods, and thinking of them as only the stereotypes seen in memes on facebook. Hell, I know a lot of men who would refuse to buy pads/tampons for their SO because they don't want to be seen with them. And no, these are childish things either. The women's health education in America is fucked as well, as most people don't even know what a cervix is, or what to do it with it. These are important things to know about ones anatomy! Being aware of your cervix can help you identify cancer later in life. GuardianWynn explained it a bit better. By having her take care of her period, it would add some much needed fat to the story, and give the character some time to reflect on herself and on her situation. She doesn't have many of those moments. There is the added bonus of using it as a moment to educate the audience would be nice as well. And obviously I won't use the proper terms if they feel out of place - but there's not a lot of slang for the word "cervix" either. For the record - the MC will be using a menstrual cup. Since she is a warrior who travels a lot it is a lot more practical. So, the description is a lot more than just "ripping the blood soaked pad off." Lol
I dropped into this thread because I have an MC that is a woman dressed as a priest, and I'm struggling with how many of her female differences should I write about. Anyways, to respond to Trish's comment the Indians were Kickapoo and the menstrual house is Nian-Tega ani
Now I'm just really hoping you're not going to be quite so worked about it in the book. She's a warrior - who runs around naked if I'm remembering correctly? I don't think the book you describe lends itself well to teaching an anatomy lesson, and - in truth - if I wanted an anatomy lesson I'd look for it somewhere more reputable than a book about a warrior chick. Not trying to be rude, but... No. ETA: missing word that changed everything.
? I'm sorry, what? I don't think we've been reading the same thing... ETA: Okay - google is my friend, and I see who you're talking about, but then I'm not sure what that has to do with what I wrote. I was talking about tribes from when there were mammoths. Not buffalo, mammoths. And, they were likely ancestors of the ones you mention, but not them no. There are many tribes and dialects, customs and languages. Too many to attribute one specific thing to one tribe. I am part Cherokee and Apache, that doesn't mean they're the only ones who exist though.
Why would you need to refer to her cervix, though? If the menstrual cup is affecting that, she's doing it REALLY wrong! That's the crux of it, I think - the need (or lack of) to mention this in any detail. She's just been in some kind of fight, she has injuries, presumably is still in some kind of narrative danger... what kind of woman is going to be thinking more about her period than any of those things? I'd certainly be more preoccupied with blood from injuries than blood that I deal with every single month. It's hard to see how this isn't going to be feel forced/shoehorned in, especially since you have something of agenda here (which I'm totally behind, by the way - I do think there's a stigma and I do think it should be de-stigmatised. I'm just not sure this book is the right place to do it.) Readers really don't like feeling preached to...
I hear this stigma asserted a lot, but it doesn't seem any more stigmatized than any other private, bodily function. /shrug
I think you are thinking about Gemma. Lol. Nope. Not the same story or character. Actually this scene stems from a joke. Which is. A guy patched her up while she was sleeping. She wakes up and realizes she is bleeding. The guy sees the blood and is like "your stiches opened?!" And she is like. "Nope" leading to him to be like. "But... Oh!' But now that she is in the bathroom about her period. How much detail? Me and Nicole were discussing. And I argued original that since we need fluff that some nice detail on how her specific period device works might be good fluff in the low moment. True context achieved. Nicole originally argued against but got interested in going deeper into it. We both thought it would be a nice topic for the forum.
My thing is, what you have described already is enough for me. I don't need the details. I don't want the details. I will skip it (with an eye roll and a wince) if you start talking about her cervix in this context, and I won't feel bad at all. If she was in a doctors office, or having sex and her cervix gets bumped or whatever, I'm cool with that. But I don't see how you work it into talking about her period. I really don't want to witness some weird self-exam with blood everywhere or whatever it is that is in your head. ETA: I'm doing a lot of this today - sorry. I sound bitchy (@Tenderiser if you ask me if it's that time of the month I'll kill your turtle) I didn't mean it that way, I'm just really worried that it's going to sound forced and manualesque and that will be super weird.
Meh, I don't know. The guy issue you're never going to correct. Should we? -- who wants to buy ex-lax or Poise pads or a dozen other things that happen to the body but are in themselves kinda embarrassing. I don't think people should be overly embarrassed about it but I don't think we need to take the opposite route where there's this weird movement to make it more special. As natural as it is it's still also a hygiene issue.
Yes. Do you have one of those friends (or just people you know) who always has to announce that it's that time of the month, what their flow is like, whatever? It's a fact of life, but I don't really want to hear about it all the time in the same way that I don't want details about you flossing your teeth this morning. I just really don't... care.
I have to agree with the sentiments that others have given. I wouldn't care about details of a woman's period if it were relevant to the plot. Use any vocab you want, any level of description, be as graphic as is necessary. But if I get even the slightest inkling that this information is being included for no reason other than to push an agenda, then I'll stop reading.
I am interested in the mundane and practicalities, and would be interested to see how you deal with it in another setting. I am wondering whether there is an industry set up for it. What is used to catch the discharge? Who cleans what and how?
Maybe you should google what a menstrual cup is and how to use it. Also I'm not sure if you saw @GuardianWynn 's explanation, but at this point in the story her other injuries were taken care of while she was unconscious. I agree that a period shouldn't be seen as anything other than a normal, healthy, bodily function. However, if you were to ask a man to pick up toilet paper from the store he would feel no shame in grabbing a pack and walking to the register. The moment there is shame or embarrassment for grabbing a pack of pads there is a problem in society. A period is just as normal and healthy as someone defecating and it happens to 50% of the population. Granted, I don't want the piece to feel like I'm pushing an agenda. And the original question was: how much detail should I add? I think I'm going to add a fairly graphic level of detail. She is injured and in pain - but just because she's got several broken bones doesn't mean she's got somewhere else she's bleeding from. And she does have to deal with that. I also personally find some added details of the mundane interesting as well.