I bow to no man in my love for the DJ and presenter Lauren Laverne. It’s not just about primeval lust, I should add, because while I obviously ‘fancy’ her, as we used to say, I think she is one of the great radio DJs of her generation. And following something she said on BBC 6 Music this morning, I love her even more.
Even in these so-called enlightened times, conversations are rarely had about ‘women’s problems‘. While approximately half of the world’s population has menstruated at one time or another, it’s simply not the done thing to talk about it, at least not when a man is in the room. Think about that for a moment: a simple fact of nature and, I suspect, because this remains a male-dominated world we cannot talk about things like periods and sanitary products.
I grew up during a time when things were even worse than they are today. My mother, who brought me up singlehandedly, never mentioned the subject at all so I learned somewhat haphazardly in the playground and on the school playing fields. I was horrified to learn that women bleed and require what the other boys referred to (and look the other way if you are easily offended) the use of jamrags, which turned out to have a proper name, sanitary towels. DJ Lauren showed how times have changed when appearing briefly on Nick Grimshaw’s 6 Music breakfast show this morning.
It’s T shirt day on 6 Music today and listeners are asked to pose in their favourite music T shirts and send them into today’s daytime shows, whereupon the DJ would play a record by that artist. All great fun. Anyway, Lauren said that she was wearing a bright pink Iggy Pop T shirt, but when she put it on, because she is perimenopausal, she promptly had a hot flush. As a mature gentleman, in terms of numbers rather than actual maturity, I fear, and living with someone who has been through the menopause, it did not exactly shock me, but it reminded me that Lauren was talking, matter-of-factly, about something that is perfectly normal.
Neither Nick Grimshaw, or fellow DJ Huw Stephens, who was also making a guest appearance, made anything of it because obviously there is nothing to make of it, although Lauren did make it quite humorous. I am sorry if I am making too much of something so normal and so common, but it has not always been regarded that way.
Many of us men, who still control much of what makes the world turn, have paid insufficient attention to ‘women’s problems’ and the effects they have. We saw it as ‘the change’, as if something unusual was happening. But now we know what happened and why it happens, hopefully attitudes have changed and will continue to change.
As a young man, being ignorant and uneducated about the subject of menstruation meant that for a time I felt there was something dirty and unpleasant about periods. I won’t go into detail – this is a family blog, for goodness sake – but let’s just say I still cringe about the way in which the teenage me looked at it.
Accepting ‘women’s problems’ are actually the norm, which obviously I grasped more than three-quarters of a lifetime ago, when Lauren Laverne referred to the subject today, it had no effect on the way I thought about her. Why on Earth should it? Only stupid people, like the stupid boy I used to be, could possibly think that way. Well done to Lauren for talking about being perimenopausal. I still love you, just don’t tell my partner, your partner or any of our children, okay?
