Silencing other women

I have been shovelling out my hall cupboards so I genuinely have no idea how this current twitter disagreement got started or why everyone is either tweeting their menstrual cycle or not as the case may be. 

Now, I don't tend to tweet about my period. At least when I do, it's to recommend the mooncup for people who ask. I follow women who tweet their periods every month. I follow women who would be horrified by that. I follow women who do not menstruate because of biology and other women who use birth control to prevent bleeding. We all know not all women menstruate so, frankly, I'm finding this disagreement baffling.

What concerns me about the debate that I can see on my twitter timeline right now is the silencing of women. When did it become acceptable for women to tell other women whether or not they can publicly discuss something which happens to their bodies?

FFS, we live in a culture which treats women's bodies as dirty and ugly. How many adult woman can't even use the words vagina and vulva in public? How many young girls are taught that their vagina is dirty? How many young women undergo surgery to make their vulvas look "real"? We are raising a generation of girls who are learning about their bodies online, from websites dedicated to male sexuality. We have a generation of girls who have no idea just how huge the definition of "normal" is as it pertains to the physical realities of their bodies but who are also taught not to ask questions because it's "gross".

Are we really at the point where women aren't allowed to discuss what happens to their own bodies because other women might not like it? 

Where does this stop?

Do we prevent women from breastfeeding publicly because some women aren't able to? 

Do we stop pregnant women discussing their pregnancies in public because some women aren't able to get pregnant?

Do we pretend that menses can't cause serious consequences for women who have serious mental health conditions?

Do we ignore the realities of abortion because some women cannot conceive?

Do we prevent women from discussing their miscarriages because it makes other women uncomfortable?

Do we prevent women from discussing breast cancer because it makes other women uncomfortable?

Do we pretend that menopause doesn't cause serious physical problems for some women so as not make other women over-anxious? 

People talk publicly on twitter about things they would never dream of discussing in real life. Twitter isn't always a comfortable place to be but its a lot more honest about the realities of women's bodies than other spaces. We cannot demand women not talk about issues that are important to them because someone else doesn't like it. Self-care is important and twitter has those handy unfollow/block buttons for those who need it but asking other women to never talk on twitter about the physical reality of their bodies isn't kind.