22-Year-Old Guy Believes Periods Come From Butts, Mansplains How Anatomy Works When His Date Doesn't Agree With Him

Anyone who’s in the dating game knows it can always turn sour for whatever reason. But this 20-year-old woman who goes by the Reddit handle Throwingawaylateeer has surely been caught by surprise after her 22-year-old date made a bizarre statement.

While spending time at the author’s place, the dude “said how he thought it was so strange that women give birth through the vagina but have periods from their butts.”

“I asked him what he meant by that and he said again exactly what he had said before. I kind of smiled, assuming he was very much just joking, and said 'oh yeah, so weird' thinking that he was going to start laughing soon to end the joke,” the author wrote in a now-viral post on r/AITA.

But there was no end to that joke, ‘cause apparently, it was no joke at all. Scroll down through the rest of this story and be sure to share your thoughts about the incident in the comment section!

This story shed a light on how big the gap in men’s knowledge of women’s and trans people’s menstrual cycles really is. A new study commissioned by Intimina and conducted by YouGov surveyed 1,091 American males and found that a minority, only 41% of men, could correctly identify what exactly menstruation is. Its findings were pretty shocking. In fact, 52% believed a menstrual cycle lasts anywhere between 1-6 days, when in fact a menstrual cycle is between 23-35 days. The fact was correctly identified by only 20% of men.

Moreover, when respondents were asked to describe what having a period would feel like, a leading 40% said they would feel physical pain, followed by 36% revealing that a period would have no effect on them at all. And when it comes to menstrual hygiene, a whopping 65% of men said they have no idea what a menstrual cup is or how it works. Similarly, 33% of men believed a box of 36 tampons costs from $13 to $20.

To find out more about the huge gap in men’s knowledge of menstruation and what can be done about it, we spoke with Danela Zagar, the Global Brand Manager at INTIMINA,  a company that commissioned the illuminating survey quoted above. “So many organizations and brands worldwide are opening conversations about menstruation to reduce the stigma surrounding it. Still, it seems men still struggle to understand this significant function of women's bodies. Despite many campaigns educating the public of the need to take down the taboos surrounding menstruation—by talking about menstruation, the survey shows that more than a third of men are uncomfortable talking openly about menstruation with women,” she said.

“The fact that there are barriers in starting conversations on periods shows men need to be educated on this subject more. More than half of respondents say they have learned about periods from their partners. But still, so many misconceptions are in place,” Danela explained.

Having said that, it’s encouraging that almost every man thinks it is important to educate boys about menstruation. “However, still, 40% would not feel comfortable talking to their teenage daughters about it. According to the survey, the top three reasons men gave for not talking about periods are: they don't think it's right for men to talk to women about periods; they feel too uncomfortable talking about periods; they don't understand enough about the period.”

According to Danela Zagar, the only way to reduce the feeling of shame and the stigma surrounding menstruation is by talking about it. “Especially with men. Educating men on menstruation is not only a job our education systems should be doing, but a job for every partner, wife, sister and daughter."

Moreover, Danela said that "periods should be discussed as a normal function of the female body, and it should be called by its name, without euphemisms such as Aunt Flow. Talking and educating about it is the solution to breaking period taboos."