Periods in books...and I ain't talking time

Last time I was here on the island I talked about butt cracks (just when you thought I couldn’t go lower) this time I am going to talk about periods. No I am not talking about time periods, I am talking about (yeah you guessed it, I’m totally going there) menstruation in books. So if you’re stopping by DIK during your lunch hour you may want to come back later- it’s gonna get messy.

My first book that talked about women’s periods was “Are you there God? It’s me Margaret” by Judy Blume. I think a lot of girls read this one. No big surprises there, just a story about a girl growing up, going through puberty and dealing with family life. Sweet.

The next time I was exposed to periods in books was Zebra historical romance books (when I was about eleven years old or so). These stories didn’t elaborate and almost always were about the woman being pregnant and missing her period or having it and not producing an heir.

Then when I was about 14 or 16 I read a book that scarred me for life as I believe it did all the young readers (and there were dozens of us in my high school alone). This book was not a romance per se, but it did evolve around a teen romance gone wrong. The book included a long and graphic sex scene where the teen boy goes down on his girlfriend during her period-during her very heavy period. It’s a bloody mess but he loves it and so does she.

Anyone who’s read the book has already guessed it by now. The book is “Endless Love” by Scott Spencer, which in the 1980’s was made into a movie starring Brooke Shields (I’ve never seen the movie but I assume the bloody muff diving scene was not in it).

Not until the past two years have I again encountered menstruation in fiction books. Most recently I read an erotic ménage a trios book “Surrender” by Kimberly Zant that included the heroine having her period – near the end of her period she and the hero have sex. The story includes them washing and cleaning the slight mess after the sex scene.

Even more recently I’ve found it in urban fantasy/paranormal books. And this is the area that has (to my knowledge, which I grant isn’t that extensive) largely been ignored. In both the Night Huntress series by Jeanine Frost and the Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire series it is mentioned a few times that the male vampires can ‘scent’ the human beings crotches (does that make them Crotch Connoisseurs?), know and get turned on by them during the woman’s period (vampire Bill in the Sookie Stackhouse series, fangs ran out of his mouth the moment he scented her period- protruding fangs mean a vampire is horny in this series- or they want to feed- in this case it was both at the same time!).

If vampires were real this would be a given right? Once a month women would be Happy Meals on legs. Eww gross I know, but never the less in the world of vampires you know it would drive them stark raving mad. So why isn’t it mentioned more in paranormal books? Too gross? Too much information? Is it a line that shouldn’t be crossed? Are authors or publishers afraid of it? Readers repelled by it? Are all things menstruation still a huge taboo in society, even in paranormal fiction?

Why the hell did I write all that about periods? Because I am curious how other readers feel about the subject. It’s like the ‘condom-in-romance’ issue I think. Some people want the romance to be realistic and the author to take a moment and make sure the couple (or more) are having safe sex so they want the detail of a condom in the story. Sometimes merely putting on the condom adds to the sexual tension of the sex scene.

What about women’s periods? Do we need that mentioned in the story for authenticity? Do we want to know when our heroine has her period? Do we want to know if she’s having cramps and bloating? Is that all TMI? Do we want to see our hero running to the store for some tampons for his lady love the way we read about him stocking up on condoms?

I’ve got mixed feelings on the issue. I was sort of glad when authors Jeanine Frost and Charlaine Harris mentioned the vampires taking distinct note of the heroine’s menstruation cycles. It fit with the story and I can’t be the only one to wonder how vampires and menstruation might combine in a paranormal story (or am I??).

That said, I can honestly say I wish author Scott Spencer had yanked that bloody muff diving scene out of his book. To date that is still the most graphic, turn me green sex scene I’ve ever read and I don’t feel it was that important to the story, but I do know others who say it was. The sex scene (in their opinion) proved how far obsessed the ‘hero’ was with the heroine and that the hero was mentally unstable- but that’s another discussion.

So what are your thoughts on books depicting or merely mentioning menstruation? TMI?

**all photos from GOOGLE IMAGES**