Trump’s menstruation comments backfire

Donald Trump’s remarks about Fox News host Megyn Kelly, the latest of several controversial comments that Republican candidates have made in recent weeks about women’s reproductive health, drew an immediate backlash from fellow Republicans — a sign of greater awareness of menstrual stigma and harmful double standards, advocates say.

On Friday, a day after Kelly questioned Trump during Thursday’s prime-time presidential candidates’ debate, he told a CNN host, “You could see she had blood coming out her eyes, out of her wherever.” He later backtracked after an outpouring of criticism, saying his comment was misinterpreted.

Trump’s invitation to the RedState meeting this weekend, one of the biggest conservative events of the year, was revoked. He had been scheduled to be a keynote speaker at the conference. “It is unfortunate to have to disinvite him,” organizer Erick Erickson said in a statement. “But I just don’t want someone onstage who gets a hostile question from a lady and his first inclination is to imply it was hormonal. It just was wrong.”

Fellow Republican candidate Carly Fiorina, a former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, said she “stood by Kelly,” and tweeted, “Mr. Trump: There. Is. No. Excuse.”

Erickson’s explicit rejection of the age-old hormone trope that women’s bodies are inferior to men’s was “refreshing,” said Ingrid Johnston-Robledo, a professor at Castleton University. Instead of saying menstruation was “shameful,” a message underlying most ad campaigns, she added, Erickson chose to slam Trump for linking women’s behavior to their hormones, she said.

Erickson’s announcement came as women in other fields are fighting to end the taboo around discussing menstruation. Drummer and Harvard Business School graduate Kiran Gandhi decided to run the London Marathon in April with period stains on her pants, an act she used to call attention to women’s lack of affordable menstrual products. Artist Rupi Kaur posted a picture of herself on Instagram in March wearing blood-stained sweatpants. The site’s initial removal of the image, as well as The Daily Mail’s pixelation of Gandhi’s crotch, Jezebel reports, points at a lingering stigma about periods.

Others said Erickson may be using the incident for political purposes and highlighted his earlier comments on women, including Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis, who filibustered against the state’s far-reaching restrictions on abortion. He called her “abortion Barbie.”

The backlash against Trump’s comments comes amid the larger problem of the GOP’s perceived war on women and unsavory history of disparaging female commentators, experts said.

“Attacks on women’s credibility and competence with reference to menstruation is age old and has been used as a way to discredit women seeking political office,” said Margaret Stubbs, a professor of psychology at Chatham University.

Republicans running to Kelly’s defense recognized the party’s limited appeal to female voters, Stubbs added. “No doubt Trump’s remarks will add fuel to the passion that so many of use carry in our daily work to enhance women’s menstrual health,” she wrote in an email.