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There’s nothing at all embarrassing about having a few blind spots in our knowledge base—we can’t know everything about everything, after all. However! There are certain things that any school-educated adult with at least a dollop of common sense should know. Like the fact that the Earth is not flat, that 5G does not cause Covid, and… that women cannot control their periods.
Reddit users shared the most bizarre, funny, and downright confusing misconceptions that they’ve heard men have about women, and we’ve collected the best comments for you to read, dear Pandas. It’s a wild ride, caused as much by a lack of proper education as by myths perpetuated by women, so make sure you’re ready for truly peculiar beliefs. When you’re done reading the article, let us know in the comments about the strangest misconceptions about any gender that you’ve personally heard.
I reached out to the author of the thread, redditor u/CataleyaJackson, and she was very happy to share her opinion about the misconceptions that men have about women. 21-year-old Cataleya told me that she's a big fan of Bored Panda and has been reading the online magazine for the past 8 years.
"One of my friends had a hilarious misconception about periods and my friends and I had laughed about it. They thought that periods just never end, that we'd be 99 on our death beds and still bleeding out. It inspired me to want to ask people about other misconceptions they had faced," she told Bored Panda in an interview. Scroll down for her insights about the problems with sex education, cultural stigmas, and how nobody should feel ashamed to learn something new, whatever age they might be.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Really religious guy at work said periods last a 3 weeks so his wife could only share a bed one week a month. Sis I will take your secret to the grave
The author of the post, u/CataleyaJackson, believes that it's certainly a lack of education that leads to misinformation and misconceptions about women. "In my country, we do have sex education at ages 13, 15 and again at 17 (if they've opted to study biology in 11th and 12th grade otherwise it's just at the former 2 ages)," she shared.
"It's very scientific and doesn't leave space for questions about things that actually matter, things that happen in real-life. Most people don't even learn, they just memorize it to be able to reproduce it during the exams, and then they forget all of it. We need better education, and it has to be more informative and relatable than scientific," she told Bored Panda that there has to be more meaning to education than just passing tests and exams.
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#2
Men. Sweet, summer children. We have three holes. The urethra is between the clit and the v**ina. It goes a-hole, rectovaginal septum (perenium) , vagina (introitus), vestibule, urethra, clit.
We don't pee from our vaginas. We pee from the urethra. Which - again - is a different hole. We can control whether we pee. We cannot control whether we bleed. Sneezing, coughing, etc, can shoot forth an amount of blood. Our uturine lining is shedding, and it happens whether we like it or not (hint: we don't).
Just because your brother's girlfriend had mild cramps and said that women were overreacting doesn't mean that is true. For some fortunate souls, their cramps are light and barely noticeable. For others, it is truly debilitating. You cannot imagine. There is no good comparison. That said, there are cramp simulation units. Keep in mind when you're using those that it's only one aspect of the full picture.
If you find any of this too gross to contemplate, you are not mature enough for sex.
Samantha Lomb 2 years ago
In fairness after like 35 sneezing or coughing can cause pee to shoot out too
#3
Went on a date with a guy whilst on my period. We ended up kissing on the date and he asked if we could do the deed.
I told him that I was on my period and didn't really feel up to it. He rolled his eyes and sighed.
"Can't you just hold it in? I promise it's worth it."
I didn't have any words, just left.
According to Cataleya, there's a stigma surrounding sex education that needs to be erased. She shared an example of how ridiculous things can get. This particular scene happened while the redditor was in the 6th grade.
"They called away all the girls from classes, brought us to an auditorium to discuss periods and what they are, why they happen, what we should do, etc. They gave us packets of pads and told us to keep them in our lockers for emergencies. Their heart was in the right place, but by only asking the girls to attend this, they ensured that periods became some sort of mythical and curious event in the minds of all the boys," she pointed out where the problem lies.
"[The boys] were not educated, they remained ignorant to what should be essential information to them. And of course, we all scrambled to hide our pads because we all thought we would rather be caught dead than holding a packet of them. They teased us about it and we, being only 11, had nothing to say to defend ourselves because the stigma around periods is very strong in my country."
#4
He said, “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” - Todd Akin, Republican, 2012.
Sinkvenice 2 years ago
I was unconscious when I was raped, which obviously proves it wasn't legitimate as my body didn't shut down, it got pregnant instead. Silly me.
#5
When I was 17, I needed to ask my dad for money to buy period products. He just said: "You needed money for this reason the previous month, it's not like you have your period every month"
I just stood there in chock, and borrowed some money from a friend until my mom got back the next week. It's not like he and my mom had been married for almost 20 years, and the fact that he was 56 lol
#6
My male friend told me that I don't necessarily know what blood looks like. And that when period blood gets soaked up by a pad or tampon it's no longer visible and soaks into the product losing the blood colour. So pads are always white and dry.
The stigmas surrounding periods go even deeper. "I have friends whose own parents make them sit on mats on the floor when they are on their periods because they are considered impure and should not touch anything in the house," Cataleya said.
