The Curse Quotes

“1980. My friend Ellen and I went to Africa in 1980. We were being led around a Dogon village in Mali when our guide came to the women’s menstrual hut. He explained that when a woman was menstruating she was unclean, and as a result wasn’t involved in her usual activities. She would stay in the hut with other women who were menstruating. They’d hang out, sitting on a sheet, which periodically they’d wash out. They didn’t have sex with their husbands because the husband could get sick and die. Ellen took great issue with this, informing the guide of the countless times she and her husband (boyfriend, but he didn’t need to know that) had sex while she was bleeding, and he never got sick. Neither one believed the other and there was much shaking of heads at strange cultures, but privately, Ellen and I agreed that hanging out with other women for a few days once a month doing nothing sounded pretty good. ”
― Dianna Cohen, The Curse: Stories, Poems, Musings and Snatches of Conversation About Getting Your Period