No, They Don't Attract Bears.
After a tragic grizzly attack in 1967, Glacier National Park officials desperately tried to find a reason, and landed on the fact that one of the victims was menstruating. Was there any truth to it?
Despite this, the National Park Service blamed the "odor" of menstruation on attracting bears and advised menstruators to "stay out of bear country". Eye roll.
There was a genuine belief that women were making up menstrual pain, either for attention or because they were rejecting being women. Lol, ok.
According to medieval belief, the first period of a virgin, if collected on a napkin, could cure the plague if you wrapped it around the victim. Shockingly, this is untrue.
The logic went that periods were evil, so if you had a lot of periods in your lifetime you were extra evil. Old women were thought to build up poison inside of them, and have a venomous gaze that could kill children. Interesting theory.
In a 2011 study, some Indian women reported that during their period they still believed "the body emits some specific smell or ray, which turns preserved food bad" and are barred from entering the kitchen.
In 1920, Austrian doctor Bela Schick reportedly noticed his maid arranging rose that were wilting, and later found out that she was on her period. This lead to a conclusion that women on their period emit poison. Shockingly, this has been debunked.
Ancient philosopher Pliny the Elder claimed that touching menstrual blood could cause crops to dry up, fruit to fall off trees, and bees to die. Simply untrue!
Pliny the Elder apparently thought women to be very powerful: he also claimed that storms and "all other kinds of tempestuous weather" could be stopped by contact with menstrual blood. Wow!
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