Menstruation

Leviticus 15:19-20  When a woman has a discharge of blood that is her regular discharge from her body, she shall be in her impurity for seven days, and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening.  Everything upon which she lies during her impurity shall be unclean; everything also upon which she sits shall be unclean.

Sort of brings to mind a bloody version of Midas and his golden touch. "...and when MidAH went to touch her bed, it was suddenly unclean."

Menstruation has always had a taboo about it. Women aren't supposed to talk about when they have it to men especially. The Ashanti tribe appear have puberty rites only for females and when they receive their period for the first time the mother runs out of the house and announces it to the entire tribe. That's the only time they are excited about I guess, because if a menstruating women went to the wrong place with her "unclean" body she could be killed.

Here's an interesting story about menstruation (don't hear that everyday, eh?).

In 1996, during the running of the 100th Boston Marathon, Uta Pippig, the first woman to cross the finish line, had visible menstrual blood and sever menstrual cramps. The commentators on radio and TV called it "physical problems and diarrhea" and some called it "stomach pain." One reporter for the Boston Globe wrote in her article about the event that she "bled all the way from Hopkinton to Boston" and was criticized by readers and her peers.