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There's a lot of men out there that shy away from discussing menstruation with women. But any man who's ever taken a class in basic human biology or had a mother, sister, wife, girlfriend or any other woman in their life should know the basics of how it works.


That's why a mother on the Mumsnet message board was completely "shocked" that her daughter's teacher told her to "hold in" her period.

Does he think a woman can hold in her period like it's pee?

Mumsnet is a UK website where parents come together to discuss anything from adoption to women's rights. This post appeared under the "Am I Being Unreasonable" thread.

Via Mumsnet

According to the post, the 15-year-old's teacher prevented her from using the bathroom because he legitimately thinks women can hold back period blood. Or he knows a bit about biology but still decided to put her in the position to be mortally embarrassed.

The mother later said that the lessons last two hours so the girl had a long time to wait before being able to change her pad.

A few parents said that the teacher was correct to say no because students often lie about their periods to get out of class.

But most parents thought the teacher did the wrong thing and needs a lesson in basic biology.

One poster was irate but completely right about the issue.

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Another believes the daughter should have disobeyed the teacher and gone to the bathroom.

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This poster did a great job at re-framing the situation so that the teacher's actions seem even more ridiculous.

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Why should the mother even have to justify herself?

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The $50,000 question: What subject does the instructor teach?

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This story originally appeared on 02.13.20

"How MTV Destroyed Their Network (They Gave Up On Music)"

MTV was a major part of youth culture for the last three generations. Gen X loved the channel for its dedication to music that went way beyond videos, and in the ‘80s and ‘90s, viewers tuned in to “Unplugged,” "Yo! MTV Raps" and “Headbangers Ball.”

Although the channel was less about the music by the time millennials came of age, “TRL” was its flagship show while it focused on edgy reality shows such as “The Osbournes,” "Jackass” and “Pimp My Ride.”

By the time the millennials grew up and Gen Z started watching, the channel was mostly reality TV, but shows such as “The Hills,” “Teen Mom” and “Jersey Shore” were pop culture juggernauts.


However, things began to change dramatically in 2010 after MTV dropped the “Music Television” branding. In the video below, YouTube user Patrick CC does a great job of describing how it happened.

"Instead of adapting, it seems like MTV just kinda rode out what was working," Patrick CC says. "Plus, the world was moving at a much faster pace. By the time they came up with a new idea, cast, shot, edited and released the new show it could be irrelevant to the kids."

In 2017, MTV tried to bring the music back, including a reboot of "TRL." It was a total bust. Artists had no need to make videos for the channel when they had YouTube.

Patrick CC’s video, “How MTV Destroyed Their Network (They Gave Up On Music)," does a great job of explaining the rise and fall of MTV over the course of 23 minutes. But if you want to see why it all came to an end, you can skip ahead to 19:25.

Want to relive what MTV was like at its inception? The following video shows the channel's first two hours when it launched on August 1, 1981.

via crommelincklars / Flickr

Billie Eilish has gone from being a pop star to a superstar over the course of about a year. Her meteoric rise to fame has forced her to reevaluate how she deals with her fans online.

She used to be happy to read the comments on her Instagram feed, but the tone of the posts has become exceedingly negative. So she's decided to stop reading them altogether.

According to psychologists, that's a very good idea.

Eilish admitted she quit reading the comments during an interview with Louise Minchin from the BBC where she was joined by her brother, writer and producer, Finneas.


"Do you still read everything that's on Instagram?" Minchin asked.

"No, no. I stopped like two days ago," Billie responded. "Literally two days ago. I've stopped reading comments fully. Because it was ruining my life. It's weird. The cooler the things you get to do are, the more people hate you. It's crazy."

"How do you make it better?" the interviewer asked.

"The internet is a bunch of trolls. And the problem is that a lot of it is really funny," Billie said.


"Everyone is much braver behind a cell phone screen than they would be if they walked down the street," Finneas added.

"It's way worse than it's ever been right now," Billie admitted.

"It's insane that I even have been reading comments up until this point. I should've stopped long ago, it's just the problem is I've always wanted to stay in touch with the fans and keep talking to them, and people have ruined that for me, and for them. That sucks," she added.

However, the negativity Billie has faced online hasn't affected how she treats her fans in public.

"If I see fans anywhere, I just want to talk to them and be around them, because they're people. They're me! They're like other me's," the "Bad Guy" singer said. "They're like friends of mine, but the internet is ruining my life, so I turned it off."

Reading the comments on social media shouldn't be a huge problem for those of us who post things that are only seen by people we know. But for anyone in the public spotlight, being bombarded by negative comments day in and day out can be damaging.

That's because of a psychological trait called negativity bias.

According to Psycom's Margaret Jaworski, "We're more likely to register an insult or negative event than we are to take in a compliment or recall details of a happy event. The negativity bias can even cause you to dwell on something negative even if something positive is equally or more present."

Research suggests that it takes three positive comments to cancel out the effects of one negative remark.

Billie Eilish is smart to protect her own sanity by staying out of the comment section and not allowing it to affect her art or life. It's fine for the public to have access to her art but there's no reason she should be handing over her sanity as well.

Students across the country took part in a national walkout to end gun violence on March 14, 2018.

Students in Philadelphia participate in the walkout. Photo by Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images.

Beginning at 10 a.m. local times, thousands of students at hundreds of schools abandoned their classrooms to send a clear message to legislators from coast to coast: They may be young, but they mean business when it comes to gun control.


And they had a sizable chunk of cable TV in their corner while they did it.

Cable TV giant Viacom suspended all programming during the walkout as a show of solidarity with student participants.

The media conglomerate — which owns networks like MTV, Comedy Central, BET, and Nickelodeon — broadcasted bold statements to viewers instead.

"We believe it’s critical to support the inspiring efforts of our youth, who are literally fighting for their lives," Marva Smalls, Viacom's executive vice president of global inclusion, said in a statement. "Viacom also has a responsibility to our audiences to do everything we can to elevate the many brave and bold activists to help them extend the reach and impact of their voices in this important movement."

If you tuned into Nickelodeon, for instance, this is what you would have seen.

If you flipped on MTV, this message would have been on your screen.

The network also had students take over its social media channels for a period during the day.

And BET told viewers it's "going dark" during the walkout as well.

Both the walkout and suspension in Viacom programming lasted 17 minutes in honor of the 17 victims of the shooting at a Florida high school on Feb. 14.

The senseless tragedy rattled the country — and then prompted a wave of student activists to rise up in its wake.

"We are going to be the kids you read about in text books," said Emma Gonzalez, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in a powerful speech on Feb. 17. "Not because we're going to be another statistic about mass shooting in America, but because ... we are going to be the last mass shooting."

Photo by Rhona Wise/AFP/Getty Images.

Viacom said it also has plans to boost messaging and awareness around the March for Our Lives, a protest largely being executed by student activists demanding common sense gun legislation on March 24, 2018, in Washington, D.C.

"Companies trying to make caricatures of the teenagers these days, saying that we are self-involved and trend-obsessed, and they hush us into submission when our message doesn't reach the ears of the nation," Gonzalez said in her speech, "we are prepared to call BS."

Learn more about the March for Our Lives.