Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language

Sex and bodily effluvia 165
At this time too, the husband is forbidden to engage in ceremonies or, of
course, have sexual relations with his wife. The management of taboos on
menstruation has similarities with the management of other taboos among the
Navajos; for instance, a man must also practise sexual abstinence when
hunting. Blood and hair from a butchered deer (but not domesticated sheep
or cattle) have to be carefully handled and disposed of well outside the
dwelling, and all traces washed off the butcher, or the effects on the mind
and body can be disastrous – giving rise to madness and cancer.
Restrictions on a woman’s normal behaviour while she is menstruating are
common across communities. Tabooed behaviour includes: sexual relations
with a man, preparing food for a man (though perhaps females and boys may
be cooked for), and entering sacred places or touching sacred and revered
objects. Hence the Akan euphemisms for menstruation cabu ne nsa ‘she has
broken her hand’, cnkc gya ho ‘she does not go to the kitchen’, cnwe bosom
so nam ‘she does not eat meat from the shrine’, cnkc ahemfie ‘she does not
go to the palace’. One of the commonest Akan euphemisms is ne nsa kc n’akyi
‘her hand has gone to her back’; 57 this may not only reflect the manual
constraints imposed upon her, but also the response to backache that is a
common experience. One of the least explicable restrictions is that forty years
ago, in Australia, girls were advised not to wash their hair when menstruating.
To some contemporary feminists, the menstruation taboo seems an outrageous
denigration of womanhood:
menstruation [would] have been the locus for glorification had it been the experience
of men. (Spender 1984: 200)
The only peculiarly male effluvium is male ejaculate which – when it is
someone else’s – women find less revolting than men do. 58 It is not too
difficult to guess why menstrual blood and male ejaculate are regarded so
differently today, as they were among the ancient Israelites. According to the
Bible, a woman who comes in contact with semen is only unclean till evening,
but the man who comes in contact with menstrual blood is unclean for seven
days.
16 And if any man’s seed of copulation go out from him, then he shall wash all his
flesh in water, and be unclean until the even. 17 And every garment, and every skin,
whereon is the seed of copulation, shall be washed with water, and be unclean until the
even. 18 The woman also with whom man shall lie with seed of copulation, they shall
both bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the even. (Leviticus 15: 16–18)
It is naive to dismiss men’s reaction to menstrual blood as simple gynophobia,
and leave it at that. The taboos often inconvenience men as well as women (if
not as much). Most likely, a menstruating woman is set apart for a combination
of some or all of the following reasons: