Why were women considered "Unclean"?
By ParaTed2k
@ParaTed2k (22940)
Sheboygan, Wisconsin
December 13, 2010 5:49pm CST
In our modern era of easy and convenient feminine hygiene, it's hard to imagine how any culture could consider a women "unclean" simply because she was having a period. I mean, nowadays you really have to know a woman pretty well to even know she's having one.
However, back in the "unclean" days, most women didn't venture out while menstruating. When they did, it was not a rare thing for them to leave drops of blood behind. It wasn't so much that she was doing something that comes natural to almost every women when she enters puberty. It was because she was, in fact, unclean.
Feminine hygiene has come a long way, but in reality, it was only the 60s and 70s when a woman could even swim or wear form fitting clothes during her "visit from Aunt Flo". smaller pads and tampons have made today's women so much more free, most of us can't imagine why that freedom wasn't always theirs.
So, before you go being too harsh on the past, make sure you understand some of the reasoning. Now, it doesn't explain every reason women weren't allowed to enjoy the freedom men did. However, it's difficult to demand equality when one week every month you are too busy riding the crimson wave.
1 person likes this
5 responses
@PastorP (1170)
• United States
14 Dec 10
One can add to this, if we are speaking of the Torah, that a male was unclean if he had a nocturnal emission. Albeit, the "down time" was less. Now, in Christ, with the Law fulfilled and its principles released, in Christ there is neither male nor female in these respects.
@IntrovertShy (2780)
• Marikina, Philippines
14 Dec 10
Oh. You said, "neither male nor female"? ...
PastorP, how about this? I have just read it in one of the forum.
"When a woman has her regular flow of blood, the impurity of her monthly period will last seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean till evening. Anything she lies on during her period will be unclean, and anything she sits on will be unclean. Whoever touches her bed must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening. Whether it is the bed and anything she was sitting on, when anyone touches it, he will be unclean till evening" (Lev. 15:19-23)
and this one ...
"A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and become a sinner" (I Timothy 2:11-14)
PastorP, I think from the past up to modern days, women are still not free. That is what I feel. I also feel that men and women are still not equal in the society although, there are some people thought that men and women are equal, but I still feel that we are not free.
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@rosegardens (3032)
• United States
14 Dec 10
I believe it was not only the issue of blood women suffered, but also the potential for disease that came with it. There was no running water, and where there was, an unclean woman did not dare bathe in it. The Crimson Wave is warm, moist and dark. A perfect place for pathogens to reside. Because the ability to wash was so limited, especially in desert regions, a woman could risk some form of infection and pass it on to others quite unwittingly.
That is why the ritual cleansing was so important. It wasn't only a prayer and to wash away sin, but to wash period. To make clean body and soul and not pass on anything that could cause an epidemic.
Besides all that, if you cannot wash regularly hands get dirty and if she did do anything to mop up the mess, her hands would be soiled with blood. Blood was a no-no for people to consume or touch. Sounds nasty, yes. But in those days, the common people did not have access to water to wash with daily.
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@ParaTed2k (22940)
• Sheboygan, Wisconsin
15 Dec 10
True, it was customary to only bathe once a week or so. Hand washing is really a relatively new concept. Blood was consider "dirty", but blood born pathogens were not only not a concern, even doctors scoffed at any thought of them.
@ParaTed2k (22940)
• Sheboygan, Wisconsin
15 Dec 10
I was more referring to the last paragraph in your comment... about blood born nasties :~D
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@rosegardens (3032)
• United States
15 Dec 10
They bathed weekly in biblical times? I really did think the concept of bathing regularly was more recent, except of course the ritual bathing of the Hebrews and those who followed the Jewish law. I'm going to have to look up bathing in biblical times.
@academic2 (7000)
• Uganda
15 Dec 10
We all can understand the historical premise of these negative
social perceptions against women. But those were the evolutionary days-a woman is still the most beautiful and most desirable thing that God cared to create.The stereotyping against women were perpetrated by male chauvinists who were bent on exalting their gender at the expense of women. In my culture, men did not only treat women as unclean and rather second rate citizens, but they also denied them certain privileges on the basis of their gender. I grew up to find my mother not eating chicken-she would cook a delicious dish of chicken but would never taste it-infact i recall she would call bigger boys to taste the salt because it was a taboo to taste even the soup to know whether the salt was enough or not!! Am glad all these repugnant attitudes against women are dying away slowly and women and also fighting back!
