I was at the supermarket earlier today, topping up on tampons because I have my period. As I unloaded my basket at the checkout, the woman behind the counter reached past the other items and took the tampons, saying, ‘Let’s get these scanned first, shall we?’ She smiled as if saving me from embarrassment.

Because menstruation is something to be embarrassed about, right?

Like many women, I grew up ashamed of having my period. I’d learnt it was something gross, alien and unmentionable. I was encouraged to endure in silence. Worse still, my period was often used against me whenever I made an impassioned argument about, well, anything. Because being ‘on the rag’ apparently made me irrational, emotional and my views invalid—regardless of whether I had my period or not.

I’d like to say that in the twenty or so years since I first began menstruating that things have changed. But they haven’t. In January, a young woman in India who chose not to be ashamed when blood showed through her pants was ogled by men and hidden away by other women. A runner who decided to bleed free during the 2015 London Marathon was met with debate and hysteria. Artists like Vanessa Tiegs and Petra Paul—who use menstrual blood as a medium—are vilified online and sent death threats. And then there’s Donald Trump’s fearful comments about Megyn Kelly, saying that blood was coming out of her ‘wherever’ when she questioned him about his history of sexism.

These are not rational responses to a natural monthly cycle affecting around 50% of the global population at some point in their lives. Instead, these responses are symptomatic of an insidious belief that a woman’s body is abnormal, shameful and a source of irrational behaviour.

It’s got to stop.

Because there’s nothing shameful about menstruation. Or having opinions. Or carrying tampons in a shopping basket. Or being a woman.

Period.