The menstrual cycle is a natural part of being a woman. Most cultures still refuse to name it directly. The International Women’s Health Coalition and the period-tracking application Clue surveyed the world in 2015 and found roughly 5,000 euphemisms for menstruation across just ten languages. Five thousand ways to avoid four syllables.
Psychologists
Ingrid Johnston-Robledo and Joan C. Chrisler explained, in their research on
menstrual stigma, that if there were no shame attached to the word, there would
be no need to call it anything other than its actual name. Every “Aunt Flo,” every “Code Red,” every “time
of the month” exists because the simple word carries a social cost the
euphemism avoids. That cost is not
evenly distributed. It falls on the
person menstruating, asked to manage everyone else’s discomfort with her own
biology.
The Global Sample
Afrikaans
speakers say Granny is stuck in traffic.
Chinese speakers say the old friend has come. Danish speakers say the Russians have
arrived. French speakers say the English
have landed. The imagery runs from the
domestic to the geopolitical, but the function stays identical everywhere:
substitute anything – an ally, an enemy, a household relative – rather than say
the word. Punjabi carries one of the
starkest entries on record, “untouchable,” a euphemism that does not soften the
taboo so much as state it outright.
Ghana’s
Akan people offer the clearest counterexample.
Linguist Kofi Agyekum’s 2002 study of Akan menstrual language found the
official phrase used to inform an Asante queen mother that a girl in her
jurisdiction has had her first period is “ɔ-a-yɛbra,” which translates
literally as “she has been made perfect.”
Menstruation is framed as arrival, not affliction. The same culture also carries euphemisms
describing menstruation as toxic and polluting elsewhere in its vocabulary,
proving stigma and reverence can sit inside the same language at once, but the
Asante court’s own chosen phrase shows a euphemism can just as easily elevate
the thing it names instead of hiding it.
A
euphemism is never neutral. It is a
measurement of exactly how uncomfortable a culture is with a biological
function half the population lives through monthly for decades. Most of the 5,000 recorded terms measure
discomfort. One Asante phrase measures
the opposite, and the gap between the two tells you everything about which
culture made peace with what it was naming.
Afrikaans
“Granny is
stuck in traffic”
“Granny is in the red car.”
“Birthing a blood diamond.”
Arabic
“The monthly habit.”
Brazilian
Portuguese
“I am with
Chico.”
Chilean Spanish
“The rabbit has been stabbed.”
Chinese
“Regular holiday.”
“Little sister
has come.”
“The old friend has come.”
Danish
“Aunt Red is here.”
“Painters are on the stairway.”
“The Communists are in the funhouse.”
“The Russians have arrived.”
“The Red Sea.”
Dutch
“Monthly party.”
“The egg yolk has dropped to the bottom.”
English
“Aunt Flo/Aunt Flow.”
“Bloody Mary.”
“Carrie.”
“Code Red.”
“Having the painters in.”
“Girl flu.”
“Lady business.”
“Lady time.”
“Making wine
tonight; no stomping on the grapes.”
“Monthly visitor.”
“Moon time”
“Mother Nature’s gift.”
“No circus tonight; the monkey has a
nosebleed.”
“On the rag.”
“Red Army/tide.”
“Riding the cotton pony.”
“Shark week.”
“Surfing the
crimson tide/wave.”
“The Blob.”
“The oven is being cleaned.”
“The red badge of courage.”
“The Red
Baron.”
“The
Redcoats are coming.”
“Time of the
month.”
French
“Cooking black pudding.”
“Crime scene in my panty.”
“Ketchup week.”
“Niagara Falls.”
“Strawberry season.”
“Technical control.”
“The British Army has landed in my panty.”
“The little clown with a nosebleed.”
“The English
have landed.”
“VOO (Vaginally Out of Order).”
Finnish
“Japan is attacking.”
“Mad Cow Disease.”
German
“Monthly oil change.”
“Smells like fish.”
“Strawberry Week.”
“The cranberry woman is coming.”
“The Red Army has arrived.”
“The red plague is here.”
“Tomato juice.”
Greek
“The Russians are in town.”
Irish
“The decorators are in.”
“The painters are in the hallway.”
Italian
“Guests/relatives have come (to visit).”
“I have my things.”
“Red Sea.”
“The Flood.”
Portuguese
“Benfica is playing (Portuguese football
club with a red flag)”
“I am with Chico.”
“Raining on the farm.”
“Red traffic light.”
“The basin is broken.”
“The home team is playing (in red jerseys).”
Punjabi
“Untouchable.”
Romanian
“Bitten by a rooster.”
“I have guests.”
Russian
“Business.”
“The Red Army.”
“The red day of the calendar.”
Spanish
“Defrosting the steak.”
“Like a tomato.”
“Red traffic light.”
“The rule.”
“I’m with Andrew, the one who comes once a
month.” Spanish: “Andrés, el que
viene cada mes.”
Turkish
“The motherland is bleeding. “
“My aunt has come.”
Terence Nunis, DTM | Division Advisor, District
80 Division M | Club Advisor, AIA Toastmasters | Past President & Founder,
Awesome Toastmasters
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