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I firmly believe that most of the beliefs about women not doing certain things during their menses were started by our many-many-great-grandmothers so that they'd have a couple days a month to just sit around. Think about it....
Can't cook because it might poison the food? OK
Can't work in the field because the crop might die? OK
Can't grind corn or parch wheat because it might get contaminated? OK
Can't sleep with your husband? Okaaaayyyy!
Might as well wander over to the Womens' Hut and sit around gossiping with the other ladies. Talk about the husbands for a while. Swap recipes. Braid each other's hair. Sounds like a huge sacrifice to me....
Extremely cogent observation.
When one considers historically how ignorant the respective genders were of each others physical and physiological functions, as well as basic hygiene and cleanliness, it is no wonder and very easy to see how this type of 'wisdom' was passed down.
Based on the physically demanding roles women played as 'helpmates' around the household and in the field with the lack of medical care, it is very logical for them to use this in their favor. Add the deeply religious using the old testament as a literal guidebook and these type of sayings / stories were likely amplified tremendously.
"This place is like the Collyer brothers" - big time hoarders from NYC. Langley and Homer_
Lol--that's one I've heard before. There've been a few books written about them.
There were a few rules to remember while having your period-- no baths, no gym class, no bicycle riding, and no hair washing. I heard these in the early 70s from my mother. Even then, I knew that was ridiculous. Funny, but I don't recall what the consequences were if you violated any of those rules. And violate them I did.
Of course no hats on the bed, since that can cause death. And it doesn't matter what the circumstances--never, ever wash clothes on New Years Day. Unless you want someone in your family to DIE.
My farmer in-laws didn't get a telephone until the early fifties. I noticed that his mother never answered the phone, even if she was standing right next to it, until it had rung twice. I thought maybe she had some kind of superstition that it had to ring more than once to be sure that she was connected.
Later in life I noticed that my husband did the same thing. So I asked him one day why he waited for two rings. He hadn't been aware he was doing it. But after he'd had it called to his attention he figured the habit out.
Their old phone was a party line and every family had a different ring. Theirs was two rings.
Speaking of outhouses and newfangled things, when I was growing up we had a farm in my area where two brothers and two sisters from the same family lived together all of their lives. They never had the house wired for electricity because they thought it might burn the house down.
Many people believe whatever you are doing at 12am 1/1 is what you will be doing the rest of the yr.
I notice every year that I work New years,i was generally working the rest of the yr with lots of overtime.
My grandma told me drinking flour mixed with water stopped a period. She told me to do that after I was going to cancel a hot date I had that night.
MY mom was big on not laughing at someone else's problems. She said she used to laugh at teen moms when she was 12,but then she became one herself.
I used to laugh at fat people,now I am fat myself.
My grandmother believed using a tampon was like packing a wound to stop the bleeding. She had had numerous late term miscarriages where she had to be "packed" to stop the hemorrhaging. She happened to go through menopause earlier than most women and her mind she associated this with the miscarriages and the wound packing. People of her generation were so ignorant of their own bodies.
She raised my sister and I and while she told us about menstruation, she never talked about sex AT ALL. It was for married people and a woman was supposed to just put up with sex for the sake of her husband and for procreation and that was it. I was 13 or 14 years old and heard my aunt, who had just had a baby talking to my grandmother about the stitches being itchy. I assumed she was talking about the stitches to open her up to take the baby out because how else could it get out, that's how clueless I was.
in catholic school sex-ed my teacher (a nun) told us that sex was a sin even for married couples unless they are trying to get pregnant. and that the man had to be on top for everything (including sex).
My grandmother always said to watch out for the folks who sat in the front church pews because they were the biggest backstabbers.
Hmmmm, in many cases I found out she was right (!).
Also, my mother always said if you cut your hair shorter, it would come in thicker. I was always jealous of my sister's long pony tail while I had a shorter bob.
in catholic school the nun told us that men cannot wear hats in church whereas women must wear hats or a handkerchief in church (most of the girls didnt wear hats when we were in mass that i remember). the reason was something about how women cant look directly in the face of god and why nuns had to wear habits.
A man I used to work with, his mother in law lived her whole life in a rural farm area in Germany. When the family was installing indoor plumbing, she flatly refused permission to install a toilet. "S**t in the house, are you crazy"?!?, was her outraged response. They installed the pipes and covered it all up until after she died, then installed a toilet.
back in the day a lot of people preferred out houses because they didnt want to infect the kitchen with bad waste.
Quote:
water ?, you mean like from the toilet ?
Last edited by stanley-88888888; 11-28-2016 at 07:50 AM..
My mom/grandmother believed doing splits or falling in a certain way would break the hymen. But I don't think they confused no hymen and not a virgin. Or at least I don't think so.
I remember being told all the time the most unappealing part of food (bread crust, chicken skin, burnt parts, etc) was the healthiest.
My dad actually believed you should put butter on a burn and wouldn't believe differently.
I am sure more will pop in my head soon.
I had a friends who said their parents told them that eating the crust and heels of bread would either a) make them taller, or b) make their hair curly! Still not enough to make ME eat the heel!
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. I heard these in the early 70s from my mother. Even then, I knew that was ridiculous. Funny, but I don't recall what the consequences were if you violated any of those rules. And violate them I did.