"Some women aren't allowed to enter the kitchen or the prayer room, they're not allowed to leave the house. A majority of women in my country have no access to pads or tampons and use cloth which causes infection and prevents them from being able to earn a living. I could go on and on about how bad it is here for a lot of women," she revealed to Bored Panda.
Cataleya believes that it's always best to own up to a misconception about women and have it corrected than continue staying ignorant. "There's no shame in it if you're 30 and have misconceptions about periods. It is sad that you may not have educated yourself about it, but there's absolutely no shame in asking women to educate them or to start reading online themselves. Sex Ed is so important," she said.
#7
That an intact hymen means you're a virgin and a torn/broken one means you're not. You can have sex and your hymen remain unbroken and you can tear your hymen running, jumping, doing splits, stretching, etc.
#9
"Women have no inner life"
and flat out refused to believe or entertain other points of view. It was the saddest and most frustrating thing I've ever read.
He legitimately asserted the women have no inner consciousness. He wanted to pretend that 50% of the population were not quite fully human.
Owning up to our mistakes might be difficult, but it makes others like us more. When we show that we’re embarrassed by our slip-ups, instead of running away from them, people tend to empathize with us more. That’s great news for anyone who has any blind spots regarding gender or any other topic.
"We spend a lot of time and effort presenting an ideal version of ourselves to other people. When something happens that contrasts with the image we’ve been projecting—when we say or do something that shows we actually aren’t as graceful or as smart as we’d like people to believe—we feel embarrassed," Vanessa Bohns, an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at Cornell University, told me what happens when people are confronted with the fact that they’ve made a mistake, during an earlier interview with Bored Panda.
#10
My ex boyfriend saw a TikTok that said (as a joke) that us women have blue piss if we were really mad and asked me if he could see it I obviously said no and told him that it wasn’t true but he seemed to not believe me so now I stay up till 3am every night thinking about it, Mark if your reading this, I’m so sorry that you’re stupid enough to believe something off TikTok
#11
It was my first time having sex with my first bf after my divorce. I was nervous, as no one else had seen me naked since I had become a mom to three children, and this guy was gorgeous. I was athletic, fit and confident, but still, it had been almost 20 years since I had been naked around someone new. As things are getting hot and heavy, he starts kissing my stomach and heading south, he stops… and I hear… “wow, you are gorgeous down here… your pussy is gorgeous! Sorry, I’ve never been with a mom before and I thought it would be all messed up. “ I’ve never laughed so hard in bed, he was so genuinely shocked and pleased. We just got married last month after 6 years of dating.
#12
A friend’s boyfriend thought that it was biologically impossible for lesbians to get pregnant. Like, once they realize they’re gay, their ovaries just shrivel up and quit, so they can never have kids. His reasoning was that he’d never met a lesbian couple with children (this was a one-horse town with like 2000 residents, he’d never met a lesbian couple, period.)
I think men also tend to assume that period blood is 100% the same as the blood you see when you cut yourself—thin, bright red, etc (which I guess is a fair assumption.) Lots of men have no idea that period blood can contain clots and tissue, or that the color of it can vary throughout the cycle. They assume it’s just a constant, plain red drip like a nosebleed or something.
"Discovering you were wrong about something most everyone else around you has long known to be true is one of those moments. In that moment we learn, 'Wait a minute, maybe I haven’t been presenting the image of being smart or worldly that I thought I was presenting all this time,' which is embarrassing,” Vanessa explained to Bored Panda.
“One thing that’s interesting about embarrassment is that, for as much as we might experience it as painful in the moment, it’s actually very socially adaptive. Being embarrassed signals to other people that you care about what they think. And that actually draws people in to you,” the expert said.
#13
I (woman) once argued with a guy who kept saying that women aren't into p**n for the p**n part but for the story and aren't turned on by sex or naked bodies at all. He definitely thinks that to this day because my argument that "I'm a woman and skip any story part in p**n" was met with "Just because you're a woman it doesn't mean you know what women like."
#14
That women who have multiple partners do not deserve any chance of a faithful partner. Or her partner is crazy to be with girl with a “loose hole”
I told the guy that I will never talk to him ever again. It has been 16 years.
Samantha Lomb 2 years ago
This a more openly vile version of the "chewed gum" crap religious schools like to push
#15
Debating whether the 6 week abortion limit was a functional ban in abortion.
Him: No because you have 6 weeks to decide I you want an abortion.
Me: That’s not how it works.
Him: I remember my biology lessons.
Me: my menstrual cycle can be 6 weeks. I have been having them for nearly 30 years, trust my experience.
Him: That’s not right
Me: it is and I spent several years trying to get pregnant so I learnt to look for signs of ovulation and symptoms of pregnancy. It is impossible to know if you are pregnant on day one of your pregnancy because you could be a virgin. The first two weeks are shedding the lining of the womb (period) and growing an egg.
Him : quotes Web MD
Me: Oh f**k I gotta hand back my biology degree with all the exams I took in reproductive biology because a guy who googled the answer knows more than me.
Him : Oi. You better not be mean to me because I am well educated and have liberal views on abortion so you need to keep me as an ally.