@ParaTed2k (22940)
• Sheboygan, Wisconsin
15 Dec 10
Oh, my point here is not to try to diminish true sexism and hatred towards women. I'm simply pointing out that not all of what we would consider discrimination was based on hatred or even sexism. The fact was, women often left drops of blood on floors and chairs. If a woman did that today, we probably wouldn't use it to prove all women are unclean, but we would have our doubts about the cleanliness of that particular woman. Don't you think?
Women were also considered less than men because adults only had the value they produced in a community. If you hired a woman today, but she couldn't work during her period, how long would you be willing to keep her employed? It was only within the last few decades that women were able to be as productive on a regular basis as men.
The fact is, no one and nothing has done more for women's rights than the invention of mini pads and tampons.
@sudiptacallingu (10879)
• India
15 Dec 10
Let me first admit that being a women myself, I do consider myself and feel very very unclean when I get my period…ideally on those days, I’d just love to keep to myself and not do anything at all! However, my feelings are completely to do with my personal irritation (like millions of girls across the globe) and nothing to do with religion. To me, if God has indeed made women this way, then there is a definite biological explanation to it and God will accept me the way I am! The only explanation I can think of is that all religions and religious books are man made and are full of anything and everything men could think of to downgrade women.
Yes, feminine hygiene has come a long way and we really have to thank science for that..also, I must admit that I cant imagine how some women in those days managed to be so adventurous and free moving inspite of the inherent disadvantages…just goes to prove that women are indeed stronger than men…maybe our forefathers knew this all along and hence all the more shackles and chains on us…(random thoughts)
@sudiptacallingu (10879)
• India
15 Dec 10
Yes, PastorP’s reply is a revelation…never came across such beliefs that even men could be considered unclean by anyone!!!
I think religion has to be dragged into this mainly coz this entire thing of women being inferior and weak and submissive and unclean…all negative adjectives are found in all religious books. What if all along women had asserted themselves and were the masters…would they still be considered unclean, blood stains or not???!!!
yes, its true that till we understand the reasons behind PMS, some women do come across possessed or irritable for no apparent cause. However, considering the advancement in feminine hygiene and the fact that today its impossible to say if a woman is riding the crimson wave or not (nice way of describing this)… it seems we are back to square one LOL… completely at a loss as to why that colleague of mine is in such a foul mood
@ParaTed2k (22940)
• Sheboygan, Wisconsin
15 Dec 10
oh, and apologies for saying that I didn't bring up religion. I just noticed that I put this under the Religion category. lol
@ParaTed2k (22940)
• Sheboygan, Wisconsin
15 Dec 10
Please read the comments from PastorP about the fact that there is was a period of "unclean" for both men and women back in OT times. It's interesting to me that I didn't mention religion or the Bible, but they seem to have come up in a lot of comments.
When we look at the whole PMS and moodiness involved in women's cycles, it comes as no surprise to me that people considered women on their periods pretty "unnatural". I mean, if you couldn't use modern understanding of feminine anatomy and physiology to explain your actions and thoughts, would you be able to help someone else understand?
@Jezebella (1446)
• United States
14 Dec 10
I think back in the "unclean" days people didnt understand that it was natural. And I mean I still consider myself unclean because I do bleed, things get messy. I think back then women didn't go out in public because of that. Because if she was working the in the fields while leaving droplets of blood...the food could get blood on it or the cotten for the clothes or whatever else. That just meant the men had to do more work ;)
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@ParaTed2k (22940)
• Sheboygan, Wisconsin
15 Dec 10
The more agrarian the culture, the more freedom women had. Part of that was how much more women took part in the daily activities, but also because, well, leaving drops of blood in the dirt didn't leave a lot of evidence. In the US, the more agrarian a state was, the more rights women had. If you look at the history of Women's suffrage you'll learn that the industrial based states were the last to allow women to vote, while the ranch based states were the first (namely, Wyoming and Utah).
