A Brief Theology of Periods (Yes, Really)

We need to talk about periods. After all, everyone else is.

Ok, so I’ll admit that having just published a book on the subject, my search history has probably skewed the algorithms of my news feeds.

But I really don’t think this is just me. The last few years have seen an explosion of books, podcasts and articles on the topic of menstruation. Social media is full of lively conversations on issues such as period poverty, the tampon tax, free bleeding, environmentally-friendly period products, health inequalities, the gender pain gap, menopause, specific conditions such as endometriosis, and what to call the people who have periods – women, menstruators, or something else? Even the most recent but yet-to-be-released James Bond film No Time to Die almost featured a scene where a female agent threw a tampon in the bin. In the words of journalist Jonathan Dean, ‘Nothing shows how much Bond, and indeed the world, has changed more than a testosterone-filled blockbuster wondering if the time is right for a bit on periods’ (‘What Next for James Bond?’, The Sunday Times Culture Magazine, 8 March 2020). And with world Menstrual Hygiene Day being celebrated on 28 May, my guess is that by the time you’re reading this, periods will have hit the headlines again.

Everything has an angle

Here’s the thing: nothing we read or watch or listen to is ideologically neutral. Everything comes with its own implicit messages about what’s good, what’s bad and what’s important in life in general.

Take, for example, the conversation around the concept of ‘menstrual leave’—the idea that employers should allow women time off during their periods or the opportunity to work flexibly around their cycles. 21st-century women aren’t quite sure what to make of it. On the one hand, journalist Emma Barnett says that ‘it’s just silly that women are still in a position where they are made to feel that the ideal worker body is male, and so any sign of femaleness must be concealed’ (Period, HQ 2019, p.129). Why should the way we work be set up to suit men best and not women? But on the other hand, she says that most of her friends ‘have wrinkled their nose in disgust at the idea of preferential treatment, or being treated as disabled in some way for the duration of their period’ (p.124). It would place women at a disadvantage if they were seen as less employable than men.

Which leaves us with a tension: the acknowledgement that men and women may have different needs versus the desire to compete on equal terms in all regards and excel. So which is it? Should I ‘own’ my periods and fight for them to be acknowledged, or should I just power through as though they’re an irrelevance?

The Bible’s unique answer

It’s a paradox we can see in so much of today’s narrative around women’s rights. And it’s a paradox to which the Bible has a uniquely freeing – but countercultural – answer. Only the Christian worldview can resolve the tension. This is because, first, in the Christian worldview weakness is not despised. ‘Weak’ is something that most of us are desperate not to be. But our physical and emotional limits are part of being human; we were never designed to be limitless. And Christians follow a Saviour who saved us through taking on weakness, and who now displays His grace and power in His people through their weakness.

And second, in the Christian worldview, men and women are complementary to one another, not in competition with one another. The Bible is clear that in God’s good design the two sexes are different, and sometimes we’ll have different needs. That doesn’t in itself leave women at a disadvantage. Granted, in a fallen world, which doesn’t value all the things God values, it might. But in a Christian community, which loves the things God loves, it shouldn’t.

And that, ultimately, is why I wrote a Christian book about periods. They aren’t just the preserve of social-media virtue signalling; they’re the lived experience of my sisters in Christ. Maybe you’re someone for whom this area is a real struggle. And if you’re not, then it almost certainly is for someone you sit alongside on a Sunday. What we might euphemistically call ‘women’s problems’ are discipleship issues. And that means they’re worth talking about.

Rachel Jones is an editor at The Good Book Company and author of several books including Is This It? and Five Things to Pray in a Global Crisis.