“So blushing, burying your head in your hands, laughing, acknowledging how embarrassing something was, are all totally healthy ways to react,” Vanessa suggested that admitting to our mistakes and being honest about our feelings is the mature thing to do. Hiding our embarrassment that we’ve made a blunder, however, is unhealthy.
“The unhealthy way to react is to pretend you’re not embarrassed, that you didn’t make a mistake, or to get angry. Those things undo the positive effect of embarrassment typically has on other people by conveying insincerity and pushing people away rather than drawing them in,” she explained.
#16
A grown ass man told me that period is actually an accumulation of all the “dirty things” that accumulate monthly in a woman’s body. And that men are clean so they don't have periods.
Samantha Lomb 2 years ago
Well sadly a lot of cultures treat menstruating women ( or even women of the age to menstruate) as unclean, sometimes banishing them from the house or baring them from houses of worship. Super nasty patriarchal bs.
#17
I’m not a woman, but from what some of them told me : Faster does not mean better
Apparently a lot of guys have a problem understanding that
#18
That we really dress for attention from men. My ex seriously thought that. Ok, some women do as there are some men who do. But I know I dress for myself, however I want, because I'm my own individual who is doing it for me because I like it. Yes, we women can do things for ourselves for that reason alone!
Sarcastic Cow 2 years ago
This is why most of women's dresses are uncomfortable/unpractical in principle, I'm not even talking about shoes.
#19
I met a guy who thought I had full control of the time it took my hair to grow. Basically if I wanted really long hair now I could just get long hair within like 3 seconds, and if I wanted my hair to be shorter it would just go short. Possibly the stupidest person I ever met and I have met some stupid people.
#20
I saw a sign at a women’s March here in Texas that read “Men still think we bleed and pee out of the same hole.”
#21
That I’m too pretty to be a lesbian. I’m a big lesbian, a BIG Lesbian, Mate.
#22
A "friend" told me women can control their periods. Mind you, he is not a doctor, nor a nurse, he is not studying medicine and is not even a woman. I told him that's not how it works, all periods are different, but we CAN'T control it. Otherwise we would have done it for years! He refuse to listen to me and said he was right cause he read it on twitter. I never spoke to him again.
#23
I met a guy on tinder that didn’t think we could have sex bc I was taller than him. Like he physically thought it wouldn’t work/fit together or something. Needless to say I never talked to him again.
Also the first thing he said when I walked up to meet him in person was “Holy [cow] you’re a giant! Why didn’t you tell me??” It was a pretty awkward date.
Sarcastic Cow 2 years ago (edited)
You should have told him: "Holy s**t, you´re a hobbit, why didn´t you tell me??" (without insulting the hobbits, they are nice)
#24
That we are all the same and all want the same things.
Despite the stereotypes, I absolutely hate going clothes shopping. I don’t want your money- I got my own. My job is just as important to as your job is to you. So quit thinking ALL girls fit in some mold.
#25
My ex legitimately thought I could control the sex of the baby via sexual position at conception or eating certain foods.
#26
That we get a bit of sexual pleasure from inserting a tampon.
Sinkvenice 2 years ago
I once knew an adult man who thought we got sexual pleasure from loading up a finger with soap or shower gel and shoving it up ourselves to clean it in the shower. When I explained that vaginas are self cleaning so we don't do that, plus it can cause infect or thrush, he didn't believe me and was disgusted. I said we obviously clean around it, the vulva and clitoris etc, he now thought all women were dirty.
#27
Oh god....so you may not believe this(because I certainly did not think he was serious either at first) but when I was a teen I knew a guy that legitimately thought that girls breast size had to do with how much blow jobs they give. I laughed, he did not, I asked him where the hell he got that idiotic idea(again teen so not very tactful). He got angry and left so I never did find out where in the world he got that idea or how he thought that worked.
#28
Years ago, when I was in high school, I had a classmate start telling me that his back hurt from being awake so long. I offered him an extra strength midol bc I had it and it works pretty well for general pain relief; and he refused it......on account that he didn't want to have a period. He would not be convinced that midol didn't cause periods.
#29
My ex was thoroughly convinced that women have more ribs than men. You know. Because apparently Adam gave his rib to make Eve. Even after I went through med school and showed him countless images to the contrary.
#30
That women can produce breast milk on demand, even if they’ve never been pregnant. If that were true, it would be very inconvenient to say the least.
What do you think ?
Mazer 2 years ago
Nope. It’s the whole, you can lead a horse to water but can’t make them drink thing. Some kids were homeschooled, some schooled in a religious oriented school etc.
Load More Replies...
SilentBob731 2 years ago (edited)
Meanwhile half the U.S. is still insisting on "abstinence-only" sex-ed. F*****g Christo-Fascist Cave-People.
Mazer 2 years ago
Nope. It’s the whole, you can lead a horse to water but can’t make them drink thing. Some kids were homeschooled, some schooled in a religious oriented school etc.
Load More Replies... SilentBob731 2 years ago (edited)
Meanwhile half the U.S. is still insisting on "abstinence-only" sex-ed. F*****g Christo-Fascist Cave-People.
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