Screenshots of French deputies testing a painful rules simulator, taken from the video published on the 'X' account @ArretMenstruel.Social Networks
“Do you accept that I temporarily inflict pain on you?” Thus begins the experiment carried out by two French environmental deputies to raise awareness about how painful menstruation can be. The test, carried out with an electrostimulator and recorded by video, went viral due to the reaction of the legislators who accepted the proposal. “Aaah, stop, stop!” begged one of them, bent double. “Very unpleasant,” commented another, with a contorted face. The objective was to gather support for a bill presented by environmentalists that seeks to establish menstrual leave in the country, similar to what exists in Spain.
The idea was that the deputies would suffer the pain firsthand. That they were put on the skin of women who experience intense and sometimes disabling discomfort when they menstruate. “When someone tells me it hurts, I usually believe them. But I wanted to do the experience to see, to understand what it was like,” explains Erwan Balanant, one of the ten legislators who agreed to undergo the test, by phone. “Indeed, it hurts, surprises and causes obvious loss of concentration,” adds the politician from the centrist MoDem party, an ally of President Emmanuel Macron.
Et si les députés savaient ce qu'était la douleur des règles?
On teste a machine that simulates the douleurs menstruelles.@MC_Garin et @speytavie ont déposé une proposition de loi pour un «arrêt» menstruel.
Ne laissez pas les députés voter contre sans avoir vécu la douleur. pic.twitter.com/6Gg7Md6shR
— Louis Boyard (@LouisBoyard) March 22, 2024
“It is an unbearable pain,” acknowledges by email Louis Boyard, of the leftist La Francia Insumisa party, the first opposition bloc in the Assembly and twinned with Podemos in Spain. “This simulator is certainly useful to raise awareness among some deputies, but what is needed above all is to believe women when they tell us about their pain. It is problematic that men are forced to 'check it out' through a simulator,” he reflects.
The video was successful. The images of the deputies screaming, laughing nervously or writhing in pain were shared more than 4,000 times on the social network X and accumulated more than two million views. During the experience, they were asked to read the explanatory memorandum of the bill, which provides for a menstrual period of up to 13 days a year. But legislators interrupt the reading with each shock received, similar to strong period pains. The recording is accompanied by a Mozart sonata, which adds a certain comic tone.
“It is a small sample of what we can feel every month or not necessarily every month, but at least regularly in our lives,” explains Marie-Charlotte Garin, promoter of the project, together with Sébastien Peytavie, both from the environmental party, in a telephone conversation. The video seeks to “impact, draw attention and reach many people,” she continues. “Also being able to talk about the subject, which is still very taboo today,” she points out.
The idea for the experience came from their teams and was proposed to deputies of different political colors. To carry it out, they used an electrostimulator that is used in the sports world. The object is connected to the body through electrodes and has several levels of intensity.
believe women
Like Balanant of MoDem, Boyard emphasizes that disabling menstruations can be accompanied by vomiting, dizziness, digestive problems, general malaise and migraines. “It is only a partial view of these pains,” adds the centrist deputy, who believes that “when there are medical teams and researchers who affirm that the rules can be painful and disabling, one does not have to use a simulator to believe it.”
The environmentalists' proposal, for the moment, has not achieved sufficient support. The text was rejected at the end of March in a parliamentary committee. The National Assembly should have examined it again last week, but ultimately failed to debate it. The issue, however, is beginning to gain a foothold in the country. In February, the Senate, dominated by the right-wing Republicans, rejected another bill in that regard presented by the socialist party.
And since 2023, some cities have begun to implement this type of leave for their female employees, such as Grenoble, Strasbourg or Lyon. The pioneer was Saint-Ouen, a
banlieue
north of Paris. In Spain, menstrual leave, integrated into the reform of the abortion law, came into force in July.
The possibility of a reduction still divides and does not achieve consensus even in the government coalition. The Minister of Health, Frédéric Valletoux, recognized the importance of talking about and moving forward on the issue, but rejected the proposals presented for reasons ranging from respect for medical secrecy to fears of discrimination when hiring. An argument rejected by former Transport Minister Clément Beaune, who belongs to the social democratic wing of Macronism and who also tested the rules simulator. “If we think like that, we should eliminate maternity leave!” He says in an email to this newspaper.
And he adds: “It is the law that must adapt to the pain that millions of women suffer, and not the other way around. It is not fair to force women to evolve in the world of work by asking them to pretend to have the same daily life as men. As men, it is sometimes difficult to imagine what women go through on a daily basis.”
During the video, a short text states that “one in two women suffers from painful periods” in France. After the experiment, the deputies talked to Garin about what they felt and asked him some questions. Is pain always like this? Are there times when it stops a little? Not all deputies will vote in favor of the text. “Some were already favorable or may understand its usefulness, but they do not necessarily agree with the version we proposed,” explains the ecologist. “But I think that all the debate that our bill sparked will push them to devise a device themselves,” she says.
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