16 Times Women Had To Explain How The Female Body Works

Kasia Mikolajczak
Women in a sunflower field
Unsplash | Antonino Visalli

As a woman, I've heard my share of stereotypical talk, especially when it comes to the female body. How many times can you remember a boy or even a man saying something pretty ridiculous about menstruation? Oh my goodness, ha, ha.

So when I recently stumbled upon a Reddit thread that asked, "Women of Reddit, What's your 'That's not how women work' moment?" I just had to share it with my fellow ladies. Check these funny answers below and have a good laugh.

This Quick Solution

woman swimming on her back
Unsplash | Haley Phelps

"The first guy I dated wanted to go swimming, but I told him no because I started my period and felt sore and crampy. He asked me if I could finish it before the end of the day so we could go swimming the next day…bruh, I wish it was that easy!"

I know, right?

This Innocent Confusion

period pad with box
Unsplash | Natracare

"Had a very amusing convo with a gentleman once. Dude was confused about why we would need pads. He asked why we didn't just go to the toilet more often on our periods. He thought that we were able to hold our period in line as you do with pee and pads are only if accidents happen. So his reasoning is that if women would be more careful we wouldn't need menstrual products. Props to him, he was apologetic after I explained it to him and overall respectful."

Aww, this poor uninformed guy.

This Biology Class Fail

woman holding pregnant belly
Unsplash | Anastasiia Chepinska

"My ex-husband asked me why I hadn't had my period in a while... I was eight months pregnant."

Hmm, I wonder why he's an ex-husband. Am I right? Okay, I'm sure it wasn't the reason but still, ha, ha.

This Misinformation

contraception pills
Unsplash | Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition

"When my ex and I discussed how the morning-after pill worked and he was genuinely surprised that women don't know whether they are pregnant the day after unprotected sex. He was sure morning sickness would kick in the day after."

If only it were that easy, huh?

This Reality Check

woman saying "it's kind of unbelievable."
Giphy

"Person on TV gives birth. Five minutes later, belly is flat and back to normal. THAT'S NOT HOW THAT WORKS."

Ugh, how many times have you had to explain that to some misinformed guy, huh? Women's bodies are incredible, and the fact they can even snap back into shape is astounding.

This Uninformed Comment

woman in bed
Unsplash | Yuris Alhumaydy

"My (male) manager at a past job tried to tell me when I was pregnant that morning sickness shouldn't affect my work because it only happened in the morning."

Yeah, tell that to any woman who has been suffering from morning sickness all day long for weeks at a time. I dare you.

This Apparent Trick

woman doing yoga
Unsplash | Dane Wetton

"An old boyfriend once explained that if I was having cramps, I just needed to do what his ex did: 'There's this one yoga pose that will make that shift in the uterus that usually takes a few days to happen in just a few minutes. It drops, and then your period is done in one day instead of four or five.' He couldn't elaborate any further, (what 'shifts'? What 'drops'?) But he swore he was 100% right his ex cut her period down to one day with yoga."

Um, okay, how come I haven't heard of this sorcery here?

This Misinformed Mom

woman laughing while spilling her drink
Giphy

"I heard this with my own two poor ears from my own mother: 'When a woman shaves her leg, hair shouldn't start growing until the next 4 or 5 days. Only men grow hair every day.' MOOOM!"

Is that right? I wish, ha, ha

This Period Advice

woman in the shower
Unsplash | No Revisions

"My boyfriend told me to shower in cold water so my period would temporarily stop."

Okay, and how does that work again? What does taking a cold shower have to do with your period? That's what I would like to know, hee-hee.

This Stereotypical Thinking

two people talking
Unsplash | Brooke Cagle

"When a guy commented on a post asking what women think and said women only care about looks. Like sure, some people of either gender are like that. But I surely don’t care if he’s a 10/10 if he can’t hold a conversation."

True dat!

This Ignorant Comment

woman confused
Giphy | Harlem

"I was complaining about my period, and this awful guy goes 'Just [pee] it out.'"

Why in the world do guys think that we can push our period out as we do with pee and then it's over with, huh? It's pretty unbelievable.

This Insane Suggestion

bathroom
Unsplash | Buchen WANG

"I have a friend who works for the state government. She can confirm that some high-ranking dude in our state government thinks that women should just hold in their periods and let it out during their bathroom breaks."

I honestly wish that this guy could experience having a period just for one day.

This TV Scenario

confused woman
Giphy | ALLBLK

"Had a guy friend in college who seriously thought women leaked blue liquid during their periods, like what you see in maxi pad commercials."

Ha, ha, I can't stop laughing at that.

This Funny Comment

hand holding money
Unsplash | Jp Valery

"My (female) BFF (male) was my date to the prom. Because of my awful luck, I happened to be on my period. As we exited my car, I grabbed a handful of tampons to toss in my clutch and my date asked me 'Omg are you having eight periods??' Yeah, he thought you used 1 tampon per menstrual cycle. If only — the $ I would have saved over the years!"

We all could have saved ourselves so much money, ha, ha.

This Breast Milk Confusion

woman shaking head in disbelief
Giphy | TrueReal

"The best situation I can think of was something a friend of mine said once. His sister was breastfeeding and said something like 'I don’t know if I have enough left' to her baby. So my friend kindly suggested that someone else can volunteer and asked me. I said well I’m not lactating, since I don’t have a baby and he was honestly shocked to learn that only women who actually gave birth are able to breastfeed. He was convinced every woman just casually has boobs full of breastmilk at all times. He was 25 at that time. I will never forget this."

Can you even believe that?

This Period Lesson

woman lying on the couch holding stomach in pain
Pexels | Pexels

"I was on my period and I had horrible cramps. One of my guy friends came over to keep me company but he wasn't really prepared for how much pain I was in. I was crying because it hurt so bad and the poor guy really wanted to help but didn't know what to do so he just suggested that I 'push out all the blood at once bc that usually helped him when trying to stop a nosebleed.

After he said that I looked at him like 'wtf' and he said 'What? Doesn't it stop hurting once all the blood is out?' I explained to him what happens to a female body when we get our period and he was just shocked, it kinda cheered me up tho because I thought it was hilarious."

OMG!

Wow, I'm really speechless here.

Oprah saying "lets have a talk."
Giphy | Apple TV+

Can you believe all these misconceptions and false information about women's bodies? I mean, where does it come from, eh? Some of these made me shake my head in sheer disbelief and others made me laugh out loud. Perhaps if we start talking about women's bodies without stigma we can educate a lot more people. What do you think?